1. Origin of the Universe 2. Origin of the Solar System 3. Origin of the Sun 4. Origin of the Earth 5. Pre-historic Earth 6. Continental Theories

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2. ▪ Human beings have been around for only
the past 2 M I L L I O N Y E AR S .
MANKIND: 0.043% of Earth’s history.
ORGANISMS: 15% of Earth's history
4.6 BILLION YEARS OLD
The Earth has evolved (changed)
throughout its history, and will
continue to evolve

3. ▪ Time Scale Difficulty
▪ 1 Million years seems way into the past,
however to geologists, it is a relatively
short period of time
4.6 BILLION YEARS OLD
Look at the processes and
structures that occur today and
interpret what must have happened
in the past.

4. ● We're part of it. Dust to Dust.
● Energy and Mineral resources that we
depend on for our lifestyle come from the
Earth.
● Geologic Hazards (e.g. earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, hurricanes,
landslides) could affect us at any time
● Curiosity

7. ▪ During this process, light elements, like H, He, Li, B, and Be formed. From this point in
time, the universe began to expand and has been expanding ever since.

8. ▪ During this process, light elements, like H, He, Li, B, and Be formed. From this point in
time, the universe began to expand and has been expanding ever since.
▪ Gravity was pulling clumps of gas and heating them until the first star burst into life

9. ▪ During this process, light elements, like H, He, Li, B, and Be formed. From this point in
time, the universe began to expand and has been expanding ever since.
▪ Gravity was pulling clumps of gas and heating them until the first star burst into life
▪ Concentrations of gas and dust within the
universe eventually became galaxies
consisting of millions of stars.
▪ Within the larger stars, nuclear fusion
processes eventually created heavier
elements, like C, Si, Ca, Mg, K, and Fe.

10. 11 Billion years ago, galaxies merged to former a larger one,
including the milky way galaxy
Hundreds of billions of stars were formed,
however, our sun was not yet born.

11. Stars eventually collapse and explode
during an event called a
During a supernova, heavier elements,
from Fe to U, are formed.

12. Formation of the Solar System
Throughout galaxies clusters of gas attracted by
gravity start to rotate and accrete to form stars and
solar systems. For our solar system this occurred
about 4.6 billion years ago.

13. Rising star, The Sun
A ball at the center grows dense and hot,
eventually nuclear fusion reactions start and
the sun is born

14. Rings of gas and dust
orbiting around the sun
eventually condenses
into small particles.
These particles are
attracted to one
another and larger
bodies called
begin to form.

15. Planetesimals accumulate into a larger
mass. An irregularly-shaped proto-
Earth develops.

16. The Sculpting of Earth
4.6 – 4.0 Billion years ago

17. As the Earth formed, it was
incredibly hot from
1. Gravitational compaction
2. Impact energy converted
to heat
3. Heat from radioactive
decay

18. Earth became layered according to density.
1. The heaviest material like iron sank to the core
toward the center
2. Lighter rocky components remained on the
surface to form a crust
3. Gaseous material escapes from earth's interior,
producing primitive atmosphere or the Earth’s
magnetic field. Without it, Earth would be
blasted by harmful rays from the sun.

19. The Earth, chiefly molten
material, would have been
rounded by the force of gravity,
and would have resembled a ball
of lava floating in space, with high
amounts of volcanism.

20. A small planetoid, Theia, collided with
Earth at tremendous speed. Debris
forms a ring around the Earth.The
debris coalesces and forms the Moon.
After delivering a glancing blow to
Earth, gravity pulls this object into orbit.
It has remained in orbit ever since.
Giant Impact Hypothesis

21. T h e i a
P r o t o - E a r t h
Giant Impact The Earth
and Moon
Formation
of Moon

22. ▪ Earth was hit by asteroids, comets and foreign objects left, right and center.
▪ Some scientists believe that water originated from the bombardment of
comets at this time.
▪ There’s reason to believe that these collisions could have sparked the
chemical building blocks for life – DNA.

23. Earth Cooling and Primitive Life
4.0 – 2.5 Billion years ago

24. As the moon’s orbit drags
the Earth, it slowed Earth’s
rotation significantly from
6 hour days to 24 hours.

25. As the moon’s orbit drags
the Earth, it slowed Earth’s
rotation significantly from
6 hour days to 24 hours.
By having the moon in orbit, it also
stabilized the Earth from wobbling.
But most importantly, the collision of the moon
tilted Earth on its axis. And because the Earth is
tilted on its axis, Earth now had seasons.

26. Eventually, the climate on Earth became more stable in the Archean
Eon. Instead of a molten state, the Earth started to cool down. Water
vapor condensed to form oceans.

27. During this period, plate building blocks known as
cratons, which are essentially giant rock cores,
started to come together and rise to the surface.
1) VAALBARA: 3.6 to 2.8 BYA
▪ A supercontinent simply because it was all alone on our planet - any
explorers visiting Earth would have seen a single brownish dot against
all the blue.
▪ Today, Vaalbara is spread between two cratons - the Kaapvaal craton in
southern Africa and the Pilbara craton in northwestern Australia.
▪ Scientists suspect Vaalbara's existence because rocks ejected from
these cratons are some of the oldest in the world, and there are a
number of geological clues that the two cratons were once together.

28. Kaapvaal
(located mainly in
South Africa)
Pilbara
(same named region in
Western Australia)

29. 2) Ur: 3 BYA
▪ Ur was smaller than any of today's
continents, but it may well have spent many
millions of years as the only continent on our
planet, with nothing but some tiny islands to
keep it company.
▪ Ur lives on as part of India, Madagascar,
and Australia.
▪ This earthly formation is half a billion years
younger than Vaalbara but it is not believed
that Ur is not a continuation of Vaalbara nor
a successor

30. 3) KENORLAND: 2.7 BYA
▪ Kenorland formed after the merger of
several cratons (including Kaapval and
Pilbara)
▪ Kenorland likely existed around the equator,
and probably had about a hundred million
years as the Earth's dominant landmass.
Kenorland broke up around 2.3 billion years
ago, creating a massive spike in rainfall.

31. KENORLAND
This in turn caused a decrease of greenhouse gases
like carbon dioxide, which wasn't helped by the fact that
the Sun itself was weaker then than it is now, at only
about 85% its present power.

32. The entire planet spent millions
of years at below freezing
temperatures. It wouldn't be the
last time a breakup of a
supercontinent wreaked massive
environmental consequences.

33. 4) COLUMBIA: 1.8 - 1.5 BYA
▪ The first "proper" supercontinent was probably
Columbia
▪ It had a land mass of roughly 50 million square
kilometers - still quite a bit less than our
modern total of about 150 million, but still pretty
immense.
▪ From this point on, the picture stars to get a lot
clearer, as we reach the first supercontinent
that geologists are absolutely certain about.

34. 5) RODINIA: 1.1 BYA – 750 MYA
▪ Formed out of the long-dispersed remnants of
Columbia, along with additional cratons and
pieces of crust that had risen up in the
hundreds of millions of years
▪ No definite image on what Rodinia looked like,
but it was big, was probably located almost
entirely south of the equator, and began to
break apart roughly 550 million years ago..

35. This breakup was one of the most important and
cataclysmic events in our planet's history.
1) Created another Snowball Earth
2) Completely devoid of life, as all organisms
still lived in the oceans
3) Opened up new oceans and caused the sea
beds to rise, creating shallower seas that
offered the much-needed stepping stone for
animals and plants to make their way onto
land
4) Created massive volcanic explosions, which
likely shot rich nutrients from beneath the
Earth into the oceans.

36. 6) PANNOTIA: 650 – 540 MYA
▪ The formation of Pannotia was associated
with the break up of Rodinia into Proto-
Gondwana and Proto-Laurasia.
▪ Since the major part of the land in those days
was just near the poles, it is believed that the
glaciations reached its peak just about 600
mya.
▪ Two proto-oceans that surrounded the
supercontinent during the maximum
convergence :
1. Panthalassa ocean
2. Pan-African ocean

37. 6) PANNOTIA: 650 – 540 MYA
At the end of its existence, Pannotia
broke up into these continents:
Gondwana, Baltica, Siberia and
Laurentia. These continents will later
form the last supercontinent at this
moment.

38. 7) PANGAEA: 300 MYA
▪ Pangaea existed in the late Paleozoic and early
Mesozoic 300 mya.
▪ At that time, the supercontinent united all
modern continents into one.
▪ Many of today’s mountain ranges were formed
at the time of collision of continents and
lithospheric plates.
▪ The outlines of Pangaea are the most accurate
since the existence of the supercontinent is not
ancient as that of the previous ones.

39. 7) PANGAEA: 300 MY
At the end of its existence, Pangaea split
into Northern and Southern continents —
Laurasia and Gondwana.
Modern Eurasia and North America
formed from Laurasia and Africa, South
America, India, Australia and Antarctica
formed from Gondwana respectively.

40. 8) MODERN EARTH
Modern Earth is the result of many
complex geological and physical
processes.
The form that the Earth took in the
last periods of its existence has
enabled the existence of life on
Earth.

41. Vaalbara Ur Columbia/NunaKenorland
Pannotia Pangea PresentLaurasia &
Gondnawa
Rodinia

42. Processes that are operating during the
present are the same processes that
have operated in the past. i.e. the
present is the key to the past. If we look
at processes that occur today, we can
infer that the same processes operated
in the past.

43. September 30: 3.8 billion years ago: Photosynthesis
December 5: 0.8 billion years ago: Multi-cellular life
December 20: 0.45 billion years ago: Land Plants
December 25: 0.23 billion years ago: Dinosaurs
December 30: 0.065 billion years ago: Dinosaur Extinction
December 31, 12 AM: 40 million years ago: Dawn of the primates
● 14:24 hrs – Primitive Humans were born.
● 22:24 hrs – Stone tools were used by humans and fire was domesticated.
● 23:59 hrs, 48 sec – The Pyramids were built by the Egyptians.
● 23:59 hrs, 54 sec – Buddha was born and the Roman Empire was formed.
● 23:59 hrs, 55 sec – Christ was born, which marked the beginning of the
Roman calendar (0 AD).
● 23:59 hrs, 58 sec – Christopher Columbus discovered America
● 23:59 hrs, 59 sec– The world as we know it…