ORIGIN AND AGE OF THE EARTH

SOLAR NEBULA

Solar nebula was the rotating, flattened disk of gas

and dust from which the solar system originated.
• The cloud of interstellar dust and H
gas contracted under its own gravity
and our proto-Sun formed in the
hot dense centre.

• The remainder of the cloud formed a

swirling disk called solar nebula.
Two processes are important in planet formation:

• Condensation is the production of

solid dust grains as the gases in the solar
nebula cool.

• Accretion is the collision of the

dust grains to form clumps and
progressively larger bodies,
some of which grow into planets.
Planetary accretion model falls into two general categories

• Homogeneous accretion condensation of a nebula

followed by the accretion of
planets and other bodies
as the nebula continues to cool.

• Heterogeneous accretion condensation and accretion occur

at the same time.
 HOMOGENEOUS ACCRETION

• Condensation is essentially complete before accretion

begins (Taylor, 1999; Drake, 2000).

• Compositional zonation in the solar nebula is caused

by decreasing temperature outward from the Sun.
• Refractory oxides, metals, and Mg silicates are enriched
in the inner part of the cloud where Mercury accretes.

• Mg-Fe silicates and metal in the region from Venus

to the asteroids.

• Mixed silicates and ices in the outer part of the nebula

where the giant planets accrete.
The model produced a good match between predicted
and observed planetary compositions.
 HEAT SOURCES TO MELT THE PLANETS AND ASTEROIDS

Accretional energy Impact velocities and input energy

Gravitational collapse Minerals undergo changes to phases

Radioactive isotopes
Radiogenic heat sources

Core formation Strongly exothermic process

 HETEROGENOUS ACCRETION

• Simultaneous condensation and accretion of various compounds

as the temperature falls in an originally hot solar nebula (Ringwood, 1979).

• The product is a zoned planet (Grossman, 1972).

• Cooling the gas as dissipation proceeds results in condensation
over a range of temperatures.

• Sequence of compounds condensed from the nebula at a pressure

of 10–4 atm is summarized in Table
Heterogeneous accretion should produce a
planet with –

• high-temperature refractory components in the center.

• overlain sequentially by metal, various silicates, compounds with oxidized

iron, and hydrated silicates–oxides and ices.

• At the surface there should be a deep magma ocean.

Problems with heterogeneous model—

• Large degree of overlap in the condensation temperatures given in Table 10.4.

• Also, the model predicts an Earth with a small core of Ca-Al-Ti oxides,
which is not consistent with geophysical data.
 AGE OF THE EARTH

• Long-lived radiogenic isotopes can be useful in constraining

the timing of accretionary events

• Accretion fractionates the parent from the daughter isotope.

• From the amount of daughter isotope present ages of early

fractionation events can be estimated.
• The first isotopic ages of the Earth were model Pb ages of
about 4.55 Ga obtained from sediments and oceanic basalts.

• The model Pb ages indicates that the first

major differentiation event in the Earth
occurred about 4.45 Ga.

• The Allende meteorite are the oldest

dated objects in the solar system at 4566 Ma.
• The 182Hf/182W method suggest that bodies in the inner part of the
solar system all formed in the first 30 My after accretion began.

• Earth’s growth was in the first 10 My, and it

was 80 to 90% complete by 30 My
after time zero (about 4525 Ma).
• The oldest ages of rocks dated from the Moon are about 4450 Ma.

• Model ages suggest that the Moon accreted 4500 to 4480 Ma.

• Hf isotopic data, however, suggest that the

Moon formed about 30 My after solar system
formation.

• The impact occurred from 4530 to 4520 Ma.

• The first major melting
event from 4450 to 4400 Ma is 75 to 100 My.

• Early atmosphere must have been

lost at or before 4500 Ma.

• The magma ocean rapidly cooled,

the outer part of the Earth
would have solidified.

• Intense bombardment of the inner

solar system about 3900 Ma,
little of this early crust survives.