EPSC 233: Earth and Life History
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EPSC 233: Earth and Life History Galen Halverson Fall Semester, 2014 Contents 1 Introduction to Geology and the Earth System 1 1.1 The Science of Historical Geology . 1 1.2 The Earth System . 4 2 Minerals and Rocks: The Building Blocks of Earth 6 2.1 Introduction . 6 2.2 Structure of the Earth . 6 2.3 Elements and Isotopes . 7 2.4 Minerals . 9 2.5 Rocks . 10 3 Plate Tectonics 16 3.1 Introduction . 16 3.2 Continental Drift . 16 3.3 The Plate Tectonic Revolution . 17 3.4 An overview of plate tectonics . 20 3.5 Vertical Motions in the Mantle . 24 4 Geological Time and the Age of the Earth 25 4.1 Introduction . 25 4.2 Relative Ages . 25 4.3 Absolute Ages . 26 4.4 Radioactive dating . 28 4.5 Other Chronostratigraphic Techniques . 31 5 The Stratigraphic Record and Sedimentary Environments 35 5.1 Introduction . 35 5.2 Stratigraphy . 35 5.3 Describing and interpreting detrital sedimentary rocks . 36 6 Life, Fossils, and Evolution 41 6.1 Introduction . 41 6.2 Fossils . 42 6.3 Biostratigraphy . 44 6.4 The Geological Time Scale . 45 6.5 Systematics and Taxonomy . 46 6.6 Evolution . 49 6.7 Gradualism Versus Punctuated Equilibrium . 53 i ii 7 The Environment and Chemical Cycles 55 7.1 Introduction . 55 7.2 Ecology . 56 7.3 The Atmosphere . 57 7.4 The Terrestrial Realm . 61 7.5 The Marine Realm . 63 8 Origin of the Earth and the Hadean 66 8.1 Introduction . 66 8.2 Origin of the Solar System . 66 8.3 Differentiation and the origin of the Moon . 67 8.4 The Late Heavy Bombardment . 67 9 Earth's Earliest Record: the Archean 70 9.1 The Archean . 70 10 The Great Oxidation Event 75 10.1 The Great Oxidation Event . 75 11 Early{Middle Proterozoic Life and Environment 81 11.1 The Paleoproterozoic Glaciations . 81 11.2 Life in the Proterozoic . 82 12 Supercontinents and the Assembly of North America 84 12.1 Tectonics and the Supercontinental Cycle . 84 12.2 The Assembly of North America . 85 13 Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth and Rodinia Break-up 87 13.1 Introduction . 87 13.2 Rodinia break-up . 88 13.3 Geochemical Proxies . 89 13.4 Record of Neoproterozoic glaciations . 89 13.5 The Snowball Earth hypothesis . 90 14 The Ediacaran Period and the Origin of Animals 93 14.1 Introduction . 93 14.2 Chronology of Early Animal Evolution and Ediacaran Events . 95 14.3 Early Sponges? and the Molecular Clock Record of Metazoan Diversification 96 14.4 The Acritarch Extinction and Radiation . 96 14.5 The Ediacara Biota . 97 14.6 Weakly Calcified Metazoa . 100 15 The Cambrian Explosion 101 15.1 The Early Cambrian . 101 15.2 The Explosion . 107 15.3 Cambrian Biodiversity . 109 iii 16 The Early Paleozoic: Age of the Invertebrates 111 16.1 Orodovician life . 111 16.2 Simple animals . 112 16.3 The Bilateria . 114 16.4 Colonial Metazoa . 119 17 The Early{Middle Paleozoic: Paleogeography, Stratigraphy, and Envi- ronments 120 17.1 Paleozoic Tectonics and Paleogeography . 120 17.2 Paleozoic Climate . 123 18 Paleozoic Vertebrates and the Origin of Land Plants 125 18.1 Origin of the Vertebrates . 125 18.2 Fish . 125 18.3 Amphibians . 126 18.4 Reptiles . 127 18.5 Land Plants . 128 19 The Late Paleozoic and the Permo-Triassic Extinction 130 19.1 Pangaea . 130 19.2 Late Paleozoic Climate . 130 19.3 Late Paleozoic Life . 131 19.4 Extinctions in the fossil record . 133 19.5 The Big Five Mass Extinctions . 134 20 Mesozoic Life 138 20.1 Recovery from the Permo-Triassic extinction in the marine realm . 138 20.2 Life on land in the Mesozoic . 140 20.3 The End Triassic Mass Extinction . 143 21 Mesozoic Earth history 144 21.1 Breakup of Pangaea . 144 21.2 North America in the Mesozoic . 145 21.3 Mesozoic Climate . 148 22 The Cretaceous-Paleogene Mass Extinction and the Paleogene 150 22.1 The K-Pg Extinction . 150 22.2 Life in the Paleogene . 152 22.3 Paleogene Tectonics . 155 22.4 Cenozoic Climate . 156 23 The Neogene 158 23.1 Introduction . 158 23.2 Neogene Tectonics . 158 23.3 Neogene Climate . 160 23.4 Life in the Neogene . 162 iv 24 Pleistocene Glaciation and Earth System Evolution 163 24.1 The Geological Record of Pleistocene Glaciation . 163 24.2 The Oxygen-Isotopic Record of Glaciation . 164 24.3 Milankovitch Cycles . 165 25 Origin and Evolution of Hominoids 167 25.1 Early Hominid Evolution . 167 25.2 Hominin Evolution . 167 Chapter 1 Introduction to Geology and the Earth System 1.1 The Science of Historical Geology Historical geology is the study of the Earth's past. This includes the evolution of the Earth (including both its surface and interior) and the life that has inhabited it. It also includes events in the Earth's history, many of which significantly shaped the course of life, the biosphere, and more generally, the Earth System. It is virtually impossible to avoid Earth history if one work on rocks, because most rocks are old, and discerning their significance entails knowing how old and in what environment or context they were formed. Earth history simply integrates as much information as possible obtained from all the rocks on the surface of the Earth (and biological and chemical clues they contain) into a narrative of Earth's past. As you will appreciate, this is not an easy task and historical geology courses have no choice but to omit most of the details. Like most Earth history courses, a large component of this course will entail stepping through the geological time scale to understand how Earth formed then changed over the course of its 4.56 billion years. But first it will begin with introductions to the the sub-disciplines employed in studying Earth's past and tools used to interrogate it. Why study Earth history? To be honest, probably the main reason people do is because it is fundamentally interesting. If you are curious about how the Earth came to be the way it us, then.