SUMMER 2025 | 11 Two geoscientists and former Lehigh classmates from the Class of 1973 examine clues hidden deep in rocks and soil to explore the history of life on Earth. BENEATH Andrew Knoll ’73 was on top of the world, literally, when he began collecting rocks that would begin pinning down dates for the development of life on Earth. He and colleagues cruised in a 30-foot boat around the remote island of Spitsbergen, halfway between Norway and the North Pole, sampling from ancient reefs of fossilized microorganisms created over 600 million years ago. “It turns out that we live on a planet that records its own history,” Knoll says, “and that history is largely found in sedimentary rocks laid down one bed atop another over time.” Since that time four decades ago, Knoll has become one of the foremost geoscientists to establish that history, deducing the environmental factors that have led to booms and busts of species over a timeline of more than 3 billion years. Now Fisher Research Professor of Natural History at Harvard University, he isn’t the only Lehigh alum who has explored the secrets hidden beneath our feet— or even the only Lehigh alum from his graduation year. His classmate Daniel Richter ’73, Theodore S. Coile Distinguished Professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, has examined soils and sediments of more recent origins to show how humans have impacted the planet. Together, their work stretches from the beginning of life on Earth to the present moment, using tools of geoscience to show how that history still impacts us today. OUR FEET story by MICHAEL BLANDING
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