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Chapter 3 - The Origin of Earth

From the Beginning of the Universe to the Early Earth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2025

Peter Copeland  and
Janok P. Bhattacharya
Peter Copeland
Affiliation:
University of Houston
Janok P. Bhattacharya
Affiliation:
McMaster University, Ontario
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Summary

We are literally stardust. Any understanding of the history of our planet must begin with a discussion of the origin of the elements that make up our solar system. This chapter reviews the origin of the universe and subsequent atomic elements within stars and how the growth and death of stars ultimately allowed solar systems and planets to form. We then focus on the formation of Earth and its component rocks and minerals, previously introduced in Chapter 1, as well as its hydrosphere and atmosphere, which define the Earth systems that initiate the rock cycle.

Type
Chapter
Information
Earth History
Stories of Our Geological Past
 , pp. 48 - 65
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading and References

Allegre, C. J., Poirier, J.-P., Humler, E., and Hofmann, A. W., 1995, The chemical composition of the Earth, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 134, 515–525.Google Scholar
Asphaug, E., 2014, Impact origin of the Moon?, Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Science, 42, 551–578.Google Scholar
Chambers, J., and Mitton, J., 2017, From Dust to Life: The Origin and Evolution of our Solar System, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Haynes, W. M., 2016, Abundance of elements in the Earth’s crust and in the sea, in CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 97th ed. Taylor and Francis.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kring, D., 1997, Composition of Earth’s continental crust as inferred from the compositions of impact melt sheets, in Lunar and Planetary Science XXVIII, https://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1997LPI....28..763K.Google Scholar

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