History of the Earth

The Great Ball of Fire

4500 BCE

Earth is currently a molten ball of rock, being formed by comets and meteors. There is no life on Earth at this point in time.

The Cooling

4400 BCE

The Earth is still being bombarded by comets and meteors, but the core has started to cool. The cooling rocks started the formation of water. The Earth now has a solid surface and the beginnings of water.

Venusian Earth

4000 BCE

Thick clouds have started to form Earth's atmosphere, composed mainly of CO2. The average surface temperature was 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The Earth's water came from this time, as is rained for millions of years covering 90% of the surface with water. These oceans were green, rich with mainly Iron.

Granite Appears

3400 BCE

Granite is just starting to form our continental crust and our continents. The oceans are still green and rich with Iron. This also when the first fossils of Trilobites started to appear.

Granite Continents

2500 BCE

The oceans no longer ruled the surface, granite continents started to form. Single-cell lifeforms started to evolve. Stromatolites dominated the new land and began creating O2, this caused the Iron in the oceans to rust turning them blue.

Earth's Engine

1500 BCE

Earth is now a blue ball of water and continents. The young continents now covered a quarter of the surface, and are being propelled by Tectonics.

Rodinia Supercontinent

1000 BCE

The first supercontinent, Rodinia, has formed on the southern part of Earth. The landmass was just a great big wasteland, desert.

Snowballed

700 BCE

Rodinia blocked the warm water currents from the south pole, causing the Earth to cool drastically. This cooling caused the Earth to completely freeze, hence the name. 90% of the Stromatolites had died off leaving bacteria, the dominant life on Earth.

Volcanism Destroys

650 BCE

Earth is covered in a mile-thick ice blanket, but it's about to be no more. Earth's mantle becomes more active and many eruptions start to break apart Rodinia, melting the ice and allowing ocean currents to move.

Paleozoic Era: Cambrian Explosion

541 BCE

The start of the Paleozoic Era and the beginning of the Cambrian Period. All the Ice has melted and the oceans are shallow. Life is booming, complex organisms are evolving, with great biodiversity. The first real fossil records are from this period.

Ordovician Period

485 BCE

The Cambrian Period had ended and the Ordovician Period had begun. Marine life is booming and the first versions of primitive plants are growing. At the end of this period 443 million years ago, was an ice age that killed off half of the new life.

Silurian Period

443 BCE

The Ordovician Period had ended and the Silurian had begun. The temperatures warmed back up and the oceans and marine life recovered. Massive reefs started to form in the tropical seas. The reefs allowed coral and prehistoric sponges to grow. There were 6 foot long Sea Scorpians during this period that would hunt other fish, considered to be the biggest arthropods ever. True plants with hardened stems started to grow in this period as well.

Devonian Period

419 BCE

The Silurian Period had ended and the Devonian had begun. This was the period of fish, many fish from the Silurian Period evolved into almost whole different creatures. Many fish were plated with bones as a type of armor because there were many other predatory fish. This is when sharks started to become relevant in Earth's history. At the end of this period, the first forests start to form with hard stemmed plants that could support raised branches (the first trees).

Carboniferous Period

358 BCE

The Devonian Period had come to an end the Carboniferous Period had begun, one of the most important periods to our present-day world. In this period the Earth was covered with tropical swamps and all kinds of creatures in the water and on land roamed. The crocodile's ancestors came from this period. More importantly, this time period is when all of our coal, oil, and natural gasses were created. It is this very time period that powers our present-day lives.

Permian Period & Extinction

298 BCE

The Carboniferous Period is over, and the Permian is beginning. Things started to heat up, more drought-resistant plants moved into the swamps. Near the end of this time period about 251 M.Y.A, there was a massive extinction event, 90% of all life was killed. The extinction was caused by a Mantel Plume, a massive surge in volcanic activity. There were volcanic eruptions for about 1 million years. Clouds of poisonous gasses covered the planet, killing the ones that survived the eruptions.

Mesozoic Era: Triassic Period

251 BCE

Following the Paleozoic Era and the Permian extinction, is the Mesozoic Era and the Triassic Period, where life gets a second chance. What little life that was left repopulated and new creatures rose. There were mammals about the size of rodents and the first Dinosaurs. All this new life was living on the newly formed supercontinent Pangea.

Jurassic Period

201 BCE

The breaking up of Pangea has caused sea levels to rise and the creation of new oceans in the gaps between continents. Volcanic activity was the cause of Pangea breaking apart, this also rose the CO2 levels 500%. This extra CO2 turned the dry deserts into massive tropical forests and allowed the dominant Dinosaurs to thrive.

Cretaceous Period & Extinction

145 BCE

Dinosaurs are thriving, and there is very lush vegetation. There is life in the air, on land, and in the oceans, but in the blink of an eye, it was gone. The Earth was hit by a massive asteroid 6 miles across, leaving a 93-mile wide impact crater 65 M.Y.A. The impact filled the atmosphere with dust blocking the out sun, and volcanic eruptions filled the atmosphere with poisonous gasses. This all led to the extinction of the Dinosaurs, and the end of the Mesozoic Era.

Cenozoic Era: Tertiary Period

66 BCE

Life is recovering, there are the first mammals, birds, insects, and flowering plants. Tectonics are still moving the plates around and the Swiss Alpes are being formed.

The Grand Canyon

6 BCE

The Grand Canyon has started to form.

Quaternary Period

2 BCE

The first humans are starting to move out of Africa. Many freezing events have caused glaciers to come down from the North Pole, carving out our landscapes and then receding only to come back again. Mammoths existed during some of the more recent ice ages in this period. Humans were the dominating species in this period and they still are, waiting for the next ice age, if they live that long.