FORMATION OF THE EARTH

EARTH FACTS
MASS 6.583 sextillion tons

DISTANCE AROUND EQUATOR 24,901 miles

AREA 196,938,000 square miles

LAND AREA 57,393,000 square miles

WATER AREA 139,545,000 square miles

For as long as human beings have observed and reflected on the

natural world that they inhabit, they have told stories about the
formation of Earth. Creation narratives occur in just about every system
of belief. They may involve in the actions of primal deities, abstract
powers, or—in our modern scientific worldview—physical objects and
are the force that govern their interactions.
There is also a human urge to want to date the beginning of the world as we
know it.

In the early 17th century, after carefully studying biblical chronologies that
recounted the span of many kingships and long lists of family descendants,
Anglican Archbishop James Ussher announced as a fact that the creation of the
Earth had occurred at 9 a.m. on October 23 in the year 4004 B.C.

Ussher’s calculations and thgeir implications were widely accepted for more than
a century, but then scientific study of rock formations and fossils suggested that
Earth had existed longer than Ussher supposed.

We now know that Earth and the rest of our solar system formed together
about 4.6 billion years ago from a huge cloud of gas and dust following a gigantic
star explosion within the universe. The sun formed at the centre of some debris.
 Chunks of matter coalesced into planets, including Earth. In a process known as
accretion. Earth’s gravity continued (and continues) to attract debris, which
becomes incorporated into its surface. Over time the fledgling Earth took shape.

Repeated impacts, radiation from the sun, and internal processes caused our
planet to settle into layers: an inner core, a mantle, a crust. A few fragments of
the original crust remain.

Interior melting traveled to the surface, creating volcanic processes that sp[ewed
forth lava and gases. These gases, including water vapour, gave rise to Earth’s
primitive atmosphere. The resulting precipitation accumulated over time to form
Earth’s first oceans.

These materials and processes also set the stage for the appearance of life on
planet Earth some 3.5 billion years ago.

EARTH’S FOUR LAYERS

Earth has four major layers. The crust floats on the mantle and is the thinnest and
least dense of the four layers. The crust of the ocean floors ranges from 2 to 7
miles thick and is composed of igneous rock rich in iron and magnesium.
Continental crust ranges from 6 to 45 miles thick—it is thickest under mountain
ranges—and contains much feldspar and silica, making it less dense than oceanic
crust. Over millions of years the crust is shaped into a variety of landscapes,
including both continental an oceanic mountain ranges and deep oceanic
trenches.

Earth’s mantle is denser that extends about 1,790 miles towards the core. The
mantle incorporates both brittle and molten layers. Temperature and pressure
increases with the depth of the mantle.

Earth’s core lies beneath the mantle in two layers. The outer core, which is liquid,
measure about 1,400 miles thick. The inner core, which is solid ,lies at the center
of the planet. It is spherical, with only a 750-mile radius. Iron is the most common
element in the outer and inner cores. The core and mantle are nearly the same
thickness, yet the mantle comprises 84 percent of Earth’s volume and the core
only 15 percent.