1. Earth and History
Par Pandit
August 24, 2013
(in progress)
Based on BBC Documentary “How
Earth Changed History”

2. Ages
• Copper Age
– Discovered 6500 years ago
• Bronze Age
– Copper + Tin = Bronze
– Discovered 5000 years ago
• Iron Age
– Discovered 3000 years ago

3. Faultlines
• Plate tectonics
– In motion

4. Faultlines

5. Civilizations
• Major ancient civilization were primarily next
to fault lines
• Fault lines provide access to minerals, metals,
and water
• Examples
– Petra built along Dead Sea fault line
– Jericho
– Hierapolis (Roman City in SW Turkey)

6. Crete and Minoan civilization
• 4000 years ago
• Advanced civilization
– Running water, sewage system, storage systems
– First sports stadium (“day off”)
– Wealth came from copper and tin
– Tin hard to find. Had to travel to Britain, Spain,
Central Europe, Iran
– Great maritime fleet and heavy trading

7. Crete and Minoan civilization
• First maritime power
• Used ideal location for trading
• Santorini
– Plate boundary, volcanos
– Greatest explosion in last 10,000 years
– Water + lava = dangerous gases
– Volcano fell into the sea causing a tsumai
– Tsumai destroyed Minoan civilization within 100
years

8. Civilizations
• History is filled with civilizations near fault
lines that were destroyed by volcanos,
earthquakes
• All plates are continually
– Crashes = mountain ranges
– Separate = filled with oceans
– Minerals are able to rise to surface
• 10 of the largest 20 cities today are next to
fault lines

9. Civilizations
• Fault lines help in the case of California
– Agriculture
– Find oil
– Find gold
– Tourism
• Istanbul
– Expect major earthquake within our lifetime

10. Episode 4
Fire = Progress
• Fire
– Requires 13% oxygen to burn
– Until 400 million years ago, there was little to no
oxygen on the surface of the earth
– Key element is carbon
– Fire can melt materials into bronze, iron, steel
– Metals helps create tools, coins, weapons

11. Carbon
• Carbon
– Found in trees. When trees in short supply, there
was an energy crisis around 1500 AD
– Discover trees submerged under water = coal
– Desire for coal leads to mining
– Need to remove water during mining
• Steam engine invented to do the job
• Leads to railroad using steam engines
• Railroads use steels and require more coal

12. Coal, Britain, China, and Industrial
Revolution
• England had lots of coal
– Use innovations to extract coal
– Metals, steam engine lead to industrial revolution
• China has a lot of coal
– Coal is located in western China while cities are
along eastern coast
– Transport coal by Yellow River (rapid, manual
carry)
– No innovations to transport coal

13. Coal, Britain, China, and Industrial
Revolution
• China (continued)
– Modernizing starts in mid-20th century
– Now China is BIGGEST user and producer of coal

14. Transition to Oil
• How oil is formed
– Shallow seas hold plentiful life
– When sea is dried up, salt is there
– Dead animals = carbon buried under salt and seas
for millions of years
– Oil comes from long ago life forms

15. Oil
• Benefits of oil
– Easier to transport than coal
– Natural gas is formed along with oil (need to
confirm)
• Oil is found in
– 19th century in Azerbaijan (lots of surface oil)
– 20th century in Middle East

16. Oil
• Extracting oil
– Middle East oil is deep in earth
– Salt glaciers are signs of long lost seas
– The salt lubricates the hard rocks
– When plates collide to put land up, salt allows a
break and oil to move up to empty cavity closer to
surface
– When you find to find oil, you look for salt
– Extreme example: platforms in Caspian Sea

17. Review
• Fire needs oxygen and carbon
• Trees provides oxygen and carbon
• Underwater trees turns into coal
• Not many countries have coal so look for
alternative – find oil and natural gas
• Carbon is now a problem: greenhouse gases
• Earth needed 3 millions years to produce one
year of oil consumption today

18. Conclusion about Fire
• Fossil fuel is limited. We will need to break
bond between human progress and the
burning of carbon