Daryl's Journal

What Happened Today? 1541- Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River.

The Story of Earth:

36. I began with experiments at the submicroscopic scale of atoms, studying the molecular structure of rock-forming minerals, heating and squeezing tiny mineral grains to document the pressure-cooker-like effects of Earth’s deep interior.

37. With time, my view expanded to the grander spatial and temporal tapestry of geology.

38. From the deserts of North Africa to the ice fields of Greenland, from the shores of Hawaii to the peaks of the Rockies, from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to ancient fossilized coral reefs in a dozen nations, Earth’s natural libraries reveal a multibillion-year story of coevolution shared by elements, minerals, rocks, and life.

39. As my research program shifted to the plausible roles of minerals in life’s ancient geochemical origins, I have reveled in studies that suggest that the coevolution of life and minerals through Earth history is even more striking than previously imagined– that not only do certain rocks arise from life, as evident in limestone caverns across the continent, but that life itself may have arisen from rocks.

40. Over four billion years of Earth history, the evolutionary stories of minerals and life– geology and biology– have intertwined in astonishing ways that are only now coming into focus.