650 Million Years Ago

Glacial deposits in ancient rock layers suggest that the planet experienced an extreme ice age during the Neoproterozoic,
900 Million Years Ago with glaciers reaching from the poles to the equator. Scientists debate whether the oceans froze all the way to the seafloor
during this “snowball” period, or if only the continents were covered with ice while equatorial oceans were cold but open
While Pangaea remains the best known supercontinent, Earth has seen waters. Rock layers also show that around 635 million years ago, Earth was creating materials called cap carbonates, which
several form and break apart over the epochs. Rodinia (from the Russian only form in warm waters. So what finally melted the snowball? One theory says that volcanoes, powered by the continuing
word for “to give birth”) was one of the earliest assemblies to include almost motions of tectonic plates, spewed carbon dioxide back into the air. Normally this CO2 would react with rocks in a process
all of the continents we have today. While geologists agree that Rodinia existed, called chemical weathering. But with so much land encased in ice, the gas was able to accumulate in the atmosphere,
there are at least a dozen plausible models for what it looked like. No matter its exact allowing the average global temperature to rise.
form, the supercontinent began to break apart about 800 million years ago. Simulations
suggest that the breakup involved high rates of continental weathering, which soaked 170 Million Years Ago
uploads of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A dramatic reduction in this
greenhouse gas caused Earth to flip from a relatively warm climate to a “snowball” By the time the supercontinent Pangaea began
world encased in ice. to break apart, all major life groups were
present in the land and sea. Vicious marine
reptiles dominated the tropical waters of the
Tethys Ocean, which separated the two main l
2.8 to 2.2 Billion Years Ago And masses of Laurasia and Gondwana.
Volcanic activity along the shifting plate
By this time, young Earth had formed the first oceans and boundaries filled the air with carbon dioxide,
continents, and tectonic plates had started to move. creating globally high temperatures with no
The atmosphere was rich in methane and nitrogen permanent ice caps at the poles. Many familiar
and had virtually no oxygen. With no protective ozone dinosaur species (although not Tyrannosaurus
layer, harsh radiation from the Sun probably made life on rex, which would not appear until about 100
land sparse. But early microbial life flourished in the oceans. million years later) roamed a world covered
Photosynthetic cyanobacteria were producing oxygen, which in diverse ferns and coniferous trees.
enriched the ocean water. Over time, that oxygen also began Early mammals scampered in the trees,
leaking into the atmosphere. This shift in atmospheric and in the late Jurassic, the first birds took to
composition laid the groundwork for today’s forms the skies.
of complex life to emerge.

HISTORY Earth Today

4.6 to 4 Billion Years Ages

OF Since about 8,000 years ago, our planet has
been in a warmer interglacial period. Ice caps
are mostly confined to the poles, and ocean

The very early Earth was a hellish place. Planetary leftovers from across
the solar system rained down on our young world, and the constant impacts
EARTH and atmospheric currents create a diversity of
climate conditions across the globe. Over the
past century, human activity has released
probably kept most of the surface molten. One especially large collision tore enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the
off a chunk of the newborn Earth to form the moon. Zircons found in Greenland atmosphere, largely from the burning of fossil
and Australia are among the oldest rocks known, at about 4.3 billion years. But the fuels. This is triggering changes to our climate
planet’s surface actually cooled quickly, forming an even earlier crust that is now lost that, while akin to the natural changes of the
to time. Within a few hundred million years, surface temperatures began to enter the past, are more rapid than anything Earth has
range of those on modern Earth. seen before. The average global temperature
has risen by 1.4°F since 1880, a seemingly subtle
shift that a growing body of research can link
to dramatic changes in rainfall, ocean chemistry
and sea levels.