UniVerses

Geology

A molten glob absorbed a nova’s trash.
Within a spiral swirl from cataclysmic blast
our earth amassed with each siliceous splash
until the largest thwack the moon outcast.
At first suspended just beyond earth’s rim
it’s gradually drifting outward year by year.
When once vermillion magma cooled to skim
the lunar tides convulsed the frail veneer.
The crust remelted, churned and froze anew.
O’er many cycles changed its mineral mix.
Thus granite formed and cratons could accrue
which freed the water from the rocks’ matrix.
Before the atmosphere, before the sea
earths rocky crust evolved its chemistry

We all recognize this beautiful blue globe.

What many of us don't know is how Earth itself evolved to become the nursery of life.

It started when a supergiant star exhausted its nuclear fuel and formed a supernova. Out of that unimaginable flux in energy nuclear fusion created the elements from which the terrestrial planets formed. Silicon, tin, silver, gold, uranium... all the elements larger than iron are formed in that implosion.

Great globs of magma spun out of the vortex, then aggregated around the newly forming sun. There were so many of these fiery planets they often collided, forming larger globs.

The planet that would become Earth collided with another glob almost as large, and, as a result of that collision, a large glob separated and became the moon.

At first the moon was very close the the Earth, but every year it moves slowly further away. In the early years it was only a few thousand miles away. So near, that its gravity tugged on the molten lava that covered earth. Whenever the lava would cool enough to solidify the moon's tides would tear it apart.

Over centuries, the Earth's surface did cool enough to form a skin of basalt, just like the basalt that spews out of volcanoes today. Under the surface the magma churned in harmony with the moon's tidal tugging, and often seams would open, spewing hot magma over the surface.

This process continued over millions of years. As it did so, a subtle change happened. Repetitive melting and cooling gradually changed the mineral composition of the crust. Over time the older basalt became covered with a substance that was more buoyant: granite.

The granite islands gradually clumped together in structures called cratons. These cratons became the heart of the tectonic plates whose motion dictates the Earth's climate.

As the continents formed, the crust became more stable and the water which was trapped in the minerals within the crust was released.

This evolution of the rocks had to change the surface so the atmosphere could form: only then could the chemistry that became life could evolve.