GEOL 5460 - Earth Systems Evolution

• Know the evidence for an oxygen-free early atmosphere. Understand how, when, and why Earth’s atmosphere became oxygenated, and the timing and cause(s) of subsequent changes in atmospheric oxygen levels.
• Understand how the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, silica, and sulfur have evolved through Earth history.
• Understand the Greenhouse climate planetary state and the connections between silicate weathering and carbon burial that allowed that state to be the dominant one in the Phanerozoic.
• Understand the Hothouse climate planetary state and the connections between intense volcanism and the forcing of that climate state in the Phanerozoic and pre-Phanerozoic.
• Understand the Icehouse climate planetary state and the connections between silicate weathering and carbon burial that forces that state.
• Understand the fundamental interconnections between land, sea floor, ocean water, and the atmosphere, and how changes in those relationships have shaped changes in Earth’s atmosphere and climate.
• Understand the fundamental tectonic differences between the geology of Archean and Proterozoic rocks.
• Understand the origin and significance of Banded Iron Formations and why the seas in which they formed gave way to sulfidic Canfield ocean.