Dr. Gerya tells Universe Today, “That very special condition (>500 million years coexistence of continents, oceans, and plate tectonics) is needed on a planet with a primitive life in order to develop an intelligent technological communicative life

Dr. Gerya continues, “We plan to study water evolution in the planetary interior in order to understand how stability of surface ocean volume (implying stability of coexistence of oceans and continents) can be maintained for billions of years (like on Earth). We also plan to investigate the survival time of technological civilizations based on societal collapse models. We also started a project on the oxygenation state evolution of planetary interior and atmosphere in order to understand how oxygen-rich atmospheres (essential in particular for developing technological civilizations) can be formed on planets with oceans, continents and plate tectonics. Progress in these three directions is essential but will greatly depend on the availability of research funding.

Can life exist without plate tectonics?

The geoscientists discovered that Earth was releasing heat through what is known as a stagnant lid regime. The results indicate that although plate tectonics is a key factor for sustaining life on Earth, it is not a requirement for life to originate on a terrestrial-like planet

How have plate tectonics influenced life on Earth?

Tectonic processes cause the movement of land and earthquakes. This heat drives plate tectonics and parts of the rock cycle. Where humans can live can be affected by volcanic events, sea level rise, and earthquakes, all of which are related to tectonic processes

What effects do plate tectonics have on living organisms?

Plate tectonics influences organic evolution by isolating populations. This is because the movement of plates can separate landmasses. This geographical isolation promotes the speciation of organisms. This is exemplified by the evolution of the marsupial organisms in Australia

What if Earth didn’t have plate tectonics?

If all plate motion stopped, Earth would be a very different place. The agent responsible for most mountains as well as volcanoes is plate tectonics, so much of the activity that pushes up new mountain ranges and creates new land from volcanic explosions would be no more

Earth the only planet with tectonic plates?

Apart from this possibility, which is as yet unconfirmed, Earth appears to be unique in the Solar System in having plate tectonics, driven by huge convective loops of hot rock

Why is Earth the only planet with plate tectonics?

That would be because Earth is the largest of the rocky planets in our solar system; larger planets take longer to cool after formation, and that’s why Venus and Mars do not have tectonic plates

Who discovered plate tectonics?

And yet, the theory of plate tectonics represents a fairly young science. The “Father of Plate Tectonics”, Alfred Wegener proposed “Continental Drift” in 1912, but was ridiculed by fellow scientists

tectonic plate a theory?

Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that explains how major landforms are created as a result of Earth’s subterranean movements

Are tectonic plates still moving today?

Our planet looks very different from the way it did 250 million years ago, when there was only one continent, called Pangaea, and one ocean, called Panthalassa. As Earth’s mantle heated and cooled over many millennia, the outer crust broke up and commenced the plate motion that continues today

Why is Mars a dead planet with no plate tectonics?

Most of its volcanic and tectonic activity occurred over three billion years ago. Because of that, planetary scientists have considered Mars an “essentially dead” planet, with very little geologic activity

Did Plate Tectonics Set the Stage for Life on Earth?

A new study suggests that rapid cooling within the Earth’s mantle through plate tectonics played a major role in the development of the first life forms, which in turn led to the oxygenation of the Earth’s atmosphere. The study was published in the March 2018 issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters

Scientists at the University of Adelaide and Curtin University in Australia, and the University of California at Riverside, California, USA, gathered and analyzed data on igneous rocks from geological and geochemical data repositories in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and the United States. They found that over the 4.5 billion years of the Earth’s development, rocks rich in phosphorus accumulated in the Earth’s crust. They then looked at the relationship of this accumulation with that of oxygen in the atmosphere.

Phosphorus is essential for life as we know it. Phosphates, which are compounds containing phosphorus and oxygen, are part of the backbones of DNA and RNA as well as the membranes of cells, and help control cell growth and function. 

Is plate tectonics needed for exoplanets to have technological life

As we continue searching for exoplanets, we wonder if life and technological species capable of communicating with us exists on any of them. As geoscientists, we can also wonder how important is the presence or absence of plate tectonics for the evolution of technological species. This essay considers this question, focusing on tectonically active rocky (silicate) planets, like Earth, Venus, and Mars. The development of technological species on Earth provides key insights for understanding evolution on exoplanets, including the likely role that plate tectonics may play. An Earth-sized silicate planet is likely to experience several tectonic styles over its lifetime, as it cools and its lithosphere thickens, strengthens, and becomes denser. These include magma ocean, various styles of stagnant lid, and perhaps plate tectonics. Abundant liquid water favors both life and plate tectonics. Ocean is required for early evolution of diverse single-celled organisms, then colonies of cells which specialized further to form guts, appendages, and sensory organisms up to the complexity of fish (central nervous system, appendages, eyes). Large expanses of dry land also begin in the ocean, today produced above subduction zones in juvenile arcs and by their coalescence to form continents, although it is not clear that plate tectonics was required to create continental crust on Earth. Dry land of continents is required for further evolution of technological species, where modification of appendages for grasping and manipulating, and improvement of eyes and central nervous system could be perfected. These bioassets allowed intelligent creatures to examine the night sky and wonder, the beginning of abstract thinking, including religion and science. Technology arises from the exigencies of daily living such as tool-making, agriculture, clothing, and weapons, but the pace of innovation accelerates once it is allied with science. Finally, the importance of plate tectonics for developing a technological species is examined via a thought experiment using two otherwise identical planets: one with plate tectonics and the other without. A planet with oceans, continents, and plate tectonics maximizes opportunities for speciation and natural selection, whereas a similar planet without plate tectonics provides fewer such opportunities. Plate tectonics exerts environmental pressures that drive evolution without being capable of extinguishing all life. Plate tectonic processes such as the redistribution of continents, growth of mountain ranges, formation of land bridges, and opening and closing of oceans provide a continuous but moderate environmental pressure that stimulates populations to adapt and evolve. Plate tectonics may not be needed in order for life to begin, but evolution of technological species is favored on planets with oceans, continents, plate tectonics, and intermittently clear night sky.

Earth is the only planet known to have active plate tectonics, and also the only place that hosts life. Could that be a coincidence? It’s possible, but most geoscientists don’t think so. In many ways, it seems plate tectonics was fundamental in setting the stage for biological evolution and for maintaining and sustaining life on Earth.

“A planet with oceans, continents and plate tectonics maximizes opportunities for speciation and natural selection, whereas a similar planet without plate tectonics provides fewer such opportunities,” wrote Bob Stern, a geologist at the University of Texas at Dallas in Geoscience Frontiers in late 2015. “Plate tectonic processes such as the redistribution of continents, growth of mountain ranges, formation of land bridges, and opening and closing of oceans provide a continuous but moderate environmental pressure that stimulates populations to adapt and evolve.”

Of the three innermost rocky bodies in the solar system, Venus is perhaps the closest analogue to early Earth, says Taras Gerya, a geodynamicist at ETH Zurich. “Venus has a lid, which is not broken into a mosaic of plates, but does show some internal deformation,” Gerya says. Venus also shows evidence of having experienced vigorous resurfacing in the past, which may have been driven by mantle plumes or even some form of subduction. “It’s not strictly a stagnant lid. Perhaps it’s more of a squishy lid, with the plumes stretching and deforming the lithosphere.”

“The most important difference between stagnant-lid [systems] and plate tectonics is that plate tectonics provides a mechanism for two-way transport of materials between the deep mantle and the surface,” says Jun Korenaga, a geophysicist at Yale University. Material can make its way to the surface, and can also be recycled back into the system, he says. “This has a huge impact on the carbon cycle, with the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide regulated by plate tectonics over long timescales.” Sequestering or recycling carbon is essential for preventing runaway greenhouse warming that could make the surface of a planet uninhabitable over geologic timescales.

Dr. Gerya tells Universe Today, “It has three key consequences: (1) we should not hope much that we will be contacted (probability of this is very low, in part because the life time of technological civilizations can be shorter than previously expected), (2) we should use remote sensing to look for planets with oceans, continents and plate tectonics (COPT planets) in our galaxy based on their likely distinct (CO2-poor) atmospheres and surface reflectivity signatures (due to the presence of oceans and continents), (3) we should take care about our own planet and civilization, both are extremely rare and must be preserved.”

How is life related to plate tectonics

Plate tectonics are widely accepted to be a key factor in the emergence of life on Earth. Plate tectonics allow heat to move from the Earth’s mantle to its crust, which helps form continents and other geological features that are necessary for life. Plate tectonics also play a role in cycling nutrients, regulating the carbon cycle, and stabilizing the Earth’s climate

Plate tectonics can move continents, build mountain ranges, and trigger earthquakes and volcanoes. While these events can destroy life locally, they are also vital for sustaining habitable conditions across the Earth’s surface. For example, carbon-rich materials are recycled back into the Earth’s interior at subduction zones, which helps regulate the carbon cycle. Volcanic activity also releases water vapor and gases that help stabilize the Earth’s climate and atmospheric conditions

Plate tectonics allows heat from Earth’s interior to escape to the surface, forming continents and other geological features necessary for life to emerge

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