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Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago by accretion from the solar nebula, a disk-shaped mass of dust and gas left over from the formation of the Sun, which also created the rest of the Solar System. Initially, Earth was molten due to extreme volcanism and frequent collisions with other bodies.
Most of Earth's land hosts vegetation, [110] but considerable amounts of land are ice sheets (10%, [111] not including the equally large area of land under permafrost) [112] or deserts (33%). [113] The pedosphere is the outermost layer of Earth's land surface and is composed of soil and subject to soil formation processes. Soil is crucial for ...
The geological time scale (GTS), as defined by international convention, [3] depicts the large spans of time from the beginning of Earth to the present, and its divisions chronicle some definitive events of Earth history. Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago, approximately one-third the age of the universe, by accretion from the solar nebula.
Here's a Map that Puts All Earth's Land Mass in the Shape of a Chicken. Zach Everson. Updated September 22, 2016 at 2:13 PM. Getty Images.
By the time Pangaea broke up, in the Middle Jurassic, the seas swarmed with molluscs (particularly ammonites), [41] ichthyosaurs, sharks and rays, and the first ray-finned bony fishes, while life on land was dominated by forests of cycads and conifers in which dinosaurs flourished and in which the first true mammals had appeared. [42] [43]
The geologic time scale is a way of representing deep time based on events that have occurred throughout Earth's history, a time span of about 4.54 ± 0.05 Ga (4.54 billion years). [3] It chronologically organises strata, and subsequently time, by observing fundamental changes in stratigraphy that correspond to major geological or ...
4.5 billion years ago, Earth experienced a cataclysmic rendezvous with a planet named Theia. Evidence of the impact is still buried deep within the Earth.
An image of Afro-Eurasia, the largest landmass on Earth. A landmass, or land mass, is a large region or area of land that is in one piece and not noticeably broken up by oceans. [1] [2] The term is often used to refer to lands surrounded by an ocean or sea, such as a continent or a large island.