Engineering planetary habitability: Earth’s first billion years

该项目旨在确定支持早期生命和持续可居住性的早期地表环境和构造体系中的关键物理化学因素。生命是在地球45.6亿年历史的头10亿年内在地球上建立的。该项目的综合地质和地球化学研究将调查这一时期罕见的沉积和火山记录，包括最近发现的最古老的含矿序列，以显示早期地球的化学如何支持生命和进化。该项目希望加深对为什么生命在一些可居住带行星上繁荣而不是在其他行星上繁荣的理解。

This project aims to establish the critical physical-chemical factors in the early surface environment and tectonic regime that supported early life and continuing habitability. Life was established on Earth within the first billion years of its 4.56-billion-year history. This project’s integrated geological and geochemical study will investigate this period’s rare sedimentary and volcanic record, including the oldest fossiliferous sequences discovered recently, to show how the early Earth’s chemistry supported life and evolution. The project expects to enhance understanding of why life prospers on some habitable zone planets but not on others.