Evolution of Earth
The evolution of this planet and its atmosphere gave rise to life, which shaped Earth’s subsequent development. Our future lies in interpreting this geologic past and considering what changes–good and bad–may lie ahead
Lets go back to the past four billion 600 million years ago our earth didn’t exist yet there was only a newly formed proto Sun and a ring of gas and dust an incredibly beautiful sight but we’re interested in something a little different fast-forward time a little bit ahead four billion 540 million years ago our planet was formed back then it was about as far from inhabitable as possible the conditions on earth were really hellish instead of the usual landscapes .
There was a sea of fire from a molten rock there were radioactive elements all around and the surface temperature reached 4,700 degrees Celsius that’s about 8500 degrees Fahrenheit instead of air there was carbon dioxide nitrogen sulfur and water vapour instead of solid land magmatic oceans add to that the constant bombardment from large asteroids and you get a picture that’s more like the end of the earth than its beginning after several million years as the result of a collision with a young planet called Theia the moon was gradually formed one day back then lasted about six hours with such a short day having time for anything would be simply impossible
it’s good that the work date did exist yet from about 4 billion 100 million years ago to three billion eight hundred million years ago. the late heavy bombardment hit the earth a huge number of asteroids, some scientists suggest that at this time there were already oceans on earth despite its high temperature honestly I barely believe it but Who am I to argue with scientists it was the asteroids that helped the planet gradually become covered with water.
according to one theory the asteroids carried with them a tiny amount of life-giving moisture and delivered it to earth that’s how over billions of years about half of the water of the world ocean came to earth from space after the bombing ended that is about three billion eight hundred million years ago the temperature of the earth began to slowly decline but current life forms couldn’t survive on the planet’s surface anyway because there was no oxygen in its atmosphere and there was no ozone layer to block ultraviolet radiation however there are fossils which are about three billion five hundred million years old which means that life on Earth could have arisen much earlier than.
we used to think from three billion two hundred million to two billion eight hundred million years ago almost the entire surface of the planet was occupied by a shallow ocean the temperature of which ranged from 55 to 88 degrees Celsius that’s 131 to 190 Fahrenheit however microorganisms were already inhabiting this hot water the land was only volcanic islands which were slowly growing over time just imagine how hot it was the days began to lengthen and about two billion five hundred million years ago the first supercontinent kenner land began to form so let’s fast forward a little one billion 500 million years ago Earth days now lasted at least 16 hours though complex organisms still didn’t exist
but lithospheric plates continued moving and after 400 million years created another supercontinent Rodinia and after some time Pangaea about 650 million years ago according to popular theory our planet was a snowball literally this theory is called snowball earth scientists assume that everything was completely covered with ice and even the Equator was as cold as modern Antarctica it’s scary to even think what the temperature was at the poles at this time but even under a thick layer of ice the planet maintained a fairly high temperature no ice age can kill volcanoes and the carbon dioxide from their eruptions which accumulated in the atmosphere gradually melted the glaciers this melting released a huge amount of oxygen which forever changed the planet
about 541 million years ago the Cambrian explosion occurred temperatures rising to 30 degrees Celsius or 86 Fahrenheit and a record concentration of oxygen caused a huge number of living organisms to emerge the biological diversity was so impressive that some creatures even developed exoskeletons to protect themselves from being eaten by others researchers believe that almost all of the existing types of animals appeared during this period the length of the day now reached 22 hours 450 million years ago plants and arthropods began to actively conquer the land 419 million years ago the first insects appeared about 300 million years ago most of our planet was occupied by swamps many scientists such as professor Frederick rich this view but the swamps of antiquity were not like modern ones some plants reached 30 meters in height that’s about a hundred feet and giant insects flew everywhere this was thanks to the high oxygen concentration be glad that our modern dragonflies huge ancestors didn’t survive to this day seriously that wouldn’t be the most pleasant replacement for pigeons 252 million years ago the Permian Triassic extinction event took place destroyed 96% of marine species and 73 percent of terrestrial vertebrate species most likely numerous eruptions became the cause of extinction the air was filled with ash and carbon dioxide there was little sunlight plus lava was flowing everywhere anyone could die in this environment dinosaurs then arrived to replace the destroyed species but not only did huge dinosaurs divide the planet among themselves the continents also moved about 175 million years ago Pangaea began breaking up the Atlantic and other oceans appeared and the world began taking on its current form than we see today.
at this time you could find the first pine trees preying mantises and bees 50 million years ago the power over the planet was then passed on to mammals without dinosaurs they began feeling freedom actively spreading around the planet and evolving with all their might meanwhile the length of the day had reached almost 24 hours and the temperature stable remained near the 24 degrees Celsius mark that’s about 75 Fahrenheit .
About 8 to 4 million years ago according to scientists an important split occur the ancestors of modern Apes began separating from our ancestors each heading down their own evolutionary path about four million years ago the climate on the planet once again changed of course this didn’t happen right away but it was the climate that turned part of the dense forest into the savanna according to one theory this is what made our distant ancestors climb down from the trees stand up straight and start looking for food they were not the only particular species that began fighting for survival many tried to adapt to the changes but in the end only humans succeeded to the degree that they went on to invent tools the wheel in him Netflix 1 million four hundred thousand years ago Homo erectus began to colonize Eurasia 790 thousand years ago they already knew how to use fire what the population of the earth was exactly during this period is rather difficult to calculate you know the population census at that time wasn’t very good and then about three hundred thousand years ago Homo sapiens appeared the reasoning human they appeared and began to populate the entire earth so actively that they still can’t stop,
if about 130 thousand years ago the number of our ancestors range from between 100 to 300 thousand individuals then already 40 thousand years ago the expansion of reasoning human beings covered almost the entire planet today the world’s population is seven billion eight hundred million people and continues to grow however the planet is changing along with its people so who knows what turn of history awaits us in the future if you liked the video give it a thumbs up don’t forget to subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already done so and click on the bell to receive notifications of new interesting videos that are waiting for you ahead until next time.
Plate tectonics shift the continents, raise mountains and move the ocean floor while processes not fully understood alter the climate.
Such constant change has characterized Earth since its beginning some 4.5 billion years ago. From the outset, heat and gravity shaped the evolution of the planet. These forces were gradually joined by the global effects of the emergence of life. Exploring this past offers us the only possibility of understanding the origin of life and, perhaps, its future.
Scientists used to believe the rocky planets, including Earth, Mercury, Venus and Mars, were created by the rapid gravitational collapse of a dust cloud, a deation giving rise to a dense orb. In the 1960s the Apollo space program changed this view. Studies of moon craters revealed that these gouges were caused by the impact of objects that were in great abundance about 4.5 billion years ago. Thereafter, the number of impacts appeared to have quickly decreased. This observation rejuvenated the theory of accretion postulated by Otto Schmidt. The Russian geophysicist had suggested in 1944 that planets grew in size gradually, step by step.
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