Graphics by Howard Lee:
Late Hadean Earth before subduction (Heat Pipe Earth). By the author based on NASA images of Io and Earth. Based on NASA images of Earth and Io, with input from Bill Moore and Emily Pope.
Miocene climate based on Holbourn et al 2015, Zhang et al 2013, De Schepper et al 2014
The world 200 million years ago, at the birth of the Atlantic Ocean. Red patches are large provinces of volcanic and igneous activity that occurred at about the same time (The Toarcian eruptions are 20 million years later). Redrawn from Torsvik et al, Earth-Science Reviews (2012), with magmatic provinces added. Modern coastlines for reference.
The “Big Splat” collision of 2 moons to create our present single moon with remnants of the smaller moon forming the mountainous far side. 1 to 3 redrawn from computer simulations by Jutzi & Asphaug 2011, photo from NASA LRO
How LIPs inject killer gases into the atmosphere: Schematic illustration of a diatreme pipe eruption in the Siberian Traps Credit: Redrawn and modified from Fristad et al Palaeo3 2015, with input from Henrik Svensen
Comparing LIP emissions' and Human emissions' effects on the oceans
GPS measurements show tectonic movement. Redrawn from Searle, et al, J. Geol. Soc. 2011 over MODIS image by NASA
Timeline of Earth’s worst mass extinction. Redrawn and simplified from Burgess & Bowring 2015, annotations and photos added
Glacial to interglacial ocean and atmospheric CO2
Slushball Earth – a planet frozen into the tropics in your 80s. Modified with permission from: Scotese, Geol. Soc. Spec. Pub. 326, 2009
Depth slices through the oceans showing how dissolved oxygen declines from the surface to middle depths and then rises again in deep water. Constructed from World Ocean Atlas 2013.
The world at the end of the Ordovician. Redrawn from Scotese Geol. Soc. Spec. Pub. 326, 2009.
The world 300 million years ago, with glaciation. Redrawn from Torsvik et al, Earth-Science Reviews (2012), Modern coastlines for reference. Glaciation from Isbell et al, Gondwana Research (2012).
Human Evolution Family Tree (now out of date). After Wood, PNAS 2010; Pickering et al, Science 2011; Leakey et al, Nature 2012; Krause et al, Nature 2010; Langergraber et al, PNAS 2012; Dennis et al, Cell 2012; Wilkins et al, Science 2012; Berna et al, PNAS 2012; Beyene et al, PNAS 2013; Clarke, The paleobiology of Australopithecus, Springer 2013; Herries, et al. The paleobiology of Australopithecus, Springer 2013; Lordkipanidze et al, Science 2013; Parés et al, J.Arch.Sci 2013.
Human selection causing evolution in farm animals: Historical Yields per Animal in Britain and Holland. Based on Apostolides, et al, Univ. Warwick, 2008.
Atomic race track: how a mass spectrometer detects atoms of different mass.
Increasingly precise match between Large Igneous Provinces and mass extinctions
Cooling climate before the Hirnantian Mass Extinction. Cyan horizontal band is the Hirnantian Stage. Redrawn from Armstrong & Harper 2014. 13C-derived CO2 range from Pancost et al 2013, Plant spore first appearance simplified from Edwards et al 2014 and Rubinstein et al 2010.
Low-precision vs high-precision dates for the end-Cretaceous (now out of date)
The connected processes driving ocean anoxia
The connected processes in an ocean with normal oxygen levels
A variable measuring stick: variations in the published dates of magnetostratigraphic Chron 29 R complicate linking marine records of extinction, climate signals, the Chicxulub impact, and the Deccan eruptions.
How it all lines up so far: Rock dating of Chicxulub impact (left), recently published information on terrestrial and marine extinctions (middle), and recent dates for Deccan lavas. Vertical ‘smear’ of dates depicts 1 sigma uncertainties including from systematic sources from published dates. **the timing of the climate warming in Antarctic waters and extinction events is probably much less certain since it relies in part on uncertain end-Cretaceous magnetostratigraphy. Ar/Ar = Argon/Argon radiometric dates, U-Pb = Uranium-Lead radiometric dates. Boltysh impact shown at 2-5,000 years before Chicxulub based on Jolley et al (2010). Wyoming and Haiti dates for impact traces from Renne et al (2013). Denver data from Clyde et al (2016). Montana data from Sprain et al (2015) Antarctic data from Petersen et al (2016), Deccan data from Renne et al (2015) and Schoene et al (2015).
Larger mass extinctions highlighted in red. Credit: Redrawn and modified from Bond & Grasby Palaeo3 2017, with Valenginian OAE from Svensen et al Geol Soc SP 2017 & Suordakh LIP from Gong et al SREP 2017.
Eastern USA coastline if we have Miocene-like sea level rise
Orbital cycles of climate and landscape in Wyoming during the Eocene. Simplified from Smith et al EPSL 2014. Currently it isn’t clear if either A or C coincide with insolation maxima: salt pans may have coincided with the higher evaporation associated with summer insolation maxima, or alternatively enhancement of the monsoon over the western US due to insolation maxima could have led to high lake levels.
Population decreases and CO2 decreases recorded in ice cores from the Law Dome over the last 2000 years alongside global temperatures, Total Solar Irradiance, and major volcanic eruptions. Population and CO2 redrawn from Ruddiman 2014 "Earth Transformed" figure E-6 (W H Freeman), Temperature anomaly redrawn from Marcott et al 2013 figure S11(c), Volcanic sulfate redrawn from Sigl et al 2013, TSI redrawn from Steinhilber et al 2009 (0=1986 (1365.57 Wm−2)).
The extent, timing and volume of the Columbia River Basalt eruptions compared to Hawai’i, Laki and the ongoing Bardarabunga eruption. Based partly on Self 1997 in Ernst 2014 “Large Igneous Provinces” (Cambridge University Press) and Self et al 2014.