Origin and evolution of Earth / Происхождение и эволюция Земли

Over the past four decades, Earth scientists have made great strides in understanding our planet’s workings and history. We understand as never before how plate tectonics shapes our planet’s surface, how life can be sustained over billions of years, and how geological, biological, atmospheric, and oceanic processes interact to produce climate—and climatic change. Yet at the most basic level, this progress has served principally to lay bare more fundamental questions about Earth. Expanding knowledge is generating new questions, while innovative technologies and new partnerships with other sciences provide new paths toward answers.

The Committee on Grand Research Questions in the Solid-Earth Sciences was established at the request of the U.S. Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Geological Survey to frame some of the great intellectual challenges inherent in the study of Earth and other planets. Although many reports have identified research priorities in Earth science, few have cst them as compelling, fundamental science questions. Such “big picture” questions may require decades to answer and research support from many agencies and organizations. The answers to these questions could profoundly affect our understanding of the planet on which we live. <...>