What was the surface of the Earth like 4000 million years ago?

Answer 1

The Archean eon, when the earth was just 60% of its present mass , some 4.8 billion years ago, all the way to its present mass, some 2 billion years ago, is the name of the age which began with the forming Earth. The Sun was only 40million to 100 million years old and its light was just 90 to 95% as bright as today! So the young infant earth was somewhat darker then what we see today as well!
This period of Earth's history lasted a long time, 2.8 billion years! That is more than half the expected age of the Earth!
The Earth was constantly being bombarded by asteroids and meteorites, as it circled in its orbit around the Sun, sweeping up debris left over from the formation of the Solar System.
By the end of the Archean, the Earth was just beginning to come alive. It had an ocean by the time the Archean was over thanks to thousands of volcanic eruptions (water vapor rich)all year long and thousands of space debris(comets containing water) collisions!!! :
At the beginning of the Archean, the "birth" of the Earth, at 4.8 BYA (billion years ago) the Sun finished forming, blew away whatever atmosphere the Earth started with, and Earth started out when it was very young with an atmosphere of simple hydrogen it mostly captured from the Sun's Solar winds! Also the Earth differentiated, in its physical structure, as the heavy element eventually settled deeper and deeper into Earth's interior. Then later as the planet cooled, Carbon dioxide, Water vapor and Sulfur dioxide, and rarer volcanic gasses vented from the volcanoes given the young Earth its new atmosphere! At first temperatures were very hot, so there was no ocean. Igneous rocks dominate the surface of the Earth, and there was a lot of volcanic activity which yielded new molecules for the atmosphere.
As the temperature fell below to about room temperature, liquid water condensed on the surface and created a vast ocean. As soon as water began to form on the surface, carbon and sulfur dioxide from the atmosphere dissolved into the water, removing large quanities of those elements from the atmosphere (this is in contrast to Mars or Jupiter where CO2 and H continue to dominate the atmospheres of those respective planets). Nitrogen began to build up in the atmosphere. Volcanic activity continued to pour forth a secondary atmosphere for the Earth. Meanwhile the seeds of continents called the "continental shields" began to take shape.
By 3.8 BYA (a billion years later) the first living beings are believed to have been thriving. Some of these creatures, called Archaea, bear the name of the entire age. These beings did not require oxygen to survive, which is good since there was none in the atmosphere at this time. Waste products of sulfur from these living beings began accumulating in the ocean, as well as the products of the weathering of igneous rock such as Fe (iron).
From 3.5 BYA to 2.5 BYA, or roughly to the end of the Archean age, iron ores began to be formed in large amounts at the bottom of the ocean. This is significant because it is proof that oxygen was beginning to be formed by the UV breakdown of carbon dioxide, water vapor and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. The excess oxygen first combined with excess Fe to form Fe2O3 otherwise known as iron ore. This process took one billion years and fininshed at the end of the Archean era.

Answer 2

No, Yes Lets look at your arguments: "First off, light takes billions of years to get here from Andromeda, the closest galaxy to the Milky Way. This alone disproves a young earth." Says nothing about the age of the earth.. The earth could have been created yesterday - that would have no affect light from the Andromeda galaxy reaching here. If there were not here the light would just pass through empty space until the earth was were. "Now, dogs were domesticated within 14-12,000 years ago. Archeologists have proof." The proof is actually genetic - estimates based on mDNA. The recent discovery that mDNA is recombinant - not known before - means that the base assumptions behind these estimates are invalid and any dates obtained based on mDNA mutations are necessarily wrong because the estimates failed to take into account recombination. "Back to the starlight problem. Most of the stars in the night sky are 7,000 or more light years away." Again not a problem, if the earth was not here the light would just travel through empty space until the earth was put here. "If our earth is 6,000 years old, why does radioactive decay indicate a billion-year-old earth?" If I took a 10,000 year old piece of wood, carved it into a duck decoy today, The duck decoy would be 1 day old, but carbon dating would indicate the wood was 10,000 years old. Does carbon dating prove the duck decoy was carved (formed) 10,000 years ago? of course not! Moving right along: "And as for a worldwide flood, there isn't even enough water in the atmosphere or on the surface to cover Mt. Everest and the Himalayas while still covering the entire earth at around the same level." Not today, that does not mean there was not sufficient water to do so 4000 years ago! A lot can change in 4000 years, There is objective evidence indicating that the oceans are deeper today than they were in the past. There is absolutely no evidence of a global flood 4,000-3,000 years ago. False: Global Dust Spikes, Paleoclimate Indicators, and Collapse of Civilizations All Correlate to Date of Noah's Flood "There is evidence however, of multiple extinction events from hundreds of millions of years ago up until 65 million years ago." Not relevant to the discussion. "Assuming we take all of Genesis literally, why did God spend one day on 10^10000 planets and stars and galaxies and six on our insignificant backwater planet? A rational God wouldn't do that." Interesting, and what is your objective basis for making assertions on what a rational god would or would not do? (can you say personal incredulity fallacy?) "And if humans were perfect before the Fall, how did we become imperfect? A perfect object cannot become imperfect. If it does then it was never perfect in the first place." Can you say equivocation fallacy? The only thing you have effectively proven is you are not a very rational thinker.

Answer 3

4 thousand million years is 4 billion years, and the most educated guess I'm aware of as to the age of the earth is 4.9 billion years. I'm betting at that time most of the solar system was a lot different, maybe even as far as more or less planets in the system. The moon is thought to be a relatively recent add on to the planet, well... within the last 1.5 billion years or so. I would imagine the planet would still be quite warm 4 billion years ago, and probably lacked a van allen belt, or any kind of airborne atmosphere. The axial spin may well have been different also, as well as the actual magnetic poles. So, basically, quite different

Answer 4

That would be during the Hadean eon. The earth was a lot smaller (about 60% smaller), and actually had it's crust. There was still a lot of space debris from the supernova that created the solar system...so it was constantly being bombarded.

It probably looked something like hell.

Answer 5

I was going to say that the Earth was without shape or form, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. But I just couldn't get it out with a straight face ☺

Doug

Answer 6

Not much to write home about. The earth was still young. A ball of glowing rock.

Answer 7

lava, forests, and animals all over the place

Answer 8

like a forest maybe.