COLLABORATIVE NSF-NASA WORKSHOPS: EVOLVING ENVIRONMENTS AND LIFE ON THE EARLY EARTH -- FROM ACCRETION TO THE RISE OF ANIMALS

University Of California-Riverside, Riverside CA

Investigators

Abstract

NSF and NASA plan to co-sponsor two workshops at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in August of this year. The purpose is to consider the scientific challenges of unraveling the earliest history of the Earth after its formation, and the relation these processes had in the development of Earth's habitable environment and earliest life up to the appearance of animals. These two workshops are: Workshop 1: The fecundity of the early Earth (Hadean to mid-Archean, ca. 4.6 to 3.0 billion years ago) Workshop 2: Drivers of complexity (earliest oxygenesis through the Cryogenian, ca. 3.0 to 0.6 billion years ago) Workshop participants will focus on defining the next generation of essential questions and opportunities. Interagency collaboration will be promoted between NSF and NASA, a generally underutilized opportunity. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, the workshops will bring together scientific subdisciplines which historically have not worked together to provide a more holistic plan for future research directions in early Earth studies. Technical Description: NSF and NASA propose to co-sponsor two complementary, back-to-back workshops at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum during late summer 2014 to define the state-of-the-art in studies of the co-evolution of life and the environment on early Earth - from the beginnings of habitability through the progression of life from the first prokaryotes to complex eukaryotes. These two workshops are: Workshop 1: The fecundity of the early Earth (Hadean to mid-Archean, ca. 4.6 to 3.0 billion years ago) Workshop 2: Drivers of complexity (earliest oxygenesis through the Cryogenian, ca. 3.0 to 0.6 billion years ago) Building from a foundation of the current state of knowledge, workshop participants will define the next generation of essential questions and opportunities. An additional outcome should be a proof-of-concept for underutilized opportunities for interagency collaboration between NSF and NASA. The overarching goal is to build interdisciplinarity at unprecedented levels among diverse fields. The workshops, by design, will bring groups together that are not normally assembled to discuss critical issues and opportunities in early Earth research from diverse but complementary perspectives.