Concept of "Mother" Earth

Note: Only some of these thoughts are mine, a few thoughts were based on discussions with others this past week, a few others are extracts swiped from articles, quotes on the internet, as well as from books.

Is Mars tectonically dormant? That is the question.

Seems like there is enough evidence that "Life" on earth was largely shaped by the planet's geological activity. This is what I refer to as the concept of "Mother" Earth -- As a mother shapes the life of her child, so as our planet's geological activity shaped life as we know it. On one end of spectrum, life has probably evolved and thrived on this planet due it's tectonic activity, and on the other end, our religion, customs & traditions have been shaped by this activity as well.

We know that life requires three main ingredients: a solvent (water), structure (carbon compounds) and energy. Life needs access to these key ingredients -- hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulphur. These elements support the basic chemistry of life as we know it. They must be regulated and replenished. Nature's method of achieving this on the Earth appears to be plate tectonics.

Major factor for Life is the recycling of carbon, which is needed to stabilize the temperature here on Earth (contrast with Venus's runaway greenhouse effect). Plate tectonics is known to regulate the carbon cycle on this planet: Carbon is washed out of the atmosphere and digested by bacteria in the soil and pushed deep into the interior of the planet from where it can be outcast through volcanic activity. Tectonics is probably "that" crucial phenomenon that helps release gases from the core and determines how much of an atmosphere a planet has. Our planet's tectonic activity has also helped in creating the magnetic field that shields us from harmful radiation.

On the other end of the spectrum, how about the planet's geological activity shaping human life? Didn't the integrated religion of Vaishnavism* arise after the cataclysmic events in 11,000 BP**? Didn't the atheistic beliefs of Buddhism and Jainism arise during the great drought of 3800 BP that lasted for nearly three centuries (when people effectively lost faith in God)?.

Our living planet is continually shaping it's destiny.

How about Mars? Some say that Mars - unlike Earth - is too small and has too cold an interior to host plate tectonic processes. Some other analysis suggested that Mars's tectonic activities are excruciatingly slow, with major tectonic shifts occurring about every million years or so. Researchers suspect that Mars is subject to a different kind of plate tectonics — one that may be the result of the planet just having two plates, as contrasted with Earth's seven.

Actually, there is another interesting element to this story. Many within the planetary science community believe that to have plate tectonics, the near-surface rock must be weakened. The molecule most effective at doing this is H2O -- water. So worlds with plate tectonics are likely to have water as well, which means they feature two ingredients theoretically necessary for life. Beautiful! Isn't it?

*Vaishnavism = precursor to Hindusim as we know it in the modern era
**BP = Before Present