Thus, under the influence of high energy phenomena such as lightning strikes, the early molecules in the oceans got a chance to undergo reactions such as oxidation, reduction, condensation, and polymerization.
The atmosphere lacked an ozone layer back then. Hydrogen being more active, reacted with other elements to form chemicals like methane, water, ammonia, and hydrogen sulphide. The early atmosphere was rich in hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur. As it slowly cooled down, the lighter elements started to react with each other. This primitive atmosphere took some time to cool down. We are lucky to live on such a strong land! Gaia was in her element.Īfter the Moon formed as a result of a collision between the Earth and a Mars-sized body, Earth was still pretty hot and volcanically active. It is a pretty hot part of the Earth as well and is estimated to be about 5700 K. The solid inner core is hypothesized to have a lot of heavy elements. The temperature is super high in the outer core thus the fluid is found to be in a low-viscosity state. The outer core, 2300 km thick part, is confirmed to be completely liquid. It is speculated to be seismologically homogenous. The lower mantle lies between 660-2891 km in depth. The mantle is chemically different from the crust. The upper mantle starts at the ‘Mohorovocic’s Discontinuity’, and extends from a depth of 7-35 km downwards to a depth of 410 km. The mantle makes 84% of the Earth’s volume and is predominantly solid. The lithosphere is an irregular layer of rocks and is very thick. This layer just forms 1% of the entire volume of the earth! The crust forms the lithosphere with the uppermost layer of the mantle. The crust is the outermost part of the planet and is hard in nature, while the depth of the crust ranges from 5-70 km. Well, the mantle is further divided into the upper and lower mantle, while the core is subdivided into the outer and inner core. The Earth is divided into three main parts – the crust, the mantle, and the core. Right from the properties and composition to the characteristics of the Earth, now we can study it all. We can visit the core of the Earth just by sitting in a lab with a few rocks to keep us company. Seismology has helped us lock the ultra-level to this issue. But even they could not venture into the inner recesses of our planet. We are blessed to have no dearth of brilliant minds all around us who have taken us above the big skies and into space. There is more to the Earth than we can see. It’s always better to have a stronger core!Įarth is like an onion. So, let’s continue our quest to find out more about what lies above and beyond. If you remember, we also covered the formation of the Moon. But, we can agree that the universe surely hired an extra pair of forces to make it hot to trot with a few magical touches. Well, we have talked about the formation of planets in the previous issue, and just like any other planet, Earth is also a product of gas and dust. So, how was this the big ball of possibilities that has provided for us since time immemorable, created in the first place? Before we plunge into the deep waters to start looking for life, let us talk a little about how our planet came into existence and proved to be exactingly conducive for life to even perpetuate! Yes, it is the emergence of life we are talking about, on the very planet which we now call home: Earth. All of us have surely wondered about the story behind one of the greatest phenomenon we’ve ever witnessed.
But some billion years ago, in a far-off planet of a far-off galaxy, the order was forming from this chaos. Taking a cue from this amazing hymn, we’ll be talking about ‘waters’, but in a different context! So far, we’ve only seen the chaos that ensued after this Universe formed. As you can see, the brilliant minds of our ancient civilization, somehow were able to decipher the secrets of the Universe way before any of our grandfather’s-grandfather’s-grandfather’s-grandfather’s grandfather arrived on this planet! A very interesting line from the aforementioned shloka speaks of the nonexistence of the “cosmic waters”, which pervaded the Universe after the Big Bang. Up until this point, we have discussed as to how the Universe as we know it, came into existence. This beautiful shloka is the translation of the Nasadiya Sukta, a hymn from the Rig Veda “Grandpa’s” song (Bharat Ek Khoj title song):
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