The Beginning of Earth History

26 October 2006

Professor David J Stevenson

Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago with its initial condition greatly affected by the trauma of giant impacts. In this lecture, Professor David Stevenson discusses how this trauma affects the similarities and differences between Earth and Moon, the core, possible initial layering of the mantle and the conditions for the early evolution, including timing for the origin of life.

This lecture was presented by The Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU College of Science.

Broad Topics: Physical Science

Sub-topics: Astronomy & Astrophysics, Biological Sciences, Earth & Marine Sciences

Areas: ANU College of Science

David Stevenson is the George van Osdol Professor of Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He is a New Zealander who received his undergraduate education at Victoria University in Wellington, and his doctorate in theoretical physics at Cornell University in the US. He came to RSES at ANU in 1976 and has been at Caltech since 1980, where he has been chair of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences for five years and Chair of the Faculty for two years. Professor Stevenson is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences (US), and has won the Hess Medal from the American Geophysical Union and the Urey Prize from the Division of Planetary Sciences (American Astronomical Society).

Part of the 2006 Toyota-ANU Public Lecture Series