MIT OpenCourseWare

Browse materialsMIT 12.007 · Spring 2013

Geobiology

Art: US Army, US Weather map from 1872, 1872 · Public domain

Instructors: Prof. Roger Summons, Prof. Tanja Bosak
Term: Spring 2013
Level: Undergraduate
What's inside: 2 solutions · 19 lecture notes · 1 reading · 2 other files · 2 web pages
Materials open: MIT OCW

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Start course: Lecture 1: Introductions; Rationale (PDF - 5.2MB)Find a topic

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About this course

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 12.007 Geobiology, Spring 2013, Prof. Roger Summons, Prof. Tanja Bosak — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.

Materials are grouped the way MIT organized them. A verified, course-wide order has not been established here.

Has MIT solutions 2 files in this course are named by MIT as solutions.

Before you start

Prerequisites are not listed here. Check MIT's own syllabus for this course.

This course’s cited books, in our reading lists: Brock Biology of Microorganisms · The Earth System · The Earth System

How this course was organized

What's here, and what isn't

MIT's own materials here did not support a verified, course-wide order, so they are grouped by section instead.

Not included here

33 items from the source could not be safely included:

MIT's page format for this item wasn't recognized clearly enough to place it safely. (31 items)
Referenced in a table, but without MIT's own verified order, so it isn't used to claim a sequence. (2 items)

Materials by section

Grouped by section, as MIT organized them. Not sequenced or ordered.

Lecture Notes

18 files

Assignments

MIT OpenCourseWare, Prof. Roger Summons, Prof. Tanja Bosak, 12.007 Geobiology, Spring 2013.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Spring 2013 · Open the original course on OCW ↗

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Geobiology

Before you start

What's here, and what isn't

Not included here

Materials by section

Lecture Notes

Assignments

Lecture 1: Introductions; Rationale (PDF - 5.2MB)

Lecture 2: The Solar System and Earth Accretion and Differentiation (PDF - 3.6MB)

Lecture 3: Theories Pertaining to the Origin of Life (PDF - 3.9MB)

Lecture 4: Biogeochemical Tracers (PDF - 1.5MB) Isotopics #1: C and S

Lecture 5: Biogeochemical Tracers (PDF - 2.0MB) Isotopics #2: C, H, O and N

Lecture 6: Biogeochemical Tracers (PDF - 2.1MB) Isotopics #3: Biosynthetic fractionations and Intramolecular isotopic data, more of multi-element isotopics and the Precambrian C-Cycle

Lecture 7: Acid-Base Reactions (PDF - 1.8MB)

Lecture 8: Dissolved Inorganic Carbon Species (PDF - 1.5MB)

Lecture 9: Environmental Redox and Photosynthesis (PDF - 2.5MB)

Lecture 10: Environmental Redox and Photosynthesis (cont.) (PDF - 2.8MB)

Lecture 11: Oxygenation of Earth’s Atmosphere (PDF - 4.8MB)

Lecture 12: The Climate History of Earth (PDF - 2.5MB)

Lecture 13: Evolution and Radiation of Photosynthetic Organisms (PDF - 3.0MB)

Lecture 14: The Rise Of Animals (PDF - 14.3MB)

Lecture 15: Biomineralization (PDF - 3.5MB)

Lecture 16: Major Transitions in Earth History: Mass Extinctions and Radiations (PDF - 2.8MB) Courtesy of Julio Sepulveda. Used with permission.

Lecture 17: Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) Lecture notes are not available.

Lecture 18: Extremophiles (PDF - 3.0MB)

Lecture 19: Modern Microbiological Methods (PDF - 3.1MB)