Archean Earth
ARCHEAN

THE ARCHEAN EON
3.8 to 2.5 Billion Years Ago

The Age of Slow Stabilization
The hot and violent Earth settles down - Life first appears
And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." - Genesis 1:9

Select an Eon

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Paleo-Geography

  • The Earth's temperature 3 times hotter than today
  • The Earth's crust very thin
  • Enormous volcanic and tectonic activity
  • Protocontinents begin to form over hotspots
  • Dense, hot atmosphere of CO², methane and ammonia
  • Oceans hot, acidic and filled with dissolved metals

Life


  First life: simple bacterial cells
  that live off iron and sulfur,
  methane and ammonia,
  in high heat and pressure.


        (Image: Corzak)

Moonrise over the Archean ocean and methane sky
(Image: Joe Tucciarone - NovaSpace)


During the Archean, life existed only as single celled microbes that lived in extreme conditions of heat, pressure and acidity. They digested dissolved iron, sulfur and other minerals in the ocean and absorbed methane and ammonia. They possibly formed in and around deep-ocean 'black smoker' volcanic vents.

 

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To the Hadean Eon To the Archean Eon To the PaleoProterozoic Era To the Cryogenian Period To the Ediacaran Period To the Phanerozoic Eon To Earth History Timeline To the Ediacaran Period To the MesoProterozoic Era