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Originally Posted by troutman
I heard a scientist on BBC explain last night that plate tectonics was very important in the rise of life on earth. Active geology is required for volcanism and atmospheres? Nutrient exchange?
Something to do with some crusts not having the right materials for plates after the meteor bombardment phase of planetary evolution.
http://theconversation.com/plate-tec...on-earth-44571 |
As a geology major I can shed some light on this. It's not necessarily volcanism and plate tectonics, but that they are symptomatic of a planet that still has a hot and active core.
Earth is lucky enough to have a molten iron core which creates our magnetic field and protects the air molecules in our atmosphere from being stripped away by solar winds. The heat found in the core is left over from the conglomeration that formed our planet 10+ Billion years ago, the iron is there beacuse it preferentially sunk towards the center of gravity being a heavier element.
The leading hypothesis on Mars currently is that it had an atmosphere just like Earth but it was lost because as a smaller body of rock than Earth its core cooled to the point where it became solid. As a solid, static rock solar wind robbed it of air and water. A solid core means no mantle convection, which means no tectonism, which means no volcanism.