A vast global ocean may have covered early Earth during the early Archean eon, 4 to 3.2 billion years ago, a side effect of having a hotter mantle than today, according to new research. The new ...

A new study supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) has revealed details about the composition of Earth’s atmosphere during the Archean eon, which occurred roughly 4 to 2.4 billion years ...

Geological and biological evidence suggests that Earth was warm during most of its early history, despite the fainter young Sun. Upper bounds on the atmospheric CO2 concentration in the Late ...

The plate tectonics theory established in the 20th century has been successful in interpreting many geological phenomena, processes, and events that have occurred in the Phanerozoic. However, the ...

The amount of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere makes it a habitable planet. Twenty-one percent of the atmosphere consists of this life-giving element. But in the deep past — as far back as the ...

A rapid increase in oxygen levels about 2.5 billion years ago was linked to the evolution of photosynthetic organisms, but geological factors likely started this process. Earth’s early atmosphere was ...

2025 Science Atlantic Lecture Tour Lecture: What is at the bottom of Archean crust? Abstract: The Archean Eon (4 Ga to 2.5 Ga) was a critical period in Earth’s history. During this time, the planet ...

A team has updated its asteroid bombardment model of the Earth with the latest geologic evidence of ancient, large collisions. These models have been used to understand how impacts may have affected ...

Earth's sea level has remained fairly constant during the last 541 million years, but a new study suggests the planet may have been covered by a vast global ocean 4 to 3.2 billion years ago. A vast ...

Ancient plate tectonics in the Archean period differs from modern plate tectonics in the Phanerozoic period because of the higher mantle temperatures inside the early Earth, the thicker basaltic crust ...

The amount of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere makes it a habitable planet. Twenty-one percent of the atmosphere consists of this life-giving element. But in the deep past — as far back as the ...