Home » Courses » Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences » Geobiology

Geobiology

Computer-generated image of Earth with continents aggregated together.

This is a paleographic reconstruction of the Earth 260 million years ago - a computer simulation showing where the continents were likely located at this point in history. (Image courtesy of Ron Blakey. Used with permission.)

Instructor(s)

Prof. Roger Summons

Prof. Tanja Bosak

MIT Course Number

12.007

As Taught In

Spring 2009

Level

Undergraduate

Cite This Course

Course Description
Other
Versions

Course Features

Assignments (no solutions)

Course Description

This course introduces parallel evolution of life and the environment. Life processes are influenced by chemical and physical processes in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and the solid earth. In turn, life can influence chemical and physical processes on our planet. This course introduces the concept of life as a geological agent and examines the interaction between biology and the earth system during the roughly four billion years since life first appeared.

MIT OpenCourseWare makes the materials used in the teaching of almost all of MIT's subjects available on the Web, free of charge. With more than 2,000 courses available, OCW is delivering on the promise of open sharing of knowledge.

Your use of the MIT OpenCourseWare site and materials is subject to our Creative Commons License and other terms of use.

Find courses by:

Collections

Cross-Disciplinary Topic Lists

Translated Courses

Geobiology

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

As Taught In

Level

Course Features

Course Description

Archived Versions

Courses

About

Donate

Featured Sites

Tools

About MIT OpenCourseWare

Our Corporate Supporters