The Origin of the Universe, Solar System, Earth, and the Moon

Origins of the Universe

The Big Bang
- Evidence: Red Shift, CMB
Hubbles Law: Objects in deep space have relative velocity moving
away from Earth. This is evidenced from their red shifts.
- Universe is ever expanding, meaning that relative to position
in universe, everything will be moving away.
- Recession speed=Ho x distance
- Supports an age of 13.6 Ga for the universe
- Depends on assumptions used.
Recombination (380,000 years ABB)
- The universe had cooled enough to allow protons and
electrons to form atoms.
o Evidence: CMB
Cosmic
-

Microwave Background
Afterglow of the big bang
Supports an age of 13.73 Ga for the universe.
2.725 Kelvin (avg temperature of space)
o Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)
o Shuttle that helped determine 2.725 Kelvin

The Cosmic Dark Ages (380,000 and 200 million years ABB)
- No sources of light in the universe.
Time of Reionization (200 million years ABB)
- Mass locally condensed to form stars
o Time of Reionization
re-lighting
First Galaxies (1 Billion years ABB)
Our Solar System Forms (8.4 Billion years ABB)
Origin of Our Solar System
- Solar nebula condenses from past exploded stars
- Evidence: excess of heavy elements
Age of Our Solar System
- Meteorites date back to 4.53 to 4.58 Ga
- Left over bits from the time of solar system formation

Formation of the Planets

- Collisions generated heat
- Formed planets
Formation of the Earth
- Condensed out of the solar nebula
- Material left over after the formation of the sun
- Grew via condensation and/or accretion
Age of the Earth
- Earth is dated indirectly: 4.567 Ga
- Meteorites
o Canyon Diablo Meteorite: 4.54 Ga
o Other meteorites have been dated: 4.53 to 4.58
- Moon
o Variety of ages, oldest are between 4.4 and 4.5 Ga
Differentiation of Earths Core
- Earth became layers of iron
- Core formed from accretion of elements>contraction and
differentiation
Formation of the Moon
- Glancing blow Directly Impact by a Mars sized object 4.5 Ga
- Moon and Earth chemical signatures similar.
o Isotopic
- Imparted more spin/tilt to Earth than would otherwise expect.
The Great Bombardment
- Early Earth and Moon affected by constant rain of impactors.
o Continued until Earth cleaned up its neighborhood via
gravitational attraction.
The Hadeon Eon (From the Origin of the Earth to the oldest Rocks)
- Term coined by Preston Cloud (UCSB)
- No rocks remain from this Eon.
Formation of the first Crust
- Magma ocean
- Eventually the magma ocean cooled to form a layer of
basaltic crust.
- Earths initial crust was most likely re-melted several times
due to impacts with large asteroids.
Stable Liquid Water

Eventually Earth cooled enough to support water, results in

life.
o Minerals suggest 4.4 Ga (tentative).
o Oldest sediments (3.8 Ga)
End of the Hadean Oldest Rocks
- Acasta Gneiss (today)
o 4.03 Ga
Near Great Slave Lake
- Isua (formerly)
o 3.8 Ga, Greenland.
- Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt
o (Contender 4.28 Ga)
The Emergence of Continents
The Archaen Eon
- Starts with the oldest rocks on Earth
- Ends with the emergence of the continents
Beginning of the Arcahen Eon
- Oldest Rocks
o Acasta Gneiss (currently)
4.03 Ga
Near Great Slave Lake, Canada
o Isua, Greenland
3.8 Ga
Pillow basalts
Significance: unequivocal evidence for liquid
water by 3.8 Ga
Archaen Rocks Differ from Younger Rocks
- Ultramafic lavas (komatiites)
o 1600 Degrees C to erupt
o Derive from Earths mantle
Lots of iron/magnesium
- Proto continents
o Granite/gneiss terranes
o Greenstone belts
Granite/Gneiss Terrane
- Granite
o Formed from differentiation of mafic/ultramafic melts
- Gneiss
o After formation, many granites underwent subsequent
metamorphism

High heat flow.

Greenstone Belt Sequence

- Ultramafic lavas and mafic lavas (bottom)
o Some pillow basalts
- Felsic lavas + Sedimentary rocks (top)
Archaen
-

Tectonics: Observation
Greenstone belts sandwiched between granite/gneiss terranes
No large contintents
Weird rock types: ultramafic lava

Archaen Tectonics: Interpretation

- Many proto-continents bumping each other and coalescing or
rifting apart
o Greenstone belts likely former rift zones.
- High heat flow vs. Today
o Too hot for regular plate tectonics
Ultramafic lavas
Cratons
- Archean granite/greenstone belts coalesced to form the stable
core of todays continents
o A craton is the very ancient, now stable (not technically
active) part of the continental crust.
The Arcahen-Protozoic Boundary
- Theoretical: The global emergence of continents
o Creation of continental crust on a large scale
- Practical cratonization was not synchronous around the
world
o Thus, it is by definition 2.5 Ga
o S Africa v. N America as examples.
South Africa (One of the Oldest Cratons)
- Kaapvaal Craton (Size of Madagasscar: 3 Ga)
- Marine Pongola Super group
- Non-Marine Witwatersand Group (gold)
North America (younger craton)
Tectonics in the Proterozoic Era
- Normal plate tectonics was operating by
o 2.0 ga
o Wopmay significance

Rifting of a continent
The opening of an ocean basin
Forming a passive margin
o Jormua significance
Oldest complete ophiolite (ocean crust cross
section)
Proterozoic ocean crust was not unlike todays

Post-Archaen Growth of NA
- A series of larger continental masses were sutured to the
original Archaen craton
- Crash, dock, cook, incorporate
Grenville Orogenic Belt
- Can be traced all over the world
- Assembly of a supercontinent
o Rodinia
o Orogeny: Mountain building event
History of the Atmosphere
Origin of the Atmosphere
- Degassing
- Comet or meteorite impacts
Isotopes
- Element with the same number of protons, different number
of neutrons
-

6Ovs.18O12Cvs.14Cvs.14C1Hvs.2H

Fingerprint
o Original composition
o Record of process
Fractionation

Origin of the Atmosphere

Earth
-

Venus
-

Goldilocks zone
o From enough from sun for H20 to condense into water
o Close enough to sun for H2O not to freeze
Most of the time
Closer to the sun
o Water vapor does not condense
o No ocean or rainfall

 CO2 does not dissolve

o Runaway greenhouse effect

Mars
-

Further from the sun (colder)

Smaller than Earth
o Most of the atmosphere escaped to space
Where did the CO2 go?
- Into the atmosphere
Where does the N2 come from?
- Volcanic outgassing
- Relatively inertdoes not react, so it builds up over time.
Where did the O2 come from?
- Plants
Studying the Ancient atmosphere
- We cannot sample past air directly
- We study the ancient air via proxies
- In law
o A person authorized to act for another; a substitute
- In Science
o A measureable quantity that substitutes for something
no longer measurable
IE A fossil is a proxy for something that once lived.
Constraints on atm O2 through time
- Red Bed
- UO2
- BIFs
Iron
- Good proxy for oxidization
- Dissolves in water in the absence of O2
o Fe2+
- Forms a solid when oxidized
o Rust
o Fe3+
Red Beds
- No red beds before 2.2 Ga
- Fe-rich minerals (olivine) in Paleosols (ancient soil horizons)
were not oxidized.
- Fe was weathered away.
Uraninite (UO2)
- Very sensitive to oxidation
o Doesn't exist in normal environments today
o Forms clasts in sandstone before, but not after, 2.45 Ga
Banded Iron Formations
- Laminated
- Alternating iron rich/iron poor layers

Found in ocean basins

o Chemical sedimentary rock
Evidence for Oxygen (post 1.9 Ga)
- Red Beds
o Paleosols were heavily oxidized (like today)
o