Earth Facts
Above Picture is of the Great Lakes
North America
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Story of Earth
The earth is about 4,600 million years old. For millions of years, its surface was covered by hot, liquid, rock. Gases and steam escaped from the fiery rocks to form the Earth's first atmosphere. Earth History Facts The oldest known rocks are about 3,900 million years old. Crystals found in a rock in Australia are 4,200 million years old. The oldest known fossils, about 3,500 million years old, are traces of simple organisms called bacteria. Early plants, growing in the seas 1,900 million years ago, gradually produced enough oxygen to make the air breathable. Earth Facts The Earth is not perfectly round but is slightly flattened at the poles and bulges a little just south of the Equator. The distance around the Equator is 40,075 km ( 24,902 miles ) while the distance around the Poles is 68 km ( 42 miles ) shorter. The Earth takes 365 days, 5 hours and 40 minutes to travel once in its orbit around the Sun. The distance between the Earth and the Sun is about 150 million km ( 93 million miles ). |
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The Earth's crust is about 5 miles deep.
It is a little like an onion. If you could cut it
in half, you would see that it is made up of layers.
On the outside is the thin crust. Under the crust are
three main layers, called the mantle, the outer core and
the inner core. The Earth's crust and the top part of the
mantle are made of solid rock. This layer of rock is split
into several large pieces called plates. The plates are
shifted around by movements in a layer of partly molten,
or liquid, rock near the top of the mantle.
Our Planets: By: J. A Williamson
AstronomyExpert:Information focused on studying stars, planets and
outer space phenomena
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