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Determinations of the age of the Earth as 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years (Ga) leave large part of its earliest history unknown. Isotopic and geochemical signatures in rocks as old as ~4.0 Ga indicate an evolutionary trend from mafic-ultramafic crust to tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG)-dominated micro continental nuclei. To date signatures of the 3.95 – 3.85 Ga Late heavy Bombardment (LHB), manifested by the lunar Mare, have not been discovered on Earth. Recent discoveries of near to 14 Archaean impact ejecta units up to 3.48 Ga-old intercalated with volcanic and sedimentary rocks in the Barberton and Pilbara greenstone belts, including clusters about 3.25 – 3.22 Ga and 2.63 – 2.48 Ga in age, may represent terrestrial vestiges of an extended LHB. The interval of ~3.25 – 3.22 Ga-ago emerges as a major break in Archaean crustal evolution when major asteroid bombardment resulted in faulting, large scale uplift, intrusion of granites and an abrupt shift from crustal conditions dominated by mafic-ultramafic crust associated with emplacement of TTG plutons, to semi-continental nuclei represented by arenites, turbidites, conglomerate, banded iron formations and felsic volcanics. At this stage pre-3.2 Ga dome-structured granite-greenstone systems were largely replaced by linear accretional granite-greenstone systems such as the Superior Province in Canada, Yilgarn Craton and the western Pilbara Craton, compared by some authors to circum-Pacific arc-trench settings. A fundamental geotectonic transformation is consistent with the increasing role of garnet fractionation as indicated by Al-depleted and plagioclase-enriched magmatic compositions, suggesting cooler high P/T (pressure/temperature) mantle and crustal magma sources, consistent with development of subduction. A concentration of large impacts during 2.63 – 2.48 Ga potentially accounts for peak magmatic events culminating the Archaean era. However, strict comparisons between the Archaean systems and modern Arc-trench geotectonic setting will be shown to be unwarranted. The book provides an excursion through granite-greenstone terrains, and to a lesser extent high-grade metamorphic terrains, focusing on relic primary features including volcanic, sedimentary, petrological, geochemical and paleontological elements, with the aim of elucidating the nature of original environments and processes which dominated environments in which early life forms have emerged. By contrast to uniformitarian models, which take little or no account of repeated impacts of large asteroid clusters and their effects during ~3.47 – 2.48 Ga, the Archaean geological record is consistent with the theory of asteroid impact-triggered volcanic activity originally advanced by D.H. Green in 1972 and 1981.

Geology, Stratigraphic --- Archaean --- Archaeozoic --- Archean --- Archeozoic --- Geochemistry. --- Planetology. --- Sedimentology. --- Earth System Sciences. --- Petrology --- Planetary sciences --- Planetology --- Chemical composition of the earth --- Chemical geology --- Geological chemistry --- Geology, Chemical --- Chemistry --- Earth sciences --- Physical geography. --- Geography

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The permutation of basic atoms—nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and phosphorus―into the biomolecules DNA and RNA, subsequently evolved in cells and brains, defining the origin of life and intelligence, remains unexplained. Equally the origin of the genetic information and the intertwined nature of ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ involved in the evolution of bio-molecules and the cells are shrouded in mystery. This treatise aims at exploring individual and swarm behaviour patterns which potentially hint at as yet unknown biological principles. It reviews theories of evolution with perspectives from the earth sciences, commencing with the earliest observed records of life. This is followed by reviews and discussion of the building blocks of life, marine and terrestrial communities, the arthropods, birds and finally humans. It is suggested that, further to the mutation/natural selection processes established by Darwin and Wallace, an understanding of the evolution of intelligence remains little understood. A directionality of evolutionary trajectories is evident, not least the purposeful thinking process of humans as well as animals. It is not clear how directional intelligence, manifested for example by the collective intelligence of arthropod colonies, has evolved from mutation/natural selection processes. Potential clues for the understanding of life and evolution are provided by Aristotle’s dictum of “the whole being greater than the sum of the parts”, Niels Bohr’s principle of quantum complementarity and George Ellis’ theory of top-down causality. Inherent in the question of the origin of life is an anthropocentric bias, related to the self-referential Anthropic Principle and theological paradigms of man’s supposed dominion over all other species. The Anthropic Principle, however, should be capable of being circumvented using the scientific falsification method, assuming universal verified constants of physics. The phenomenon of the human mastery of fire and the splitting of the atom, leading to the seventh major mass extinction of species, remains incomprehensible. .

Life. --- Life --- Philosophy --- Biology-Philosophy. --- Astrobiology. --- Paleontology . --- Evolution (Biology). --- Philosophy of Biology. --- Biogeosciences. --- Paleontology. --- Evolutionary Biology. --- Animal evolution --- Animals --- Biological evolution --- Darwinism --- Evolutionary biology --- Evolutionary science --- Origin of species --- Biology --- Evolution --- Biological fitness --- Homoplasy --- Natural selection --- Phylogeny --- Fossilogy --- Fossilology --- Palaeontology --- Paleontology, Zoological --- Paleozoology --- Historical geology --- Zoology --- Fossils --- Prehistoric animals in motion pictures --- Astrobiology --- Habitable planets --- Origin --- Biology—Philosophy. --- Geobiology. --- Evolutionary biology. --- Earth sciences --- Biosphere

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The book outlines principal milestones in the evolution of the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere during the last 4 million years in relation with the evolution from primates to the genus Homo – which uniquely mastered the ignition and transfer of fire. The advent of land plants since about 420 million years ago ensued in flammable carbon-rich biosphere interfaced with an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Born on a flammable Earth surface, under increasingly unstable climates descending from the warmer Pliocene into the deepest ice ages of the Pleistocene, human survival depended on both—biological adaptations and cultural evolution, mastering fire as a necessity. This allowed the genus to increase entropy in nature by orders of magnitude. Gathered around camp fires during long nights for hundreds of thousandth of years, captivated by the flickering life-like dance of the flames, humans developed imagination, insights, cravings, fears, premonitions of death and thereby aspiration for immortality, omniscience, omnipotence and the concept of god. Inherent in pantheism was the reverence of the Earth, its rocks and its living creatures, contrasted by the subsequent rise of monotheistic sky-god creeds which regard Earth as but a corridor to heaven. Once the climate stabilized in the early Holocene, since about ~7000 years-ago production of excess food by Neolithic civilization along the Great River Valleys has allowed human imagination and dreams to express themselves through the construction of monuments to immortality. Further to burning large part of the forests, the discovery of combustion and exhumation of carbon from the Earth’s hundreds of millions of years-old fossil biospheres set the stage for an anthropogenic oxidation event, affecting an abrupt shift in state of the atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere system. The consequent ongoing extinction equals the past five great mass extinctions of species—constituting a geological event horizon in the history of planet Earth.

Meteorology & Climatology --- Earth & Environmental Sciences --- Human evolution. --- Human beings --- Effect of climate on. --- Climatology --- Acclimatization --- Medical climatology --- Evolution (Biology) --- Physical anthropology --- Evolutionary psychology --- Origin --- Anthropology. --- Archaeology. --- Atmospheric Sciences. --- Environmental Science and Engineering. --- Biogeosciences. --- Archeology --- Anthropology --- Auxiliary sciences of history --- History --- Antiquities --- Climatic factors --- Atmospheric sciences. --- Environmental sciences. --- Geobiology. --- Biology --- Earth sciences --- Biosphere --- Environmental science --- Science --- Atmospheric sciences --- Atmosphere --- Primitive societies --- Social sciences --- Atmospheric science.