The Carnegie Institution's Robert Hazen to Present 'Earth’s Time Capsules: Minerals and the Informatics Revolution' on May 2 at 4 p.m.

The WWU Geology Department will host Robert Hazen, senior scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Science, for “Earth’s Time Capsules: Minerals and the Informatics Revolution” at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, May 2 at 4 p.m. in SL 150.

This event, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a reception at the SMATE library.

Discussion synopsis: The story of Earth is a 4.5-billion-year saga of dramatic transformations, driven by physical, chemical, and—based on a fascinating growing body of evidence—biological processes. This grand and intertwined tale of Earth’s living and non-living spheres is coming into ever-sharper focus. “Mineral evolution,” the study of our planet’s diversifying near-surface environment, began with a score of different mineral species that formed in the cooling envelopes of exploding stars. Dust and gas from those stars clumped together to form our solar nebula, which formed the Sun and countless planetesimals, and alteration of planetesimals by water and heat resulted in the 300 minerals found today in meteorites that fall to Earth. Earth’s evolution progressed by a sequence of chemical and physical processes, which ultimately led to the origin-of-life. Once life emerged, mineralogy and biology co-evolved, as changes in the chemistry of oceans, the atmosphere, and the crust dramatically increased Earth’s mineral diversity to the more than 5800 species known today.

Robert M. Hazen received degrees in geology from MIT and Harvard. He has authored more than 450 articles and 25 books on science, history, and music. The biomineral “hazenite” was named in his honor. Since 2008, Hazen and his colleagues have explored “mineral evolution” and “mineral ecology” — new approaches that exploit large and growing mineral data resources to understand the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere. In 2016, Hazen retired from a 40-year career as a professional trumpeter, during which he performed with numerous ensembles including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Ballet, and National Symphony.

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