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The first eon in Earth's history, the Hadean, begins with the Earth's formation and is followed by the Archean eon at 3.8 Ga. [2]: 145 The oldest rocks found on Earth date to about 4.0 Ga, and the oldest detrital zircon crystals in rocks to about 4.4 Ga, [34] [35] [36] soon after the formation of the Earth's crust and the Earth
Animated story of life since about 13,700,000,000 shows everything from the Big Bang to the formation of Earth and the development of bacteria and other organisms to the ascent of man. Theory of the Earth and Abstract of the Theory of the Earth; Paleomaps Since 600 Ma (Mollweide Projection, Longitude 0) Archived 2012-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
According to evidence from radiometric dating and other sources, Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago. [7] [8] [9] The current dominant theory of planet formation suggests that planets such as Earth form in about 50 to 100 million years but more recently proposed alternative processes and timescales have stimulated ongoing debate in the planetary science community. [10]
Theory of the Earth is a publication by James Hutton which laid the foundations for geology. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] In it he showed that the Earth is the product of natural forces. What could be seen happening today, over long periods of time, could produce what we see in the rocks.
Due to the strength of Christian beliefs during the 17th century, the theory of the origin of the Earth that was most widely accepted was A New Theory of the Earth published in 1696, by William Whiston. [9] Whiston used Christian reasoning to "prove" that the Great Flood had occurred and that the flood had formed the rock strata of the Earth.
Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building') [1] is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago.
The expanding Earth or growing Earth was a hypothesis attempting to explain the position and relative movement of continents by increase in the volume of Earth. With the recognition of plate tectonics in 20th century, the idea has been abandoned.
The remaining 29.2% of Earth's crust is land, most of which is located in the form of continental landmasses within Earth's land hemisphere. Most of Earth's land is at least somewhat humid and covered by vegetation , while large sheets of ice at Earth's polar deserts retain more water than Earth's groundwater , lakes, rivers, and atmospheric ...