What will coronavirus pandemic look like to geologists in the far future?

COVID-19 is a major global shock that has turned our lives upside down, but how does it measure up on the grand billion-year scale of Earth history? The answer puts our human dramas in the largest perspective – and may yet be critical to all our futures.

The pandemic won’t leave a direct record of the viruses for geologists of the far future to investigate, as viruses don’t fossilise. And it may be hard to pick out a clear fossil record of the victims too, as they could be difficult to distinguish among other causes of death.

There will be indirect signals