MINERALOGICAL CO-EVOLUTION OF THE GEOSPHERE AND BIOSPHERE
Biological processes began to affect Earth's surface mineralogy by the Eoarchean, when large-scale surface mineral deposits, including carbonates and banded iron formations, were precipitated under the influences of changing atmospheric and ocean chemistry. The Paleoproterozoic “Great Oxidation Event” and Neoproterozoic increases in atmospheric O2 transformed Earth’s surface mineralogy and are responsible, directly or indirectly, for most of Earth’s 4300 known mineral species.
Mineral evolution arises from three primary mechanisms: (1) progressive separation and concentration of elements from their original relatively uniform distribution; (2) an increase in range of intensive variables such as pressure, temperature, and the activities of H2O, CO2 and O2; and (3) generation of far-from-equilibrium conditions by living systems. The sequential evolution of Earth’s mineralogy from chondritic simplicity to Phanerozoic complexity introduces the dimension of geologic time to mineralogy and thus provides a dynamic alternate approach to framing the mineral sciences.