HADEAN

Hadean

The Hadean is the first geologic eon of Earth and lies before the Archean. It began with the formation of the Earth about 4600 million years ago and ended as defined by the ICS . The name "Hadean" comes from Hades, the ancient Greek god of the underworld, in reference to the "hellish" conditions on Earth at the time: the planet had just formed and was still very hot due to high volcanism, a partially molten surface and frequent collisions with other Solar System bodies. The geologist Preston Cloud coined the term in 1972, originally to label the period before the earliest-known rocks on Earth. W. Brian Harland later coined an almost synonymous ...

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