What would Earth be like with little accessible iron?

[Swordfry]

Forgive me if I am posting in the wrong place. I am doing research for a book I am working on and have found no other geology forums of any kind. So please know this is just foe brainstorming, a theoretical question.

What woud Earth be like if it had very little accessible iron? There is still plenty of iron to sustain things, like the planet core and the iron found in living beings. But most of the iron is located a good ways underground, so it is in no way a good resource for the residents of this fictional Earth.

How would this affect the planet? Would it look different? How so?

Again, this is all just speculative talk here so I hope some of you can humor me for the sake of getting some research for my books done. Thanks.

 

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[Nitric]

The earth without iron is hard to even imagine. No sky scrapers, railway,plows,cars,planes,ships or industrial revolution are first thoughts. I think it would look very different. Iron oxide also gives us color in our soils, paints, cosmetics and I'm sure many other things.

I wonder if we would even have electricity without it? No steel pipes to carry water or gas, or even drill rigs, we would still have wood or clay pipes, maybe?

 

[Swordfry]

The earth without iron is hard to even imagine. No sky scrapers, railway,plows,cars,planes,ships or industrial revolution are first thoughts. I think it would look very different. Iron oxide also gives us color in our soils, paints, cosmetics and I'm sure many other things.

I wonder if we would even have electricity without it? No steel pipes to carry water or gas, or even drill rigs, we would still have wood or clay pipes, maybe?

Thanks for the reply.

I should have made clear that I meant like geographical differences, like the landscape, how the planet would actually be. I am not worried about advanced technologies because this world I am creating is still very primitive.

 

[Nitric]

Thanks for the reply.

I should have made clear that I meant like geographical differences, like the landscape, how the planet would actually be. I am not worried about advanced technologies because this world I am creating is still very primitive.

Makes sense, since its in the geology forum! I don't know enough about how it structures the landscape naturally. Color? would magnetic pulls have any effect? Would the earth have the same magnetic pulls? Would weather or plate movement(tectonics?) be different? Or is that all the same? If not, That would change the landscape. I'll stop there since I have no clue about any of it. lol I don't know enough about it to even make stuff up... No lightning? Are there any effects from iron in water and how it forms the landscape?

Fun to think about though!

 

[Eu_citzen]

Well, a fair amount of minerals do sport iron in their atomic structure, so a few minerals would not exist.. Or be rather rare, at least.

Volcanoes, like those spewing magnetite lava (iron-rich lava) would not exist. Probably the face of some part of Chile would be quite different due to that.

The landscape of Australia could be quite different, to. Due to Iron-rich sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, which would not exist.

The effects in geography, I speculate, would be rather local. Perhaps if you do a few case studies would be beneficial.
Focusing on say more local differences. If you'd assume the iron-content as the same mass as it has at present time, just being deeper down, it could affect the magnetosphere.
(See "iron catastrophe")

Another side-effect would be quicker leaching of heavy metals. Bogs often contain bog ore (i.e. limonite, iron-hydroxide) which is an efficient collector of heavy metals.
That may affect all living things in a in-direct way, causing water to transport a larger amount of those metals.

 

[stdenis_jd]

This would create a major problem physiologically in all animals. Iron is a main component of hemoglobin (note the prefix hemo) and since red blood cells die and are replaced every week or so, getting enough in our diets could result in an adaptation of sorts. Lower hemoglobin in people results in lower oxygen -carrying capability resulting in fatigue, pallor, etc. The entire animal kingdom would probably be significantly weaker or have evolved to have a longer blood cell life span or a different mineral entirely could be replaced o take the place of iron. Just a thought (not geologic in nature, more physiological but hope it helps).

 

[hvacker]

Maybe the occupants would have evolved with blue blood like those crabs. Now this is something I know nothing about.

 

[rodoconnor]

This would create a major problem physiologically in all animals. Iron is a main component of hemoglobin (note the prefix hemo) and since red blood cells die and are replaced every week or so, getting enough in our diets could result in an adaptation of sorts. Lower hemoglobin in people results in lower oxygen -carrying capability resulting in fatigue, pallor, etc. The entire animal kingdom would probably be significantly weaker or have evolved to have a longer blood cell life span or a different mineral entirely could be replaced o take the place of iron. Just a thought (not geologic in nature, more physiological but hope it helps).

Anthropologically speaking, there would be no development of tools, agriculture, etc. Man couldn't rise out of the stone age.

 

[stdenis_jd]

Anthropologically speaking, there would be no development of tools, agriculture, etc. Man couldn't rise out of the stone age.

Mostly true, but there are other resources that could take iron's place in an abstract way. Obsidian makes the sharpest cutting surface known to man (from what I've heard) and has been used by Native Americans for centuries, as well as surgeons nowadays. But yeah, like you said, progressing out of the stone age would take some imagination for sure, if possible at all.

Makes me wonder (@ the OP), what is the approximate makeup of the earth's crust of iron? Must be pretty high percentage so what would take it's place? For instance, if iron makes up 5% of the earth's crust, would your earth be 5% smaller or have 5% more silicates, water, etc? That could be an interesting twist...have aluminum take over iron's role. Or gold :-D

 

[Swordfry]

Thank you all for the feedback. I appreciate you humoring me with this. Just please keep in mind this is a fictional world for a fantasy series I am creating. Let me address a few things:

1. I really intended for this planet to not be very rich in metal at all, but mostly iron.

2. Any metal would be plentiful for some basic things to function still. Like enough iron in the planet core and at the poles. And also there would be no concern for any living beings to have any deficiencies with iron or any other metallic mineral. There is just not enough accessible iron to be used on a large scale as a main resource.

3. This fictional Earth I am creating is in a permanent "extended stone age," using our own Earth terms. There is barely any metallurgy, but the people are still advanced. These people really heavily on trees, which there are much more of than hobs on Earth, including many enhanced by natural parasites making extra hard, faster growing trees. Another huge resource is the sea. This world's oceans are full of freakishly big sea creatures, mostly crustaceans and mollusks. The shells and exoskeletons of these are used for a variety of things. It is actually funny the number of uses I have come up for for extra durable sea shells, lol. The shores of this fictional Earth look to be right out of a fantasy scene, filled with hundreds of sea shells of all shapes and sizes. It is like rocky shores, but with shells instead of rocks.


And would this rule out obs

 

[Swordfry]

And would this rule out obsidian in this world? I thought obsidian only existed near volcanoes which one of you said could not happen here.

(Sorry, typing this on my stupid tablet and it keeps acting up.)

 

[Eu_citzen]

No, obsidian can occur. Obsidian is volcanic glass, formed from when lava cools quickly.

 

[hvacker]

The question is why would we have evolved needing an element that was unavailable? I think the approach to this question should be what way could we exist without iron. I think the answer is how other inhabitants did. I can imagine other planets having creatures that evolved very differently based on what was available to live.

 

[G.I.B.]

Life would have evolved making use of whatever was readily available.

 

[hvacker]

Life would have evolved making use of whatever was readily available.

Exactly