Historically,
earth has been written in lowercase. From early Middle English, its definite sense as
"the globe" was expressed as the earth. By Early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized,
and the earth was also written the Earth, particularly when referenced along with other heavenly
bodies. More recently, the name is sometimes simply given as Earth, by analogy with the names of
the other planets, though earth and forms with the remain common.[25] House styles now vary: Oxford
spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, with the capitalized form an
acceptable variant. Another convention capitalizes "Earth" when appearing as a name (e.g. "Earth's
atmosphere") but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the (e.g. "the atmosphere of the earth"). It
almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as "what on earth are you
doing?"[27]
Occasionally, the name Terra /ˈtɛrə/ is used in scientific writing and especially in science fiction to
distinguish humanity's inhabited planet from others,[28] while in poetry Tellus /ˈtɛləs/ has been used to
denote personification of the Earth.[29] The Greek poetic name Gaea (Gæa) /ˈdʒiːə/ is rare, though
the alternative spelling Gaia has become common due to the Gaia hypothesis, in which case its
pronunciation is /ˈɡaɪə/ rather than the more Classical /ˈɡeɪə/.[30]
There are a number of adjectives for the planet Earth. From Earth itself comes earthly. From the
Latin Terra comes Terran /ˈtɛrən/,[31] Terrestrial /təˈrɛstriəl/,[32] and (via French) Terrene /təˈriːn/,[33] and
from the Latin Tellus comes Tellurian /tɛˈlʊəriən/[34] and Telluric.[35]
Chronology
Main article: History of Earth
Formation
Artist's impression of the early Solar System's planetary disk
The oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4.5682+0.0002
−0.0004 Ga (billion years) ago.[36] By 4.54±0.04 Ga the primordial Earth had formed.[37] The bodies
in the Solar System formed and evolved with the Sun. In theory, a solar nebula partitions a volume
out of a molecular cloud by gravitational collapse, which begins to spin and flatten into
a circumstellar disk, and then the planets grow out of that disk with the Sun. A nebula contains gas,
ice grains, and dust (including primordial nuclides). According to nebular
theory, planetesimals formed by accretion, with the primordial Earth being estimated as likely taking
anywhere from 70–100 million years to form.[38]
Estimates of the age of the Moon range from 4.5 Ga to significantly younger.[39] A leading hypothesis
is that it was formed by accretion from material loosed from Earth after a Mars-sized object with
about 10% of Earth's mass, named Theia, collided with Earth.[40] It hit Earth with a glancing blow and
some of its mass merged with Earth.[41][42] Between approximately 4.1 and 3.8 Ga, numerous asteroid
impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment caused significant changes to the greater surface
environment of the Moon and, by inference, to that of Earth.[43]
Geological history
Main article: Geological history of Earth
Carboniferous rocks that were folded, uplifted and eroded during the orogeny that completed the formation of
the Pangaea supercontinent, before deposition of the overlying Triassic strata, in the Algarve Basin, which
marked the start of its break-up
Earth's atmosphere and oceans were formed by volcanic activity and outgassing.[44] Water vapor
from these sources condensed into the oceans, augmented by water and ice from
asteroids, protoplanets, and comets.[45] Sufficient water to fill the oceans may have always been on
the Earth since the beginning of the planet's formation.[46] In this model, atmospheric greenhouse
gases kept the oceans from freezing when the newly forming Sun had only 70% of its current
luminosity.[47] By 3.5 Ga, Earth's magnetic field was established, which helped prevent the
atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind.[48]
As the molten outer layer of Earth cooled it formed the first solid crust, which is thought to have
been mafic in composition. The first continental crust, which was more felsic in composition, formed
by the partial melting of this mafic crust. The presence of grains of the mineral zircon of Hadean
age in Eoarchean sedimentary rocks suggests that at least some felsic crust existed as early
as 4.4 Ga, only 140 Ma after Earth's formation.[49] There are two main models of how this initial small
volume of continental crust evolved to reach its current abundance:[50] (1) a relatively steady growth
up to the present day,[51] which is supported by the radiometric dating of continental crust globally and
(2) an initial rapid growth in the volume of continental crust during the Archean, forming the bulk of
the continental crust that now exists,[52][53] which is supported by isotopic evidence
from hafnium in zircons and neodymium in sedimentary rocks. The two models and the data that
support them can be reconciled by large-scale recycling of the continental crust, particularly during
the early stages of Earth's history.[54]
New continental crust forms as a result of plate tectonics, a process ultimately driven by the
continuous loss of heat from Earth's interior. Over the period of hundreds of millions of years,
tectonic forces have caused areas of continental crust to group together to form supercontinents that
have subsequently broken apart. At approximately 750 Ma, one of the earliest known
supercontinents, Rodinia, began to break apart. The continents later recombined to
form Pannotia at 600–540 Ma, then finally Pangaea, which also began to break apart at 180 Ma.[55]
