The Origin and Evolution of Earth: From the Big Bang to the Future of Human Existence

Explore the frontiers of science with this revolutionary course that rewrites the history of our planet as a single, compelling story involving the coevolution of rocks and life.

• By This Professor
• 01: Mineralogy and a New View of Earth
• 02: Origin and Evolution of the Early Universe
• 03: Origins of the Elements-Nucleosynthesis
• 04: Ur-Minerals, First Crystals in the Cosmos
• 05: Presolar Dust Grains-Chemistry Begins
• 06: Coming to Grips with Deep Time
• 07: The Birth of the Solar System
• 08: The Early Solar System-Terrestrial Planets
• 09: 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