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Published on:

6th Mar 2024

32: Pumping Iron

Where does humanity get most of its' iron, and what do these rocks tell us about the ancient Earth?

Today, we'll learn about banded iron formations, the backbone of the modern steel industry an important stop in the search for early life and oxygen, and a rock that is impossible to make today. It's rare to find a rock as important to both economics and research. Along the way, we'll take a breath of fresh air, meet orange pond scum in a forest stream, and find a dagger carved from a meteorite.

Extra Credit: Find as many steel objects as possible around you, or search for bog iron in a local swamp.

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Show artwork for Bedrock: Earth's Earliest History

About the Podcast

Bedrock: Earth's Earliest History
Explore Earth's history from the beginning.
This podcast starts at the beginning of Earth's prehistory and works forward through time. Bedrock will explore the first 90% of Earth’s past, a time known as the Precambrian Era. Before humans, before dinosaurs… there was the Precambrian.
The Earth was an incredibly alien world, but not a dead one.
Along the way, you will build a mental toolkit to see the world like a geologist. You will never look at a mountain, the moon, or pond scum in quite the same way again.

Welcome to Bedrock.
For transcripts, visuals, and references, check out https://www.bedrockpodcast.com