Earth timeline
We humans have only been around for a tiny fraction of the Earth's 4.6-billion-year history, but we have still managed to build up our knowledge of what happened so long ago.
This Earth timeline highlights some of the important events that have shaped our world. The pages in the timeline contain interesting video clips from BBC television series such as Earth: Power of the Planet, Horizon, How the Earth Made Us, and Bang Goes the Theory.
Another popular way of dividing up the Earth's history is through geological time periods. For example, the period 545-495 million years ago is known as the Cambrian. Visit the BBC Nature site to see these time periods and learn what life was like hundreds of millions of years ago.
Image: The sky glows pink just before sunrise along England's Jurassic Coast in Winspit, Dorset. About 185 million years of Earth's history is recorded in these rocks. (credit: Adam Burton/naturepl.com)
Earth timeline
Ma = Millions of years ago-
The Earth forms
4600 Ma
The Earth formed from a vast cloud of gas and dust.
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The Moon forms
4500 Ma
A giant impact may have formed the Moon.
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The Late Heavy Bombardment ends
3800 Ma
Asteroids and comets peppered the Earth.
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Early life: Oxygen enters the atmosphere
2400 Ma
Early life affected the geology of our planet.
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Snowball Earth
650 Ma
It is thought the Earth was completely covered in ice.
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Life 'explodes'
545 Ma
During the Cambrian, life became more diverse and abundant.
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Major mass extinctions begin
450 to 440 Ma
Earth's many life forms are vunerable to its constant changes.
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Pangaea begins to break up
200 Ma
The supercontinent Pangaea formed about 270 million years ago.
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Glaciers advance and retreat
2.58 Ma
We are living during an interglacial period.
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Future Earth
Billions of years from now it is predicted the Sun will destroy the Earth.
BBC links
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