Chinese scientists unveiled a major AI‑based stratigraphic model
Time is the deepest riddle humanity has ever tried to solve. The 4.6‑billion‑year history of Earth is written in rock layers, yet until now those records have been fragmentary, like pages of a single book scattered across different libraries. Artificial intelligence, for the first time, allows us to piece them together, turning the chaos of geological data into a coherent chronology – opening a way to read the planet’s diary as one continuous text inscribed by nature itself.
The presentation took place on Friday in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, at the Fifth International Congress on Stratigraphy, held from 28 June to 3 July. The unveiled model is the world’s first major stratigraphic model based on AI. It was presented alongside other new tools, such as an intelligent global system for stratigraphic profile correlation. The development offers a global database covering the entire evolutionary history of the Earth.
Stratigraphy is a fundamental discipline for interpreting Earth’s evolutionary history and provides key scientific groundwork for understanding the origins of life, resource distribution and climate evolution. “We hope that with a chronological scale and global big data, all geological records of the 4.6‑billion‑year history of Earth can be organised according to a unified time standard. In the past, scientists (from different countries) conducted their own research and created scattered geological records. So in the age of artificial intelligence, Chinese scientists are now actually leading the way,” said Shen Shuzhong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice‑chairman of the International Commission on Stratigraphy.
To date, China has identified 11 Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Points (GSSPs), leading the world in their number. GSSPs are reference points on stratigraphic rock sections that define the lower boundaries of stages on the International Chronostratigraphic Chart. “Geological history spans several billion years, during which all kinds of events have occurred, such as the evolution of life and climate, as well as the mechanisms behind various major geological events. What laws govern these events? This is what the modern Earth system must address,” Shen added. As CCTV+ reports. The international scientific community has praised the newly unveiled development, which opens new horizons for global geological research.
