2006-10-04 23:52:50 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
Hmmm? It depends what you mean by "...early earth..." If you mean when the Earth was "born" then it was as a result of the massive forces that were involved in its creation.
The Earth was formed from from the material in a solar nebular (along with the Sun and the other planets). As the Earth grew its gravity swept up asteroids and comets and each collision realeased a huge amount of energy which ended up as heat. The Earth was probably completely molten at this stage.
Over time it has obviously been cooling and a solid crust formed, but even today that crust is only a thin skin approximately 1% of the thickness of the planet.
2006-10-05 13:21:06 · answer #1 · answered by amancalledchuda 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lots and lots of CO2, a hotter core, hotter sun, less interstellar debris absorbing radiation, slightly different axis orientation, repeated vulcanism and meteor impacts, higher radiation levels, dinosaur farts, aliens ... there is no saying for certain. Perhaps that is just how planets form.
"Science" is the art of making the most convincing argument possible to explain why things are the way they are. It works pretty well with some things (why do Mentos make Diet Coke explode?) and not so well with other things (why is the Earth so nice?).
The reason is the same in both cases. Science tests evidence. There is lots and lots of evidence for some things (Mentos and Coke are both still churning out their explosives). But there is very little evidence (because of "time" having elapsed) for other things (like the formation of our planet).
So, while you may get some smarty who has discovered the Wikipedia address telling you "the" answer, there isn't one yet. We have never seen a planet form. We have never tracked a planet's evolution from burning ball of magma to green and lovely land.
And that's the truth.
Cheers.
2006-10-05 00:00:39 · answer #2 · answered by Grendle 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The earth has always had massive temp. changes, hot and cold. I remember seeing some research that stated the currently the planet has been more stable temp. wise for a period of time than ever before. Odds are it will get really warm again and really cold again.
2006-10-05 00:05:20 · answer #3 · answered by Brad B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The young Earth had lots of CO2(a green house gas) in the atmosphere. When life developed most of the C02 was scrubbed out and temperatures dropped, which was just as well as during it's life the sun has gotten brighter.
If life didn't developed we would have ended up like Venus. Hot as hell,
2006-10-04 23:56:41 · answer #4 · answered by Mark G 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Emissions from cars, oh that can't be right, no the early earth was cold. had to be , there were no cars to warm it up.
Glad I did not live then, too cold for me now, in October, really.
2006-10-05 00:03:54 · answer #5 · answered by "Call me Dave" 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because the heat from the big bang was so sup3r ub3r d00p3r gr3at, 100000000000000000000000000000000000000x hotter then the core of the Sun. And then Earth was ub3r hot for a while and it gradually got c00l3r.
2006-10-05 01:19:46 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
I though early earth are cold, only when earth is just made, then it is hot.
2006-10-05 00:57:41 · answer #7 · answered by Ifeelgood 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
because it hardly had any atmosphere to filter out any of the suns harmful rays. basically.
2006-10-05 00:36:13 · answer #8 · answered by sausagejockey 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
EArth was closer to the sun then, it is slowly drifting away from the sun now.
2006-10-04 23:55:49 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋
Because cold hadn't been invented yet!
2006-10-05 00:00:21 · answer #10 · answered by grumpyoldman 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋