Notes & References

References

Oleg Abramov & Stephen J. Mojzsis, 2009, Microbial habitability of the Hadean Earth during the late heavy bombardment, Nature 459, 419-422 (21 May 2009), doi:10.1038/nature08015; abstract
The Origin of Life

Bhandari N (2002), A quest for the moon. Curr. Sci. 83: 377-393.
Development of the Crust

Brasier, M., McLoughlin, N., Green, O., and Wacey, D. (June 2006). "A fresh look at the fossil evidence for early Archaean cellular life". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biology 361 (1470): 887-902. pdf
The Origin of Life

Frei R, A Polat & A Meibom (2004), The Hadean upper mantle conundrum: Evidence for source depletion and enrichment from Sm-Nd, Re-Os, and Pb isotopic compositions in 3.71 Gy boninite-like metabasalts from the Isua Supracrustal Belt, Greenland. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 68: 1645-1660.
Development of the Crust

Goldblatt, C., Zahnle, K. J., Sleep, N. H., and Nisbet, E. G.: The Eons of Chaos and Hades, Solid Earth, 1, 1-3, doi:10.5194/se-1-1-2010, 2010 abstract pdf
Hadean Timescale, Palaeohadean era, The Mesohadean Era, Promethean period

Gomes, R., Levison, H. F., Tsiganis, K., and Morbidilli, A.: Origin of the cataclysmic Late Heavy Bombardment period of the terrestrial planets, Nature, 435, 466–469, 2005, pdf
Promethean period

Halliday, A. N.: Terrestrial accretion rates and the origin of the Moon, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 176, 17–30, 2000

Hayes, J.M., Des Marais, D., Lambert, H., Strauss, H., and Summons, R.E., 1992, Proterozoic biogeochemistry, in Schopf, J.W., and Klein, C., eds., The Proterozoic biosphere: New York, Cambridge University Press, p. 81-134.
The Origin of Life

Koeberl C (2003), The Late Heavy Bombardment in the inner Solar System: Is there any connection to Kuiper Belt objects? Earth Moon Planets 92: 79-87.
Development of the Crust

Lunine, J.I., 1999: Earth: evolution of a habitable world, Cambridge University Press
Formation of the continents

Mojzsis, S.J., Arrhenius, G., McKeegan, K.D., Harrison, T.M., Nutman, A.P., and Friend, C.R.L., 1996, Evidence for life on Earth before 3,800 million years ago: Nature, v. 384, p. 55–59.
The Origin of Life

Nisbet, E. G.: Definition of "Archean", Precambrian Res., 19, 111–118, 1982.
Hadean-Archean boundary

Nisbet, E. G.: Of clocks and rocks – The four aeons of Earth, Episodes, 14, 327–331, 1991.
Hadean-Archean boundary

O'Neil, J., Carlson, R. W., Francis, D., and Stevenson, R. K.: Neodymium-142 evidence for Hadean mafic crust, Science, 321, 1828–1831, doi:10.1126/science.1161925, 2008.
Mesohadean

Rosing, M.T., 1999, ¹³C-depleted carbon microparticles in >n; 3700 Ma seafloor sedimentary rocks from West Greenland: Science, v. 283, p. 674–676.
The Origin of Life

Russell MJ & NT Arndt (2005), Geodynamic and metabolic cycles in the Hadean. Biogeosciences 2: 97-111.
Formation of the Oceans

Ryder G (2003), Bombardment of the Hadean Earth: Wholesome or deleterious? Astrobiology 3: 3-6. [posthumous paper, edited for publication by Gary R. Byerly]. 
Formation of the Oceans

Schidlowski, M., 1988, A 3,800 million-year-old record of life from carbon in sedimentary rocks: Nature, v. 333, p. 313-318.
The Origin of Life

Trail, D, SJ Mojzsis & TM Harrison 2007?), Thermal events documented in Hadean zircons by ion microprobe depth profiles. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, in press (070715).
Development of the Crust

van Zuilen, M.A., Lepland, A., and Arrhenius, G., 2002, Reassessing the evidence for the earliest traces of life: Nature, vol 418, p. 627-630.
The Origin of Life

Wilde SA, JW Valley, WH Peck, & CM Graham (2001), Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4Gyr ago. Nature 409: 175–178. PDF
Formation of the Oceans; Palaeohadean

Wood BJ & AN Halliday (2005), Cooling of the Earth and core formation after the giant impact. Nature 437: 1345-1348.
Formation of the Oceans

Wood BJ, MJ Walter & J Wade (2006), Accretion of the Earth and segregation of its core. Nature 441: 825-833.

Zahnle, K., Arndt, N., Cockell, C., Halliday, A., Nisbet, E., Selsis, F., and Sleep, N. H.: Emergence of a habitable planet, Space Sci. Rev., 129, 35–78, 2007.
Hadean-Archean boundary

Notes

[1] The Crust:  The more external part of the crust, or Lithosphere constitutes the superficial covering of the Earth. Two kinds of crust are easily distinguished by composition, thickness and consistency: continental crust and oceanic crust. Continental crust has a thickness that, in mountainous regions chains may reach 40 kilometers. It is composed mainly of metamorphic rock and igneous blocks enriched in potassium, uranium, thorium and silicon. This forms the diffuse granitic bedrock of 45% of the land surface of the Earth. The oceanic crust has a more modest thickness, on the order of 5-6 kilometers, and is made up of basaltic blocks composed of silicates enriched in aluminum, iron and manganese. It is continuously renewed along mid-ocean ridges.
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[2] From Era Precambriana by Prof. Franco Maria Boschetto, translated from the Italian by ATW040312.
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[3] We wondered how anyone could possibly know this. Actually the evidence is quite good, but also quite heavy reading. Wood & Halliday (2005), Wood et al. 2006). Thanks to Andreas Johansson for pointing out an error in a previous version of this paragraph, thus forcing us to actually read (if not necessarily understand) these papers. ATW070716.
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[4]The comet source is disproven, isotope composition of water implies virtually all must have been from hydrated minerals. rursus061013
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