A landmark scientific study co-authored by a Canadian geologist has identified a sudden explosion of mineral diversity after the emergence of life on Earth, and advanced a "revolutionary" theory that rocks have been evolving -- much like plants and animals -- throughout the planet's history.Wouter Bleeker, an Ottawa-based researcher with the Geological Survey of Canada, is one of eight members of an international team whose theory of "mineral evolution" -- the idea that many of the Earth's rocks are dynamic "species" which emerged and transformed over time,largely in concert with living things -- is generating a major buzz in the global scientific community since its publication last week in a U.S.
journal."The key message," Mr. Bleeker told Canwest News Service, "is how closely intertwined the mineral world is with life and biology." He said human teeth -- with their key ingredient of apatite -- are vivid reminders that the "seemingly static, inorganic" physical Earth should be viewed more like a "living organism" underpinning the biosphere.
But the new
theory is also being hailed as a potential tool in the search for life
on other planets since it offers new ways of perceiving the
interactions between rocks and living things. Probes of distant planets
should be seeking evidence of biological processes that may have shaped
alien landscapes, thescientists contend.
The study, published in the
latest edition of American Mineralogist, chiefly proposes a new way of
understanding Earth's natural history and teaching the geosciences --
particularly how plant processes have altered the planet's atmosphere
and its rock chemistry, and how the rise of complex life forms with
shells and skeletal features "irreversibly transformed Earth's surface
mineralogy."
The research team, led by
U.S. geologists Robert Hazen and Dominic Papineau of the Washington,
D.C.-based Carnegie Institution, recounted how just 12 minerals are
believed to have been present among the dust particles swirling through
space at the dawn of planetary formation some five billion years ago.
As the materials that
formed Earth "clumped" together and were subject to thermal pressures
and other forces,the nu......
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Sea floor records ancient Earth
Climate change and phenomena
Study explains rainforest similarities
Did comets cause killer cold spell ?
Ancient tsunami 'hit New York'
Prehistoric jungles laughed at global warming
Massive ice chunks break up in Antarctica
Animal Language
Global warming could change Earths tilt
