Evolution of Mineral Species

I do, however, want to emphasize one intriguing
insight: most of Earth’s thousands of minerals
owe their existence to the development of life
on the planet. If you think of all the nonliving
world as a stage on which life plays out its evolutionary
drama, think again. The actors renovated
their theater along the way. This observation
also has implications for the quest to find
signs of life on other worlds. Sturdy minerals
rather than fragile organic remains may provide
the most robust and lasting signs of biology.

Scientific American reported on most minerals evolving from life over the last 2 billion years. A few minerals had existed before the Sun's ignition about 4.6 Billion years ago. About 250 minerals formed at that time and still exist. The began to form planetesimals which grew as time passed and collusions took place. Finally, a massive collision took place between the primitive Earth and the Moon.

The Majority of minerals arrived after the great oxidation event about 2billion years ago. This was caused by photosynthesis from blue-green algae. About 2500 new minerals arose.

Then came a billion year period that was relatively quiet. That's called the Boring Billion. About 800 million years ago most of the Earth's continents were clumped along the equator in a land-mass called Rodinia. For the next 200 million years the Earth cycled from snowball to hot box and back. The Glaciation moved minerals around along.

About 460 million years ago, the first land plants, mosses, arose. By the Devonian period, 400 million years ago the Earth had a modern look. Earth's near surface minerology was strikingly modern too.

Conclusions for future research demand that only planets with life would have the oxygen for extensive ocidation.

Viewing minerals in an evolutionary context
also elucidates a more general theme of evolving
systems throughout the cosmos. Simple states
evolve into increasingly complicated states in
many contexts: the evolution of chemical elements
in stars, mineral evolution in planets, the
molecular evolution that leads to the origin of
life, and the familiar biological evolution
through Darwinian natural selection.

From Robert M. Hazen. in Scientific American March 2010