How We Came About Part 1
Can you imagine how utterly spectacular it would be if you could fast backward billions of years, then reverse and speed forward to the present after observing the evolution of Earth - from its very beginning?
Well, you’re going to do just that by thinking of our planet as a living being, and from an envisioned time travel capsule, you will watch her transition into what we recognize today. Buckle up because you have a front row seat to witness how mankind’s home completely transformed on several occasions over a very long time. This will be your ultimate time travel experience.
Nearly 14 billion years ago, the Universe first appeared, born in a fraction of a second involving the expansion of space. This is what is referred to as “The Big Bang” and is nothing more than the most popular scientific theory of how we ultimately came about. During the period involving the next 300,000 years, matter originates and gasses form a thin cloud, and light can move in any direction - without restraint. Stars begin to pop up and you are overwhelmed as circles of galaxies rotate all about you and 100 billion spectacular glittering lights leave you amazed.
During the next approximately nine billion years, the complex development of the solar system with its planets, comets, moons, asteroids, and those magnificent meteors flash before you. Incredible constellations, lunar and solar eclipses, as well as small satellites orbiting larger heavenly bodies all in their glory, are fascinating for you to behold. An inexplicable vastness leaves you frozen with splendor. This is outer space and you are intoxicated by the sheer beauty and vividness of this unmatched, perfect existence.
Staring in amazement, you surmise that there are just nine celestial bodies to be named one day: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Pluto and . . .Earth, orbiting around the Sun.You quickly spot Earth’s huge mass of molten volcanic rock spewing gasses in every direction, invoking constant geological change and eventually biological evolution due to water and an atmosphere. The other eight planets consist of minerals, metals and gasses without water, nor an atmosphere.
Earth is a special place.
And its extreme hot appearance starts to cool and a thin crust-like layer, Earth’s skin, forms over the interior mantle while water remains in the mixture of the gasses located well within the atmosphere. Finally, the water begins to condense and the production of oceans form which introduces a new character to join you the rest of the journey - Mother Nature.
During the next five hundred million years, Earth’s surface repeatedly reshapes when tectonic plates move land masses, eventually elevating them well above the oceans, only to break up and reshuffle. Then another exclamatory event is unveiled: you marvel at the arrival of the Ice Ages, defined by the revolving formation of Snowball Earth cycles of massive glaciation, then melting - and doing so about every 50,000 years.
As you observe geological time period to geological time period involving millions of years, you notice that nothing like this is happening anywhere else in the cosmos, so you become fixated on this colorful, breathtaking jewel beneath you and continue on with your journey.
You notice Mother Nature is becoming quite active as she focuses on her life giving attributes, birthing different kinds of species, by the millions. You are hovering right up close staring at her production from every angle, energized when there is movement below. Low and behold, a four-legged animal emerges from the ocean. Previously, much pertaining to the origin of life occurs beneath the ocean’s surface with molecules that copy themselves to the first cells appearing on the sea floors - you just couldn’t see it. This era is followed by the first salt water animals, a species development that leads to the wildlife of the present day. Next, you are frightened when the first extinction period unfolds before you when about 86% of all aquatic life perishes due a million year Ice Age. It takes another 50 million years or so for ocean life to replenish with the Age of Fish - when fierce underwater predators rule the planet.
Unfortunately, a second mass extinction period comes into play 70 million years later, when bottom dweller sea species vanish mostly on account of Earth’s oceans being void of oxygen. Never down for good, your planet is resilient once again when, in a few more million years, it’s warm and wet enough for rainforests to blanket most of the land. It is a majestic, uncompromised sight unparalleled in the galaxy engulfing you.
Later on, you gaze down on the most beautiful gem with bright blue pockets, billowy white clouds, and lush greenery on most continents. And as the hundreds of thousands of years flash by, you can’t help but notice that there is more and more land animal activity.
This period is then strangely shadowed as Earth begins to gradually dry out, forcing the forests to be replaced by deserts covered with reptiles flourishing across the semi-arid lands. Suddenly, you are a spectator to the third extinction period, the most lethal in all of Earth’s existence as 90% of the planet’s species disappear due to an unknown cause. Roughly 50 million years later following a slow recovery, a fourth extinction period gets underway when 80% of Earth’s species are lost as a result of widespread volcanic activity.
By now you have circled Earth more times than you’ll ever remember and are about halfway through watching a planetary movie produced 100% by nature. Stay tuned for the final leg of a voyage that becomes more and more personal.