Paleozoic Era: Diversification of Life (540 to 252 million years ago)
The Paleozoic Era marked the first fossil records of animal life.The Cambrian explosion was the largest diversification of life in Earth’s history.
The Paleozoic Era marked the first fossil records of animal life.The Cambrian explosion was the largest diversification of life in Earth’s history.
The pedosphere is like the “skin of Earth”. Just like your skin, it has a thin outer surface. It also has pore spaces and dries out without enough moisture.
The 3 types of volcanoes are stratovolcanoes, shield volcanoes and cinder cones. Based on their geography, volcanoes take different appearances.
The Pacific Plate stretches all the way along the west coast of North America and reaches all the way to the east coast of the islands of Japan & Indonesia.
Volcanoes are the foundation for igneous rocks. When volcanoes erupt, magma and lava spews out. After cooling and solidifying, they become igneous rocks.
Convergent plate boundaries have some of the most violent catastrophes and geology on Earth. When plates smash together, it has created chains of volcanoes.
4,567,000,000 years ago, Earth was covered in molten lava. In the Hadean Eon, it was in its earliest stage of formation as it clumped from a cloud of dust.
Plants mostly use water and carbon dioxide from the air to grow. But nutrients like nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) & potassium (K) are also key ingredients.
Earth has witnessed 5 mass extinctions where life experienced an abrupt ending. Time and time again, nature has always found a way to reshuffle the deck.
Soil formation is vital for food production and plant growth. Weathering is the process that breaks rock down into soils. Without it, soil wouldn’t exist.
The earliest anatomically modern human fossil found was dated at about 200-300,000 years old in Morocco, Africa. They had modern faces and used stone tools.
Biological weathering can occur from mechanical force and chemical reactions such as through plants, bacteria, fungi, burrowing animals and living organisms
In Earth’s atmosphere history, oxygen levels have changed significantly. This includes hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and nitrogen composition in the air.
The evidence that Vaalbara (2.7-3.6 billion years ago) was the first supercontinent is mainly based on their sedimentary sequences and magnetic orientation.
Long ago, oxygen filled the oceans. It mixed with iron which reacted by rusting. The seafloor collected rusted iron called banded iron formation (BIF).