The early history of the Earth (roughly the first 2 billion years) was a time of profound change in both the interior and exterior of our planet, and was the time during which life emerged. Improvements in analytical and numerical techniques are producing increasingly detailed observations of this important, but poorly preserved time period. In this session we
would like to bring together scientists from a range of fields to discuss the new observations and models, and in particular to discuss the interaction and possible feedbacks between the changes seen in the
interior and those at the surface. Did the rise of oxygen affect the mantle? Did higher melt production and/or large melting events affect ocean/atmospheric chemistry? When did plate tectonics begin? Was there a
magnetic field, and if not, when did it start? How did these changes affect the early life that was just emerging, and how did that life, in turn, affect the ocean-atmosphere system? what are the morphological, chemical, isotopic signatures of early life? what are the consequences of early life diversification on planet Earth? What insights does the early Earth provide for the evolution and habitability of other planets, both inside and outside our solar system?
This session will present the latest understanding we have of the early Earth, coverering aspects of biogeosciences, paleontology, geochemistry, paleoceanography,mantle dynamics, atmospheric dynamics, planetary science and paleomagnetism.

Invited speakers:

-Bernard Wood: The formation and early differentiation of the Earth
-John Tarduno: The Paleoarchean geodynamo, solar wind and magnetopause
-Minik Rosing: Geochemical and biologic constraints on the Archaean atmosphere and climate – A possible solution to the faint early Sun paradox.
-David Catling: The oxygenation of atmosphere and ocean
-Woodward Fischer: Approaches to understanding life before the rise of atmospheric oxygen