Empirical Reconstruction of Earth‐Moon and Solar System Dynamical Parameters for the Past 2.5 Billion Years From Cyclostratigraphy.

The chaotic behavior of the Solar System prevents the prediction of the precise evolution of the planetary secular frequencies. Here we use four cyclostratigraphic sequences, ∼259 Ma Wujiaping Formation, ∼455 Ma Pingliang Formation, ∼655 Ma Datangpo Formation and ∼2,465 Ma Dales Gorge Member, and Bayesian inversion to provide powerful geological constraints to this problem. The inversion provides constraining estimates for the Solar System fundamental secular frequencies g1, g2, g3, g4, and g5, and the Earth's precession rate k from 105.26 ± 2.68 (2σ) arcseconds/year at ∼2,465 Ma to 55.86 ± 2.60 (2σ) arcseconds/year at ∼259 Ma. Stochastic monotone interpolation enables the reconstruction of Earth‐Moon distance from 2.5 billion years to the present. Calculation of tidal dissipation supports the ocean model before 1.4 Ga, but is outside the error range after ∼1.8 Ga, suggesting lower tidal dissipation in the early Proterozoic Eon, and a possible high value in the early Paleozoic. Plain Language Summary: The chaotic history of the Solar System imposes unknown uncertainties on the fundamental secular frequencies of the planets over most of geologic time. This is complicated by a lack of knowledge about the evolution of Earth‐Moon distance, Earth's length of day and tidal dissipation. Geological evidence provides powerful constraints on all of these parameters. To shed light on the parameters, here we carry out Bayesian inversion of fundamental secular frequencies and Earth precession rate on four cyclostratigraphic sequences, and stochastic monotone interpolation to reconstruct Earth‐Moon distance from 2.5 billion years ago to present. From these results we estimate the Earth's tidal dissipation variation, which we compare with theoretical models. Our results provide critical geological constraints for paleotidal simulation, and shine a light on the unique potential of cyclostratigraphy to constrain Earth‐Moon system history across geologic time. Key Points: We obtain new estimates of Earth‐Moon and Solar System dynamical parameters from cyclostratigraphy at four ages from ∼2.5 Ga to ∼259 MaWe interpolate Earth‐Moon distances inferred from the cyclostratigraphy to reconstruct a continuous history from ∼2.5 Ga to the presentWe estimate Earth's tidal dissipation variations from ∼2.5 Ga to the present [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]