Report

Origin of the Earth

The age of Earth was once and still a matter of great debate. In 1650 Archbishop Ussher used the Bible to calculate that the Earth was created in 4004 B.C. Later on in the mid-nineteenth century Charles Darwin believed that Earth must be extremely old because he recognized hat natural selection and evolution required vast amount of time.

The history of the earth is a summary of the most important events and fundamental stages in the development and evolution that has taken place on the planet Earth from its formation. It covers the leading, most current scientific theories and nearly all branches of natural science have contributed to the understanding of the main events of the Earth’s past.

The formation of the Earth and the simultaneous formation of the Sun and other bodies of the solar system resulted from the contraction of a solar nebula.

• Solar Nebula-The Solar System formed from a large, rotating cloud of interstellar dust and gas orbiting the Milky Way’s galactic center. It was composed of hydrogen and helium gasses.

The nebula developed into a proto planetary disk with the Sun forming in its centre and the planets forming by accretion of material in orbit around it. The Earth was formed 10 million years after the beginning of the contraction. The age of the Earth has been determined to be 4.54 billion years corresponding approximately to one third of the age of the universe, and immense geological and biological changes and upheavals have occurred during that time span.

Heat meant that it was totally molten, and a differentiation took place, forming an inner core of the heaviest elements and mantle and proto-crust of the lighter elements. Around this time the Moon was formed, possibly by a giant impact between the Earth and a smaller planet. The Earth with an enormous amount of water that created the oceans, while volcanic activity and water vapor created an atmosphere, devoid...