|4.5 Billion Years Ago: Earth Forms ||1 of 1 Scientist believe
the earth was formed somewhere around 4.5 billion years ago.
That's a long time ago. Suppose you created one long piece of
paper, stretched it out over 10 miles, and started recording
what we now know about the earth. To begin with the easy tasks,
you would record what we know from a study of recent historical
records. Then, as you worked back in time, you would have to
look to what archaeologists and paleontologists have found from
the study of artifacts, fossils and bones. Then, moving even
further back in time, you would have to turn to what geologists
have found from the study of rock formations and fossils. When
you were done, the first 9 miles of this 10-mile long history
would have only a few entries penciled in. The time period from
the birth of the earth to 570 million years ago is known as the
Precambrian Era. Precambrian rocks are the oldest on earth and
they are usually found deep below the present surface.
Scientists tell us that life