A photographic odyssey 30 years in the making documents the places that best express the forces that shaped our unique planet
These photographs take us on a journey through Earth’s history. Like an open book, our planet reveals the primordial geophysical processes that culminated in“This journey through time, space, and diversity seeks to strengthen our bond with nature and inspires respect for the Earth,” says French photographer Olivier Grunewald.
Grunewald and Gilbertas have captured the essence of places that are a testament to Earth’s distant past—the ancestral pulse that kindled life. At some point, the planet formed distinct tectonic plates that moved and ground together, forcing some of the rock back into the interior. Volcanoes, most of which formed near the edges of tectonic plates, provided an ongoing outlet for the planet’s internal heat. Fortunately for us, Earth’s interior continues to generate heat from the radioactive decay of uranium and other elements left over from the formation of the planet.
The results are a seemingly endless and strikingly diverse set of phenomena: peaked mountains, vast plateaus and plains, depressions, deep ravines, fjords, ocean trenches, dunes, cliffs. The rocks and minerals forged from primordial elements have been chiseled away over billions of years. At some point organic molecules began to enrich ancient sediments, which played a key role in the rise of a new and potent force: life.
Thanks to cyanobacteria, the ancient atmosphere—formed mostly of hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide—was transformed into an oxygen-rich environment. The oxygen reacted with sunlight to form the ozone layer, which protects Earth’s surface from ultraviolet radiation. Oxygen-consuming, or aerobic, cells became increasingly abundant, while anaerobic microorganisms that had thrived in the absence of oxygen began to diminish.
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