Chronology

Scientists have been able to reconstruct detailed information about the planet's past. The earliest dated solar system material is dated to 4.5672 ± 0.0006 billion years ago and by 4.54 billion years ago,the Earth and the other planets in the Solar System formed out of the solar nebula—a disk-shaped mass of dust and gas left over from the formation of the Sun. This assembly of the Earth through accretion was largely completed within 10–20 million years.Initially molten, the outer layer of the planet Earth cooled to form a solid crust when water began accumulating in the atmosphere. The Moon formed soon afterward, most likely as the result of a Mars-sized object (sometimes called Theia) with about 10% of the Earth's mass impacting the Earth in a glancing blow.Some of this object's mass would have merged with the Earth and a portion would have been ejected into space, but enough material would have been sent into orbit to form the Moon.

Outgassing and volcanic activity produced the primordial atmosphere. Condensing water vapor, augmented by ice and liquid water delivered by asteroids and the larger proto-planets, comets, and trans-Neptunian objects produced the oceans.Two major models have been proposed for the rate of continental growth:steady growth to the present-dayand rapid growth early in Earth history.Current research shows that the second option is most likely, with rapid initial growth of continental crust followed by a long-term steady continental area.On time scales lasting hundreds of millions of years, the surface continually reshaped itself as continents formed and broke up. The continents migrated across the surface, occasionally combining to form a supercontinent. Roughly 750 million years ago (Ma), one of the earliest known supercontinents, Rodinia, began to break apart. The continents later recombined to form Pannotia, 600–540 Ma, then finally Pangaea, which broke apart 180 Ma.