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Earth's News flash! Summary (Nov 14, 2008): New research shows that on Earth have co-evolved Astrobio.net is getting with life. Up to two thirds of known minerals can be linked to biological activity, a makeover! highlighting the important connection between the and the geology of Earth.

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● Archive Mineral Kingdom Has Co-Evolved with Life ● Random Page Evolution isn't just for living organisms. ● All Topics Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have found ● Europe that the mineral kingdom co-evolved with life, ● and that up to two thirds of the more than 4,000 Features known types of minerals on Earth can be directly ● Great Debates or indirectly linked to biological activity. The ● Table Talk finding, published in American Mineralogist,

● Expeditions could aid scientists in the search for life on other planets. ● Perspectives

● Chronicles and Dominic Papineau of the ● Espanol Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory,

● with six colleagues, reviewed the physical, Hot Topics chemical, and biological processes that gradually transformed about a dozen different ● Titan primordial minerals in ancient interstellar dust ● Europa grains to the thousands of mineral species on ● Moon to the present-day Earth. (Unlike biological

● Terrestrial Origins species, each mineral species is defined by its

● Climate characteristic chemical makeup and crystal structure.) ● Extreme Life ● Mars Life "It's a different way of looking at minerals from

● Outer Planets more traditional approaches," says

http://astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modlo...=article&sid=2934&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 (1 of 3) [11/17/2008 12:21:36 PM] Earth's Mineral Evolution :: Astrobiology Magazine - earth science - evol...rth science evolution distribution Origin of life in universe terrestrial

● Meteors & Hazen."Mineral evolution is obviously different The evolution of genomic complexity and metabolic from Darwinian evolution - minerals don't ● New Planets pathways during Earth's history. New research mutate, reproduce or compete like living shows that minerals on Earth have also evolved ● Extrasolar Life organisms. But we found both the variety and alongside living organisms – and the diversity of ● Stellar Evolution relative abundances of minerals have changed minerals on our planet can be linked to the ● dramatically over more than 4.5 billion years of processes of life. Image Galleries Earth's history." Credit:Science ● Studio

● Panoramas All the chemical elements were present from the start in the 's primordial dust, but they formed comparatively few minerals. Only after large bodies such as the sun and planets congealed did ● Terrafirma Now there exist the extremes of temperature and pressure required to forge a large diversity of mineral ● species. Many elements were also too dispersed in the original dust clouds to be able to solidify into Find-It mineral crystals. ● Monthlies ● Advanced Search As the solar system took shape through "gravitational clumping" of small, undifferentiated bodies - fragments ● Syndication of which are found today in the form of - ● Spread the Word about 60 different minerals made their appearance. ● About Larger, planet-sized bodies, especially those with volcanic activity and bearing significant amounts of , could have given rise to several hundred new Today's Story Today's most-read mineral species. Mars and , which Hazen and story is: coworkers estimate to have at least 500 different mineral species in their surface rocks, appear to have Conundrum reached this stage in their mineral evolution.

However, only on Earth - at least in our solar system - Other Stories The rod-shaped D. audaxviator was did mineral evolution progress to the next stages. A ● Carbonate recovered from thousands of liters of water key factor was the churning of the planet's interior by Conundrum (Nov 17, collected deep in the Mponeng Mine in South , the process that drives the slow 2008) Africa. Microbes can survive by interacting shifting continents and ocean basins over geological time. Unique to Earth, plate tectonics created new ● Solar System with minerals deep below the surface of Earth kinds of physical and chemical environments where Snapshot (Nov 16, Credit:Micrograph by Greg Wanger, J. Craig Venter Institute, and Gordon Southam, minerals could form, and thereby boosted mineral 2008) University of Western Ontario diversity to more than a thousand types. ● Seeing a Distant Planet (Nov 15, What ultimately had the biggest impact on mineral 2008) evolution, however, was the origin of life, approximately 4 billion years ago. "Of the approximately 4,300 known mineral species on Earth, perhaps two-thirds of them are biologically mediated," says Hazen." ● Earth's Mineral Evolution (Nov 14, This is principally a consequence of our -rich atmosphere, which is a product of by 2008) microscopic algae." Many important minerals are oxidized weathering products, including ores of iron, and many other metals. ● A Divining Rod for

Mars (Nov 13, 2008) Microorganisms and plants also accelerated the production of ● Phoenix Stops diverse clay minerals. In the oceans, the evolution of organisms Phoning Home (Nov with shells and mineralized skeletons generated thick, layered 12, 2008) deposits of minerals such as , which would be rare on a lifeless planet. ● India Arrives at the

Moon (Nov 11, "For at least 2.5 billion years, and possibly since the emergence of 2008) life, Earth's has evolved in parallel with ," says ● Life's Boiling Point Hazen. "One implication of this finding is that remote observations of the mineralogy of other moons and planets may provide crucial (Nov 10, 2008) - like those evidence for biological influences beyond Earth." ● Debating the shown above - are thought to Dinosaur Dance have been the first microbes to Stanford University geologist Gary Ernst called the study produce oxygen by Floor (Nov 09, 2008) "breathtaking," saying that "the unique perspective presented in this photosynthesis. ● Oldest Evidence for paper may revolutionize the way Earth scientists regard minerals." Credit:UC Berkeley Complex Life in Doubt (Nov 08, 2008) Related Web Sites

Astrobiology Roadmap Goal 4: Earth's Early Biosphere and its Environment http://astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modlo...=article&sid=2934&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 (2 of 3) [11/17/2008 12:21:36 PM] Earth's Mineral Evolution :: Astrobiology Magazine - earth science - evol...rth science evolution distribution Origin of life in universe terrestrial

Astrobiology Roadmap Goal 3: Origins of Life Astrobiology Roadmap Goal 2: Life in Our Solar System Astrobiology Roadmap Goal 7: Signatures of Life Click here to see a VIDEO of Robert Hazen discussing mineral evolution Life is Lonely at the Center of the Earth Crater Diary Part I Dinner with Darwin

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Friday, November 14, 2008

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http://astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modlo...=article&sid=2934&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 (3 of 3) [11/17/2008 12:21:36 PM]