Scientific Description of the Event

About 4.6 billion years ago, our solar system began as a huge cloud of gas and dust floating in space. This cloud was made mostly of hydrogen and helium, along with tiny bits of heavier elements that had been created inside older stars. Then most likely a powerful shock wave, possibly from a nearby exploding supernova, caused part of this cloud to collapse under its own gravity. As it collapsed, it began to spin faster and flatten into a wide, spinning disk. Most of the material collected in the center, where pressure and temperature increased so much that nuclear reactions began. This hot, bright center became our Sun. The remaining material in the spinning disk did not disappear. Instead, it became the building material for the planets, including Earth. Inside this swirling disk, tiny grains of dust began bumping into one another. At first, these particles stuck together because of static electricity, similar to how a balloon rubbed on your hair can stick to a wall. As clumps grew larger, gravity began to play a stronger role. Small pebbles became rocks. Rocks became boulders. Boulders combined into objects miles across. These growing bodies are called planetesimals, which means “little planets.” They were not smooth or round like today’s planets. Instead, they were jagged, uneven, and constantly crashing into each other. The early solar system was a chaotic place filled with collisions. Each impact released energy in the form of heat, and as planetesimals combined, they grew hotter and larger. The early Earth started out as one of these growing planetesimals. Over time, it grew through a process called accretion. Accretion simply means growth or enlargement through a gradual buildup from surrounding material. As Earth became larger, gravity pulled objects toward it more strongly, causing even more collisions. Many of these impacts were massive. Some were powerful enough to melt large parts of the young planet. Because of the constant impacts and the heat from radioactive elements inside it, the early Earth likely became almost completely molten – a giant ball of melted rock. Since melted rock is called “magma”, the surface of the early Earth is often called a “magma ocean” by scientists. Instead of continents and oceans, its surface would have looked like glowing lava, with rivers of molten rock flowing across it.

Scientific Evidence for this Event

Even though the formation of Earth concerns events from about 4.5 billion years ago, the scientific evidence for the formation of the Earth is fairly strong. Understanding of the formation of the Earth is derived from the following sources.

• Zircon crystals from Jack Hills in Australia have been dated to about 4.4 billion years ago using Uranium-Lead radioactive dating.
• Moon rocks have been dated as far back as 4.46 billion years ago. The moon was believed to have been formed from a collision with the Earth during the its early history.
• Seismic data from events like earthquakes have been used to determine the structure of the Earth, which is consistent with the history of the early Earth melting and separating into heavier and lighter materials.
• Chemical analysis of Moon and Earth rocks provide evidence of the atmospheric and chemical changes in Earth over time.
• Computer models can be used to test out different hypotheses concerning processes on the Earth based on the evidence that we have so far. This has included models for early Earth up to models of more recent timeframes.
• Observations by astronomers can sometimes be used to answer questions about what happened during changes on the Earth as well.

How the Event Description Harmonizes with Genesis 1

The harmony between Genesis 1 and the formation of the Earth comes from the first part of the second verse in Genesis chapter 1.

Now the earth was formless and empty Genesis 1:2a This is a very short and simple description. But the description is also very consistent with the conditions in our Solar System that led to the formation of our planet Earth. Instead of “formless and empty”, other translations use phrases like “without form and void”, “waste and void”, or “without shape or form”. All of these translations are consistent with the formation of our Earth as it was being formed from the dust and rocks and then into a planetesimal and then into a full planet. Our Earth truly did begin as something that was “formless and empty”. Concerning the shortness of this description, we should recall that the entire history of our universe is being described within only 31 verses in Genesis 1. So, from that perspective it would not be unusual to cover the initial formation of the Earth with only a few words. Such will be the case for other events in Genesis 1 that may be significant for the history of the Earth but have only a brief description. At this stage of development, we can also note that the point of view is still Third Person Omniscient, as it was for the Big Bang. The viewpoint would be from an onlooker in outer space watching the early Earth being formed from the materials in our Solar System during its early stages. It will only be at the end of verse 1:2 that the text suggests that we move to a different point of view for the rest of the Genesis 1 chapter.