Author name: Robert M. Hazen

Complex systems display diversification in type, patterning, and behavior over time through varied selective mechanisms. Such systems are observed in numerous natural and cultural contexts, including nucleosynthesis, minerals, prebiotic organic synthesis, languages, material culture, and cellular life. These systems possess such qualitatively similar characteristics as diversification into new environments (radiation), episodic periods of innovation (punctuation), and loss of types (extinction). Comparisons among these varied systems thus point to general principles of complexification.

Mineral evolution, which frames mineralogy in a historical context, is based on the premise that the geosphere and biosphere have coevolved through a sequence of deterministic and stochastic events. Three eras of mineral evolution—planetary accretion, crust and mantle reworking, and biologically mediated mineralogy—each saw dramatic changes in the diversity and distribution of Earth’s near-surface minerals. An important implication of this model is that different terrestrial planets and moons achieve different stages of mineral evolution, depending on the geological, petrological, and biological evolution of the body.