Geophysicist Robert Hazen doubts that "people fully appreciate the extent to which life has played a role in geology, how the biosphere and the geosphere co-evolved." For example:
[T]wo-thirds of all the minerals on Earth were formed as a consequence of the biosphere. They were the consequence of life, because life produces oxygen and oxygen then alters everything at and near Earth's surface. This creates literally thousands of new minerals that are simply the consequence of oxygen reacting with earlier generations of minerals. This process changed Earth in a way that no other known planet. Mars has maybe 500 mineral species; Mercury has no more than 350 mineral species. On Venus you might get up to 1,000-1,500. Earth's much higher tally is a consequence of life.
The Dish 