One of the reasons we care about this is because
this process turns biomatter into inorganic
material. In particular, we care about tracking the
carbon.
Previously in this class we have talked about
converting inorganic
carbon into organic carbon (living organisms). This
not only happened 3.8 billion years ago -- it is
still going on! It must be, since organic carbon is
gradually turning into inorganic carbon in the
deposition of carbonate rocks.
These two steps are part of the carbon cycle.