Warming the young Earth

When the Earth was a fraction of its present age, the Sun was shining less brightly, yet the geological record shows that the Earth was surprisingly warm. Can this be explained by considering how the Earth absorbs solar radiation? Are changes in Earth’s atmosphere involved? How can we study the Earth’s primitive atmosphere?

Susan Street

JohanSwanepoel/Fotolia

The terms in bold link to topics in the AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and CCEA A-level specifications, as well as the IB, Pre-U and SQA exam specifications.

This article discusses how the reflectivity of its surface, and the greenhouse effect, might have affected how the young Earth was warmed by electromagnetic radiation. It also describes how raindrop impact craters provide information about atmospheric conditions, by considering how the drag force is related to a change of momentum, and hence how atmospheric density affects the terminal velocity of a raindrop.