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Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2)
Begins approximately 4 Ga
Scientific Perspective (Genesis Event #4)
This short passage that “darkness was upon the face of the deep” highlights two characteristics of this stage of earth formation – a surface covered in water and also dark clouds above the water. According to the latest scientific understanding, water formation on the early earth derived from two sources – water from asteroid bombardment and water from the mantle and core of the earth. That water from the mantle and core were assumed to be trapped during the original accretion process during earth formation. The relative balance from these two water sources and the exact timing when water covered the earth is still under investigation. But most scientists would agree that within at least the first 500 million years of the earth’s history that water covered the earth.
The dark clouds above the water that was covering the earth were most likely the result of volcanic activity on the early earth, where volcanoes spewed water vapor, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and methane into the atmosphere. The thickness of the atmosphere probably was similar to the atmosphere that we find on Venus today, where a runaway greenhouse effect caused by high CO2 levels resulted in a very hot and dense atmosphere that exists even to this day.
Scriptural Perspective
The second phrase of Genesis 1:2 seems to move Earth’s history forward from the point where earth has just become a planet to the point where deep water has covered the earth and there is darkness above this water-covered earth. This corresponds very well with the science which says that water and a dense cloud covered the early earth. The image above shows a simple visualization of somewhat how this might have looked.
The image and this interpretation uses the point of view of the Spirit of God hovering over the waters, where everything is very dark. The earth has been transformed to the point of water covering the entire earth and there are dark clouds of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and nitrogen above. Some light reflection is shown on the water for artistic purposes, but there would not be much light falling on the water at this point because of the dense could cover.