Hazen, Robert. Great Courses Audio.

Great courses

Lecturer: Robert Hazen

This course chronicles the history of Earth and life on Earth from the point of view of the minerals that made it all happen. A major theme is how minerals and life coevolved, leading to the unprecedented mineral diversity on our world compared to the other planets in the solar system. Professor Hazen tells this epic story in 48 action-packed lectures that take you from the big bang to the formation of the solar system to the major milestones that marked the evolution of Earth and life. He also looks ahead at what to expect millions to billions of years in the future. It's easy to think that the green Earth dominated by life that we experience today is just as it's always been. But Professor Hazen introduces you to a succession of starkly different Earths, starting with the black, basalt-covered planet of 4.5 billion years ago, and progressing through blue, gray, red, and white phases as Earth, minerals, and life developed in concert. Major episodes covered in these lectures include the formation of the moon from the collision of a Mars-sized body with the early Earth; the Great Oxidation Event, which was sparked by the earliest photosynthetic life and is responsible for Earth's iron and other important mineral deposits; the formation of the first continents; the start of plate tectonics more than 3 billion years ago; the repeating cycles of supercontinent formation; the Cambrian explosion of life, resulting in the first animal shells, bones, and teeth; the great episodes of mass extinction, including the dinosaurs; and the rise of humans - along with much else. Most impressively, Professor Hazen is a pioneer in the study of mineral evolution, which is a unique lens through which to view the development of Earth. He tells the story with authority and with a rare gift for making you see the world in a new, intriguing way. All Lectures: 1. Mineralogy and a New View of Earth 2. Origin and Evolution of the Early Universe 3. Origins of the Elements - Nucleosynthesis 4. Ur-Minerals, First Crystals in the Cosmos 5. Presolar Dust Grains - Chemistry Begins 6. Coming to Grips with Deep Time 7. The Birth of the Solar System 8. The Early Solar System - Terrestrial Planets 9. Hints from the Gas Giants and Their Moons 10. Meteorites - The Oldest Objects You Can Hold 11. Mineral Evolution, Go! Chondrite Meteorites 12. Meteorite Types and Planetesimals 13. Achondrites and Geochemical Affinities 14. The Accretion and Differentiation of Earth 15. How Did the Moon Form? 16. The Big Thwack! 17. The "Big Six" Elements of Early Earth 18. The Black Earth - Peridotite to Basalt 19. Origins of the Oceans 20. Blue Earth and the Water Cycle 21. Earth and Mars versus Mercury and the Moon 22. Gray Earth - Clays and the Rise of Granite 23. Earth's Mineralogy Takes Off - Pegmatites 24. Moving Continents and the Rock Cycle 25. Plate Tectonics Changes Everything 26. Geochemistry to Biochemistry - Raw Materials 27. Biomolecules - Select, Concentrate, Assemble 28. Why Reproduction? World Enough and Time 29. Eons, Eras, and Strategies of Early Life 30. Red Earth - The Great Oxidation Event 31. Earliest Microbial and Molecular Fossils? 32. Microbial Mats and Which Minerals Can Form 33. Earth's Greatest Mineral Explosion 34. The Boring Billion? Cratons and Continents 35. The Supercontinent Cycle 36. Feedback Loops and Tipping Points 37. Snowball Earth and Hothouse Earth 38. The Second Great Oxidation Event 39. Deep Carbon - Deep Life, Fuels, and Methane 40. Biominerals and Early Animals 41. Between Rodinia and Pangaea - Plants on Land 42. Life Speeds Up - Oxygen and Climate Swings 43. From the "Great Dying" to Dinosaurs 44. Impact! From Dinosaurs to Mammals 45. Humans and the Anthropocene Epoch 46. The Next 5 Billion Years 47. The Nearer Future 48. Coevolution of Geosphere and Biosphere

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