The driving forcing behind the secular evolution of the Earth system is controversial. Zircon, a common mineral in the continental crust, is a testimony of the growth and evolution of the continental crust and a recorder of Earth system evolution because of the time scale of the UPb isotopic chronology system zircon contains. Here, we compiled the largest known database of 2,042,944 zircon UPb ages derived by sampling the global continental crust. Comprehensive time series analysis techniques enable the identification of periodicities in the zircon production history and the growth and evolution of the continental crust over Earth's history. After the evaluation and exclusion of hot spot data impacts, we systematically obtained long-term cyclicities of zircon production of ca. 800, 360, 220, 160, 69, 57, 44, 30, 20, and 17 Myr, which are objective and statistically robust. These cycles are consistent with periodicities derived from multiple geological processes, i.e., mantle plumes, plate tectonics, orogenic events, large magmatic events, climate change, biological extinctions, and even meteorite impacts. The periodicities of these geological phenomena, including zircon production, indicate the periodicity of Earth system evolution in the past 3 billion years. Furthermore, these terrestrial periodicities also correspond to cyclic astronomical perturbations, such as the precession of the galactic warp, the galactic year, and the movement period of the solar system in the Milky Way, within error. Therefore, we suggest that the growth and evolution of the continental crust, and even Earth system evolution, probably originate from the periodic driving forcing of the Earth's astronomical environment.

地球系统长期演化背后的驱动力是有争议的。锆石是大陆地壳中常见的矿物，由于锆石所包含的U Pb同位素年代学系统的时间尺度，是大陆地壳生长演化的见证，也是地球系统演化的记录者。在这里，我们编译了最大的已知数据库，包含 2,042,944 个锆石 U通过对全球大陆地壳进行采样得出的 Pb 年龄。综合时间序列分析技术能够识别锆石生产历史中的周期性以及大陆地壳在地球历史上的生长和演化。在对热点数据影响进行评估和排除后，我们系统地获得了大约10年锆石产量的长期周期性。800, 360, 220, 160, 69, 57, 44, 30, 20 和 17 Myr，它们是客观且统计上稳健的。这些循环与来自多个地质过程的周期性一致，即地幔柱、板块构造、造山活动、大型岩浆活动、气候变化、生物灭绝，甚至陨石撞击。这些的周期性包括锆石生产在内的地质现象表明了过去 30 亿年地球系统演化的周期性。此外，这些地球周期性也对应于周期性的天文摄动，例如银河扭曲的进动、银河年和太阳系在银河系中的运动周期，在误差范围内。因此，我们认为大陆地壳的生长演化乃至地球系统的演化，很可能源于地球天文环境的周期性驱动。