Mountains provide some of the most spectacular and majestic scenery on Earth. But long before we existed to admire them, mountains played an important role in preparing the planet for humanity.
For a large part of Earth’s history, the highest places reached only a few thousand feet. The planet’s crust simply wasn’t strong enough to support anything higher. At around the same time that oxygen gained a permanent foothold in the atmosphere, the crust strengthened enough to support the mountains now so common around the globe. To see how these developments aided in preparing for humanity’s arrival, check out this past TNRTB.
A team of Japanese geophysicists have performed the most realistic simulations of Earth’s interior dynamics to date, and their results confirm a general understanding...
An already impressive body of evidence demonstrates the fine-tuning Earth exhibits to support life. Yet continued investigation of our neighboring planets––including water on Mars––adds...
Analysis performed on thousands of ancient continental rock reveals the complex interplay of geological and biological process that prepared Earth for human life.
