Explore Early Earth | Part 2: Meet a Geologist

Full Episode description

Welcome back, young scientists. I’m Dr. Universe.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world.
 
What was early Earth like? How did life start on Earth? And what’s up with plate tectonics?

In part two of this two-part episode, we meet geologist Johannes Haemmerli of Washington State University. We learn about early Earth, some brand-new research on plate tectonics and the idea that this process helped make Earth habitable.

As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu.  Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Ask Dr. Universe is a service of Washington State University geared toward an 8- to 13-year-old audience. Listeners working on the Middle School History of Earth Next Generation Science Standards may particularly enjoy this episode:

| MS-ESS1-4. | Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history.
 
| MS-ESS2-2. | Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.
 
| MS-ESS2-3. | Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions. 

As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.