Events & Courses

The Story of Earth: How Life, Rocks, and the Carbon Cycle have Co-Evolved

The story of Earth is a 4.5-billion-year saga of dramatic transformations, driven by physical, chemical, and—based on a fascinating growing body of evidence—biological processes. The co-evolution of life and rocks, the emerging paradigm that frames this lecture, unfolds in an irreversible sequence of evolutionary stages.

Each stage re-sculpted our planet’s surface, while introducing new planetary processes and phenomena. The cycling of carbon played central roles as each stage inexorably paved the way for the next. This grand and intertwined tale of Earth’s living and non-living spheres is only now coming into focus.

Speaker

Robert Hazen, Carnegie Institution for Science

Robert Hazen is a Senior Staff Scientist at the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory and a professor at George Mason University. He has published more than 400 articles and 25 books. Since 2008, his research has focused on mineral evolution and mineral ecology -- new approaches that explore the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere.

Hazen serves as Executive Director of the Deep Carbon Observatory, a ten-year research program supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. A fellow of AAAS, the Geochemical Society, and the Geological Society of America, he has won numerous awards, including the 2016 Roebling Medal.