Adam Frank

Like once you get into a snowball state, a planet can be trapped there forever, which is, you know, maybe you already had life form, but then because it's so cold, you may never get anything more than just microbes, right?

So what plate tectonics does, because it fosters more volcanism, is that you're going to get carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere, which warms the planet up and gets you out of the snowball Earth phase. But even more, there's even more really important things.

So what plate tectonics does, because it fosters more volcanism, is that you're going to get carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere, which warms the planet up and gets you out of the snowball Earth phase. But even more, there's even more really important things.

So what plate tectonics does, because it fosters more volcanism, is that you're going to get carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere, which warms the planet up and gets you out of the snowball Earth phase. But even more, there's even more really important things.

I just finished a paper where we were looking at something called the hard steps model, which is this model that's been out there for a long time that purports to say intelligent life in the universe will be really rare. And it made all these assumptions about the Earth's history, particularly the history of life and the history of the planet, or have nothing to do with each other.

I just finished a paper where we were looking at something called the hard steps model, which is this model that's been out there for a long time that purports to say intelligent life in the universe will be really rare. And it made all these assumptions about the Earth's history, particularly the history of life and the history of the planet, or have nothing to do with each other.

I just finished a paper where we were looking at something called the hard steps model, which is this model that's been out there for a long time that purports to say intelligent life in the universe will be really rare. And it made all these assumptions about the Earth's history, particularly the history of life and the history of the planet, or have nothing to do with each other.

And it turns out, as I was doing the reading for this, that Earth probably early on had a more mild form of plate tectonics. And then somewhere about a billion years ago, it ramped up. And that ramping up changed everything on the planet. Because here's a funny thing. The Earth used to be flat. You know what I mean by that, right? So all the flat earthers out there can get excited for one sec.

And it turns out, as I was doing the reading for this, that Earth probably early on had a more mild form of plate tectonics. And then somewhere about a billion years ago, it ramped up. And that ramping up changed everything on the planet. Because here's a funny thing. The Earth used to be flat. You know what I mean by that, right? So all the flat earthers out there can get excited for one sec.

And it turns out, as I was doing the reading for this, that Earth probably early on had a more mild form of plate tectonics. And then somewhere about a billion years ago, it ramped up. And that ramping up changed everything on the planet. Because here's a funny thing. The Earth used to be flat. You know what I mean by that, right? So all the flat earthers out there can get excited for one sec.

Clip it. Yeah.

Clip it. Yeah.

Clip it. Yeah.

what i mean by that is that there really weren't many mountain ranges right the beginning of i think the term is orogenesis mountain building the true himalayan style giant mountains didn't happen until this more robust form of plate tectonics where the plates are really being driven around the planet and that is when you get the crusts hitting each other and they start pushing you know into these himalayan style mountains the weathering of that

what i mean by that is that there really weren't many mountain ranges right the beginning of i think the term is orogenesis mountain building the true himalayan style giant mountains didn't happen until this more robust form of plate tectonics where the plates are really being driven around the planet and that is when you get the crusts hitting each other and they start pushing you know into these himalayan style mountains the weathering of that

what i mean by that is that there really weren't many mountain ranges right the beginning of i think the term is orogenesis mountain building the true himalayan style giant mountains didn't happen until this more robust form of plate tectonics where the plates are really being driven around the planet and that is when you get the crusts hitting each other and they start pushing you know into these himalayan style mountains the weathering of that

The erosion of that puts huge amounts of nutrients, things that microbes want to use, into the oceans and then what we call the net primary productivity, the bottom of the food chain, how much sugars they are producing, how much photosynthesis they're doing. shot up by a factor of almost a thousand, right?

The erosion of that puts huge amounts of nutrients, things that microbes want to use, into the oceans and then what we call the net primary productivity, the bottom of the food chain, how much sugars they are producing, how much photosynthesis they're doing. shot up by a factor of almost a thousand, right?

The erosion of that puts huge amounts of nutrients, things that microbes want to use, into the oceans and then what we call the net primary productivity, the bottom of the food chain, how much sugars they are producing, how much photosynthesis they're doing. shot up by a factor of almost a thousand, right?

So the fact that you had plate tectonics supercharged evolution in some sense, you know, like we're not exactly sure how it happened, but it's clear that the amount of life, the amount of living activity that was happening really got a boost from the fact that suddenly there was this new vigorous form of plate tectonics.