The Boring Rocks Where Life Began

[@RareEarthSeries]

We've survived and thrived thanks to Patrons like you: www.patreon.com/rareearth

[@ArtesaDrendora]

Rare Earth I disliked your video because you said geology is boring but everything you talked about in this video is brought to you by geology. These are conclusions made from years of research by many people. You belittled geology and all the contributing researchers by your erroneous statement. Without geology, You wouldn’t have even had content to make this video because no one would have ever properly researched it.

[@OutOfNamesToChoose]

You went to SOMALIA?! I'll admit my ignorance to its regions, but please stay safe.

[@OwenWithAHammer]

Hey, my name's Owen I live right by Milton I even went to your dads elementary school and got to meet him. I have an online job in advertising so I don't need pay, I'd be willing to travel around w/ you and help edit/shoot/write videos for a while. My job takes only a few hours a week so it's really flexible, I'm looking for something interesting to do with my free time.

[@natedunn51]

I don't know the universe really seems to want me to pay taxes.

[@samiuseliina]

@@ArtesaDrendora you so missed the boreing jokes. You need to drill down into the video a bit more. it's not a geology video until there unintended puns layered throughout. You act like people always take geology for granite.

[@rangergxi]

you may not like it but this is what peak performance looks like

[@thinkabout288]

LOL

[@noanoxan]

Peak. Performance.

[@blobsndrees]

It did have ancestors, it just didn't have descendants.

[@gaslitworldf.melissab2897]

This is the second time this week I heard someone say ancestors where they must have meant descendants. How likely is that? both were YT with highly intelligent, insightful speakers.

[@orsino88]

Right. Joe Scott on the computer simulation theory, right?

[@RareEarthSeries]

I'm not a clever man.

[@wierdalien1]

@@RareEarthSeries ehhh I refuse to believe that. You are certainly articulate and thats 9/10s of the battle.

[@echalone]

@@RareEarthSeries none of us are :D

[@LetsTakeWalk]

Ironically, boring is what is needed to do geology.

[@likebot.]

You're taking geology for granite, son!

[@jackd.ripper7613]

He's not being very gneiss, is he?

[@MrSuperWill]

I may be watching this video now but later on I'll be cummingtonite

[@marknelson2073]

@MrSuperWill ​That's not what shist said!

[@jackd.ripper7613]

@Justin O'Brien However, we shale continue.

[@1st1anarkissed]

Now don't get obsidian just because I lava at you.

[@zhuofanzhang9974]

"Thank you Newfoundland, you have rocks" "Thank you rocks, you rock" Those end-credits are always a treat.

[@Ichomancer]

Yeah maybe the grassy hillside isn't too geologically interesting.. But those cliffs were fascinating! Such cool shapes. Big ups Rare Earth

[@jmlkinc]

Thanks. I just spent three hours reading articles and wikipedia pages about life in the Ediacaran Period.

[@jacobusstrydom7017]

All I can say is thanks for an unbelievable channel.

[@m3an]

All the best to Francesco! Thanks for all the awesome content you and Evan made so far.

[@thevenkster94]

This channel is so well narrated. Love your videos.

[@kurthamel2012]

As I lay in bed at 230 pm hungover this video definitely lifted my spirits

[@ireozzie]

i recently reduced my subscriptions by 70% and you made the cut because your vids are unique and thoughtful. thanks for all the effort.

[@nerdyninjatemptress]

Came to learn about the origin or life. Left with a renewed sense of self and a confidence boost. Thanks Evan!

[@aunrah02]

Damn good as always. But acceptance of one's own demise is rough. Thank you for putting it in perspective.

[@An-Islander]

Rare Earth! Where yo at? Extinct earth? Miss my doses of existential rumination.

[@buffman9897]

wondering the same its been two months!

[@noeraldinkabam]

Life started with Newfoundlanders. Best pups ever!

[@dominicmariano9201]

Geologist here. I got into it when I was in college because it wasn't boring. Rather than just doing labs and taking notes, you get outside and explore the world, looking carefully and trying your damndest to make sense of what you see. Rocks themselves are boring at face value, but once you start to scratch the surface of the discipline and start to really understand it, the floor drops out and you realize how many big questions remain unsolved.

[@BarrettCharlebois]

I really like the direction this channel is going. Your previous works on the darker sides of history were well done, and I personally don't think they should go away completely, however I think having some more positive stuff in the mix really was needed. Fantastic channel, I'm learning lots about the province my fiancee is from. Keep up the great work!

[@willherondale6367]

'this too shall pass' This is the lesson I get most from your content, none moreso than this video. Change is inevitable, so don't get complacent, but that change doesn't have to mean bad either. Thank you Evan and Francesco for giving this gem to the world

[@leonteddy4751]

Came for geology stayed for heart warming truth

[@apcolleen]

Thanks for this week's dose of existential dread and information, dude. Keep up the good work.

[@leehaseley2164]

I wish I could have hear what you said at the end of this whilst I was in my mid-late teens. Imagine the angst that could have been avoided, just knowing that " there is no why" , there is just being.

[@ToriKo_]

I've been pushed for time recently but man did it make me glad to watch another of your videos again

[@AutomaticBadger]

Dude, I love your channel. Great content. Please keep up the amazing work.

[@nedisahonkey]

We understand the wait, especially with losing Francesco. I'm sure you'll come back with amazing videos whenever you come back, and the two categories idea sounds pretty good.

[@E_holms]

It is indeed the end of an era. Thank you Francesco for taking us on this journey, all the best. I am however also excited to see what new things are to come!

[@resonantdave]

This is one of the very few channels I consider “important”.

[@alext7667]

Evan, you're wild. I love you and this series, don't change your changing ways. I can't wait to see what you find in Somolia.

[@BatmanSeRiedeTi]

This is among the very best you have made, simply excelent.

[@god47398]

evan, i and probably 3.5 other people read the description and i just wanted to say take any time you need. quality over quantity, and time is best glue for any project. all the best.

[@jamieculp5318]

Safe travels, Evan--looking forward to what's next. Africa is a ride--enjoy it.

[@thesimulacre]

Thank you for these visually and cardiologically stunning videos, friends.

[@jackm2293]

ones again your best video iv seen so far. grate job. thank you.

[@ecrusch]

Man, please be careful in Africa and Somalia. This world is pretty crazy these days. The narrative for this video was informative and interesting, and the drone shots from above of the harbor area really gives you a cool perspective of the place. I will be here when you get back. Safe travels. Eric

[@CantSniff]

Yeah that’s right you tell the earth off, that’ll show it for being boring!

[@bobhope4288]

That's how boring machines got their name, they dig down into the earth.

[@markdanielpatureau2925]

So maybe the old lady was right: "It's turtles all the way down!"

[@Aaron-ot1xs]

As always a brilliant presentation. I Can't wait for you next video.

[@AtomicFrontier]

As an Australian I feel obligated to point out that our earliest evidence for life on Earth is actually some rocks in the Pilbra region of Western Australia. That said, awesome video as always. If you want to learn a bit more about this period we did a video on "The First Apocalypse" over on my channel.

[@jpe1]

Atomic Frontier this is the earliest complex life. The stromatolites in Pilbra are very cool in their own right, and I hope to see them in person some day, but the fossils Evan is talking about are the first macroscopic multicellular life.

[@mrnice4434]

And I bet someone in Africa has a rock with the same clam that it is the first life and then there is one in Russia and Brazil and China... you get the point :)

[@AtomicFrontier]

Thanks, very good point!

[@AtomicFrontier]

Also true. The bias would be toward older continents though, since weathering and erosion has had time to reach that layer. Newfoundland is great in that you get to see a lot of those layers all at once.

[@BlueScreenOfDeathPL]

@@AtomicFrontierA an quite fresh geologist I can assure you Austrailian fossils aren't forgotten. We get to learn at least "oldest top 5" of most available evidences of life or Earth's age. As dating so far back is marked with great error we aren't very sure about most of these "the oldest" statements :)

[@TheLostBear78]

Didn't even give us the name of the little pony? What the hell are you doing out there??? DOWN VOTED!

[@RareEarthSeries]

Every Pony's name is exactly what you call it when you first see it.

[@Newfie1956]

Bob

[@isaach4945]

That was Li'l Sebastian, we'll miss him when he is gone.

[@williamjakobsen9822]

@@isaach4945 I see whst you did there.

[@ALightInTheAutumnRain]

@@isaach4945 I got a feeling we'll even miss him in the saddest fashion.

[@accordioid]

Please continue. Your dad is an astronaut. You're an intronaut. Good balance. Same motivation. Telescopes and microscopes. Both needed to help the rest of us see more clearly. Please share more light.

[@damonstr]

Wonderful and poetic as always.

[@olecanole8596]

"You are the crown of creation"

[@shaunainsworth4805]

Nice message bro the more I watch and listen the more I like you academic thoughts Keep up the mad and contravertial content that makes plebs Think more openly To many take b/s for granted Keep up the great content

[@juststeve5542]

Oooh, uplifted sedimentary rock - be still my beating heart!

[@banerjeepradeep]

Hi Evan, I think not only I but many of your viewers are eagerly waiting for further updates. We have loved your videos and would love to be a part of it in the future too.

[@BothHands1]

As a South African, I'm soo excited about your future videos!! 💕😍

[@nedisahonkey]

Just excited to have him on the same landmass?

[@BothHands1]

Ned Mononymous well, i do hope he'll come visit ZA, but even if not, the whole continent has some fascinating history. I'm very interested in his take on it.

[@chedatomasz]

Rare Earth is the kind of channel I send my crush a link to and then I see If she likes it. If she does, she's a keeper. There's noone like a person to share your existential dread with.

[@Turgon92]

good idea..!

[@rocketmanproductions5972]

Maybe we can just take a moment to appreciate that title. Sheer perfection.

[@PlatinumAltaria]

Primordial ooze doesn't work? Remember the Miller-Urey experiment from school science? We've been refining that for decades. The only reason it doesn't happen in nature is because the environment of the modern Earth is so vastly different from the ancient Earth (oxygen is the real deal-breaker, it ruins everything).

[@PaulLemars01]

@Pecu Alex because oxygen came long after the establishment of life. As you know oxygen isn't natural, it's the excrement left over from photosynthesis which developed as a byproduct of anaerobic organisms looking for a new catalyst as they were pushed out of the vents and up to the surface of the ocean they were living in. Oxygen destabilizes and kills the first organisms. It essentially poisons them. My personal hypothesis is that gen 1 of life was anaerobic and developed in hydro thermal vents far away from bombardments and toxic atmospheres. It was only when competition for those resources became so great that the ejected cellular organisms developed the adaption to the chlorophyll molecule and the use of sunlight to manufacture sugars for energy. This particular experiment had been running not for decades but for billions of years. Trillions and Trillions of organisms over millions of years getting the sequence wrong and dying in the process but eventually photosynthesis evolved. Then the free iron was fixed and the ocean and the atmosphere became rich in oxygen and life exploded with virtually unlimited energy. Multi cellular life let alone vertebrate life is a relatively recent development for the planet. It's a response to an evolved organic cooperative trying to appropriate as much resources for itself as it can. In a sense I guess that's a meaning of life. Get it while you can.

[@kirkc9643]

Not to mention the unimaginably large time scale and volume of the (prospective) biosphere. This would provide for limitless random combinations & conditions. Then throw in stuff like cosmic rays and other high energy particles. Magnetism. We can't even model the weather perfectly, how the hell could anyone think we could recreate or model all the possible scenarios that could have produced life?

[@sebastians3773]

Without oxygen you get no ozone layer. Without that, your entire laboratory of life is being bombarded by solar radiation. This would be actively breaking apart any miraculously combined building blocks anyway.

[@sebastians3773]

Without oxygen you get no ozone layer. Without that, your entire laboratory of life is being bombarded by solar radiation. This would be actively breaking apart any miraculously combined building blocks anyway.

[@PaulLemars01]

@@sebastians3773 , you are correct for surface life but for life that evolved in the hydrothermal vents the ozone layer is not relevant. As organisms floated up the ocean column and eventually evolved photosynthesis I suspect that they were significantly below the surface of the water (probably about 100 metres or so) and the depth provided them with more than enough shielding from solar radiation. But for life to explode they had to get to the surface. They saturated the oceans with oxygen so that elemental iron precipitated out and then the O2 bubbled up into the atmosphere creating ozone and the beginnings of the world we know today.

[@oliwiabieniek]

Very sad to see Francesco go, but something is ending so something else can begin. Good luck Francesco and cheers to Evan taking Rare Earth onto new waters :)

[@thomasmoser7382]

i would like to quote the last two sentences at the end of all your videos because i think these are very important "always research what you see on youtube. don't let anyone think for you; most people can barely think for themselfs"

[@awesomelyshorticles]

Aaaaand were back to inducing existential crises. Nicely done, boys.

[@ultra5612]

Your voice makes any story interesting

[@1st1anarkissed]

Geology fascinates me, never boring. Please don't stop doing these because this is amazing and I hope you cross canada doing each province in depth for the next 20 years! Yeah, 2 years per province means you'll get here to saskatchewan in just over a decade, LOL

[@HHernandez93]

New subscriber here. Been on a binge on some of your videos. Love the work. Can't wait for more.

[@smalltallhall]

as a geologist, i took offence to that first statement 😂

[@jessepolitis4727]

Your epilogue was moving. Great speech.

[@unsimplemulticellularlifef5739]

Spectacular video, as always

[@kendrandi]

Fantastic video and conclusion. Great job as always

[@retrovideoquest]

Brilliant as always

[@phoenixthehound4928]

That last sentence is probably the most inspiring thing iv heard since the great speech of Patton

[@DeadWhiteButterflies]

And just when I was worried that the lack of Francesco meant there wasn't gonna be another video for a while, here you are right on time. Now that really is Rare Earth!

[@OCinneide]

check the description

[@SamuelOrjiM]

We will *not* be replaced, we will reach beyond the stars and claim dominion over our universe!!!

[@ScareGrid]

I love your videos so much. I can't wait to see even more.

[@stadtbekanntertunichtgut]

That was beautiful thanks rare erath!!!

[@Allan003]

I must say, the beard is looking really good. You rock it well. :D

[@iiiiitsmagreta1240]

Whatever the future holds for this series, I'll be there.

[@Recon3Y3z]

Bro, I got a srs man crush on you from this one. Keep it up. I love the work you're doing.

[@juniperlychen9448]

The tiny horse analogy is actually terrifying considering I don't like Horses.

[@spellboundbythedevil4743]

Your videos are Badass. And the narrator/host has the voice of an Angel. This is the Devil.

[@mootdamon]

Still wait for your uploads every Sunday morning ♡

[@aafreenkhan5267]

We will wait for your uploads!! Take your time for our good😉😉😉

[@PsychLing0]

Beautiful mind. This makes me happy.

[@tlo1216]

The horse of horses visualization is how I'm going to have to always describe fractasl in the future

[@Edgeman16]

Here I was hoping for a tour of the provinces. Ah well, good luck! I'll keep watching whatever you make.

[@thinkabout288]

RARE EARTH is always a class act thank you

[@ericvulgate]

any *new* building blocks for life that might develop would be consumed by life that already exists before they ever had a chance to blossom into anything.

[@wierdalien1]

Great point

[@morosis82]

Likely true, but the statement in the video is also worded badly. We haven't SEEN these blocks creating new life, but that doesn't mean it's not happening somewhere. We know oh so very little about our own planet.

[@robertgmorris4953]

Amazing to think that in 700 million years we've only been sending radio signals out for the last 150. No wonder it's so quiet out there!

[@angrybird29]

More people need to hear this.

[@BatmanSeRiedeTi]

That was your very best, i applaud you.

[@crowzur6055]

Small thing, but thanks so much for having proper subtitles on your videos :)

[@gaslitworldf.melissab2897]

Last year I stumbled upon the same conclusion. Just live.

[@lamesombre472]

Evolution does not necessarily promote complexity. There are very simple life forms that have been there for millions of years. And if they are less complex than us, they are also much more likely to survive longer. Our complexity requires us to have very specific conditions to survive.

[@matthieurouyer1826]

Hey Chris I'm a huge fan and I have been living in Hargeisa, Somaliland for a while now. Can't wait for next season in the Horn and if you drop by Hargeisa it would be my honour to introduce you to the town !

[@RareEarthSeries]

Hey Matthieu, I'd love to take you up on that. Can you send me an email at Evan (at) chrishadfield.ca? Thanks!

[@toolbar12423]

"You are the peak of existence. You are the most intelligent, adaptive, complex being that has ever been." >Literally still with mom, working 2 part times, and refuses to leave comfort zone of endless internet and videogames Thanks Rare Earth.

[@DannyQM]

Oh no I’ve run out of rare earth to binge, what do I do with my life

[@Sliverappl]

Just can’t stop noticed. Where is oldest record of life is at a place called “mistaken point”

[@okeanos2100]

This is the famous Ediacaran fauna of Avalonia. This is similar to the place where it was first discovered in Flinders Range in the Ediacaran Hills of South Australia.

[@mezarisage6055]

I would argue that the meaning to life isn't assigned, its created, we create our own meaning, and we're pretty good at it.

[@Sarah-zb]

That’s why Geology is my passion !!

[@247tubefan]

Chef Emeril Lagasse was cooking up some primordial soup which was getting pretty delicious when suddenly he said "BAM" and tossed in a little essence spice. At that moment the spark of life began. That's my story & I'm sticking to it.

[@FhtagnCthulhu]

Hey! Geology isn't boring! While this isn't quite the wording I'd use on everything, I really enjoyed seeing the Ediacaran tackled in a video like this, instead of the usual lecture-like stuff you get on deep time.

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

I studied Mistaken Point during my geology course at uni. It's _far_ from boring! You're so lucky to be so close to it. Not that I'm jealous. Much ;-)

[@macbuff81]

great narration style!

[@cyanstar4023]

There's no better place to talk about the meaning of life than at a place called Mistaken Point.

[@d.l.d.l.8140]

Love you man.

[@JoryBlake]

Bravo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@urf5rg4okjhgfzsdkjhd]

the best to francesco and the best to you. looking forward to your new videos. i need my fix of geopolitical history.

[@mybackhurts7020]

The theory that life came from somewhere else is hopeful because if we were created completely here on earth it raises the chance that we are completely alone in the universe