Hadean - wikipedia Hadean Hadean Eon 4600 -- 4000 million years ago The geological eons and eras view discuss edit - 4500 -- -- - 4000 -- -- - 3500 -- -- - 3000 -- -- - 2500 -- -- - 2000 -- -- - 1500 -- -- - 1000 -- -- - 500 -- -- 0 -- Hadean Archean Protero - zoic Phanero - zoic Eo Paleo Meso Neo Paleo Meso Neo Paleo Meso Ceno Scale : millions of years The Hadean ( / ˈheɪdiən / ) is a geologic eon of the Earth predating the Archean. It began with the formation of the Earth about 4.6 billion years ago and ended, as defined by the ICS, 4 billion years ago. As of 2016, the ICS describes its status as informal. 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 term : the `` Priscoan period ''. Other, older texts simply refer to the eon as the Pre-Archean. Artist 's impression of a Hadean landscape Contents 1 Etymology 2 Subdivisions 3 Hadean rocks 4 Atmosphere and oceans 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links Etymology Life timeline view discuss edit - 4500 -- -- - 4000 -- -- - 3500 -- -- - 3000 -- -- - 2500 -- -- - 2000 -- -- - 1500 -- -- - 1000 -- -- - 500 -- -- 0 -- water Single - celled life photosynthesis Eukaryotes Multicellular life Arthropods Molluscs Plants Dinosaurs Mammals Flowers Birds Primates ← Earliest Earth ( − 4540 ) ← Earliest water ← Earliest life ← LHB meteorites ← Earliest oxygen ← Atmospheric oxygen ← Oxygen crisis ← Earliest sexual reproduction ← Earliest plants ← Ediacara biota ← Cambrian explosion ← Tetrapoda ← Earliest apes h n r o z o i r o r o z o i r h n d n Pongola Huronian Cryogenian Andean Karoo Quaternary ice ages Axis scale : million years Also see : Human timeline and Nature timeline `` Hadean '' ( from Hades, the Greek god of the underworld ) describes the hellish conditions then prevailing on Earth : the planet had just formed and was still very hot owing to its recent accretion, the abundance of short - lived radioactive elements, and frequent collisions with other Solar System bodies. Subdivisions Since few geological traces of this eon remain on Earth, there is no official subdivision. However, the Lunar geologic timescale embraces several major divisions relating to the Hadean, so these are sometimes used in an informal sense to refer to the same periods of time on Earth. The Lunar divisions are : Pre-Nectarian, from the formation of the Moon 's crust ( 4,533 million years ago ) up to about 3,920 million years ago Nectarian ranging from 3,920 million years ago up to about 3,850 million years ago, in a time when the Late Heavy Bombardment, according to that theory, was in a stage of decline. In 2010, an alternative scale was proposed that includes the addition of the Chaotian and Prenephelean Eons preceding the Hadean, and divides the Hadean into three eras with two periods each. The Paleohadean era consists of the Hephaestean ( 4.5 - 4.4 Ga ) and the Jacobian periods ( 4.4 - 4.3 Ga ). The Mesohadean is divided into the Canadian ( 4.3 - 4.2 Ga ) and the Procrustean periods ( 4.2 - 4.1 Ga ). The Neohadean is divided into the Acastan ( 4.1 - 4.0 Ga ) and the Promethean periods ( 4.0 - 3.9 Ga ). As of February 2017, this has not been adopted by the IUGS. Hadean rocks Further information : Oldest dated rocks In the last decades of the 20th century geologists identified a few Hadean rocks from Western Greenland, Northwestern Canada, and Western Australia. In 2015, traces of carbon minerals interpreted as `` remains of biotic life '' were found in 4.1 - billion - year - old rocks in Western Australia. The oldest dated zircon crystals, enclosed in a metamorphosed sandstone conglomerate in the Jack Hills of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane of Western Australia, date to 4.404 ± 0.008 Ga. This zircon is a slight outlier, with the oldest consistently - dated zircon falling closer to 4.35 Ga -- around 200 million years after the hypothesized time of the Earth 's formation. In many other areas, xenocryst ( or relict ) Hadean zircons enclosed in older rocks indicate that younger rocks have formed on older terranes and have incorporated some of the older material. One example occurs in the Guiana shield from the Iwokrama Formation of southern Guyana where zircon cores have been dated at 4.22 Ga. Atmosphere and oceans A sizeable quantity of water would have been in the material that formed the Earth. Water molecules would have escaped Earth 's gravity more easily when it was less massive during its formation. Hydrogen and helium are expected to continually escape ( even to the present day ) due to atmospheric escape. Part of the ancient planet is theorized to have been disrupted by the impact that created the Moon, which should have caused melting of one or two large regions of the Earth. Earth 's present composition suggests that there was not complete remelting as it is difficult to completely melt and mix huge rock masses. However, a fair fraction of material should have been vaporized by this impact, creating a rock vapor atmosphere around the young planet. The rock vapor would have condensed within two thousand years, leaving behind hot volatiles which probably resulted in a heavy CO atmosphere with hydrogen and water vapor. Liquid water oceans existed despite the surface temperature of 230 ° C ( 446 ° F ) because at an atmospheric pressure of above 27 atmospheres, caused by the heavy CO atmosphere, water is still liquid. As cooling continued, subduction and dissolving in ocean water removed most CO from the atmosphere but levels oscillated wildly as new surface and mantle cycles appeared. Studies of zircons have found that liquid water must have existed as long ago as 4.4 billion years ago, very soon after the formation of the Earth. This requires the presence of an atmosphere. The Cool Early Earth theory covers a range from about 4.4 -- 4.0 billion years. A September 2008 study of zircons found that Australian Hadean rock holds minerals pointing to the existence of plate tectonics as early as 4 billion years. If this is true, the time when Earth finished its transition from having a hot, molten surface and atmosphere full of carbon dioxide, to being very much like it is today, can be roughly dated to about 4.0 billion years ago. The actions of plate tectonics and the oceans trapped vast amounts of carbon dioxide, thereby eliminating the greenhouse effect and leading to a much cooler surface temperature and the formation of solid rock, and possibly even life. See also Chaotian ( geology ) Formation and evolution of the Solar System Hadean zircon History of Earth -- the first sections describe the formation of the Earth Oldest dated rocks Precambrian Timeline of natural history References Jump up ^ `` International Chronostratigraphic Chart 2015 '' ( PDF ). ICS. Retrieved 23 January 2016. Jump up ^ Ogg, J.G. ; Ogg, G. ; Gradstein, F.M. ( 2016 ). A Concise Geologic Time Scale : 2016. Elsevier. p. 20. ISBN 978 - 0 - 444 - 63771 - 0. Jump up ^ `` The Eons of Chaos and Hades '' ( PDF ). Solid Earth. January 26, 2010. Jump up ^ Borenstein, Seth ( 19 October 2015 ). `` Hints of life on what was thought to be desolate early Earth ''. Excite. Yonkers, NY : Mindspark Interactive Network. Associated Press. Retrieved 2015 - 10 - 20. Jump up ^ Bell, Elizabeth A. ; Boehnike, Patrick ; Harrison, T. Mark ; et al. ( 19 October 2015 ). `` Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion - year - old zircon '' ( PDF ). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. Washington, D.C. : National Academy of Sciences. 112 : 14518 -- 21. Bibcode : 2015PNAS... 11214518B. doi : 10.1073 / pnas. 1517557112. ISSN 1091 - 6490. PMC 4664351. PMID 26483481. Retrieved 2015 - 10 - 20. Early edition, published online before print. ^ Jump up to : Wilde, Simon A. ; Valley, John W. ; Peck, William H. ; Graham, Colin M. ( 2001 ). `` Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 Gyr ago ''. Nature. 409 ( 6817 ) : 175 -- 178. doi : 10.1038 / 35051550. Jump up ^ Nadeau, Serge ; Chen, Wei ; Reece, Jimmy ; Lachhman, Deokumar ; Ault, Randy ; Faraco, Maria ; Fraga, Leda ; Reis, Nelson ; Betiollo, Leandro ( 2013 - 12 - 01 ). `` Guyana : the Lost Hadean crust of South America ? ''. Brazilian Journal of Geology. 43 : 601 -- 606. doi : 10.5327 / Z2317 - 48892013000400002. Jump up ^ Drake, Michael J. ( 2005 ), `` Origin of water in the terrestrial planets '' ( PDF ), Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 40 ( 4 ) : 515 -- 656, Bibcode : 2005M&PS... 40... 515J, doi : 10.1111 / j. 1945 - 5100.2005. tb00958. x, archived from the original ( PDF ) on 2011 - 10 - 09. Jump up ^ Solar System Exploration : Science & Technology : Science Features : View Feature Jump up ^ Sleep, N.H. ; Zahnle, K. ; Neuhoff, P.S. ( 2001 ), `` Initiation of clement surface conditions on the earliest Earth '', PNAS, 98 ( 7 ) : 3666 -- 3672, Bibcode : 2001PNAS... 98.3666 S, doi : 10.1073 / pnas. 071045698, PMC 31109, PMID 11259665. Jump up ^ ANU - Research School of Earth Sciences - ANU College of Science - Harrison Archived 2006 - 06 - 21 at Archive.is Jump up ^ ANU - OVC - MEDIA - MEDIA RELEASES - 2005 - NOVEMBER - 181105HARRISONCONTINENTS Jump up ^ A Cool Early Earth ^ Jump up to : Chang, Kenneth ( December 2, 2008 ). `` A New Picture of the Early Earth ''. The New York Times. ^ Jump up to : Abramov, Oleg ; Mojzsis, Stephen J. ( December 2008 ). `` Thermal State of the Lithosphere During Late Heavy Bombardment : Implications for Early Life ''. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts. Fall Meeting 2008 : American Geophysical Union. 1 ( 2008 Fall Meeting ). Bibcode : 2008AGUFM. V11E... 08A. Retrieved 24 May 2015. Further reading Hopkins, Michelle ; Harrison, T. Mark ; Manning, Craig E. ( 2008 ), `` Low heat flow inferred from > 4 Gyr zircons suggests Hadean plate boundary interactions '', Nature, 456 ( 7221 ) : 493 -- 496, Bibcode : 2008Natur. 456... 493H, doi : 10.1038 / nature07465, PMID 19037314. Valley, John W. ; Peck, William H. ; King, Elizabeth M. ( 1999 ), `` Zircons Are Forever '', The Outcrop for 1999, University of Wisconsin - Madison, retrieved January 10, 2006 -- Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 Gyr ago. Wilde, S.A. ; Valley, J.W. ; Peck, W.H. & Graham, C.M. ( 2001 ), `` Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 Gyr ago '', Nature, 409 ( 6817 ) : 175 -- 178, doi : 10.1038 / 35051550, PMID 11196637. Wyche, S. ; Nelson, D.R. & Riganti, A. ( 2004 ), `` 4350 -- 3130 Ma detrital zircons in the Southern Cross Granite -- Greenstone Terrane, Western Australia : implications for the early evolution of the Yilgarn Craton '', Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 51 ( 1 ) : 31 -- 45, Bibcode : 2004AuJES... 51... 31W, doi : 10.1046 / j. 1400 - 0952.2003. 01042. x. Carley, Tamara L. ; et al. ( 2014 ), `` Iceland is not a magmatic analog for the Hadean : Evidence from the zircon record '', Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 405 ( 1 ) : 85 -- 97, Bibcode : 2014E&PSL. 405... 85C, doi : 10.1016 / j. epsl. 2014.08. 015. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hadean. Palaeos.org : Hadean eon Peripatus.nz : Description of the Hadean Era Astronoo.com : Hell of the Hadean Hadean Eon Cryptic Basin Groups Nectarian Lower Imbrian The Hadean does not have any subdivisions recognized by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. These subdivisions represent one proposal that is loosely based on the lunar geologic time scale. Geologic history of Earth Cenozoic era1 ( present -- 66.0 Mya ) Quaternary ( present -- 2.588 Mya ) Holocene ( present -- 11.784 kya ) Pleistocene ( 11.784 kya -- 2.588 Mya ) Neogene ( 2.588 -- 23.03 Mya ) Pliocene ( 2.588 -- 5.333 Mya ) Miocene ( 5.333 -- 23.03 Mya ) Paleogene ( 23.03 -- 66.0 Mya ) Oligocene ( 23.03 -- 33.9 Mya ) Eocene ( 33.9 -- 56.0 Mya ) Paleocene ( 56.0 -- 66.0 Mya ) Mesozoic era1 ( 66.0 -- 251.902 Mya ) Cretaceous ( 66.0 -- 145.0 Mya ) Late ( 66.0 -- 100.5 Mya ) Early ( 100.5 -- 145.0 Mya ) Jurassic ( 145.0 -- 201.3 Mya ) Late ( 145.0 -- 163.5 Mya ) Middle ( 163.5 -- 174.1 Mya ) Early ( 174.1 -- 201.3 Mya ) Triassic ( 201.3 -- 251.902 Mya ) Late ( 201.3 -- 237 Mya ) Middle ( 237 -- 247.2 Mya ) Early ( 247.2 -- 251.902 Mya ) Paleozoic era1 ( 251.902 -- 541.0 Mya ) Permian ( 251.902 -- 298.9 Mya ) Lopingian ( 251.902 -- 259.8 Mya ) Guadalupian ( 259.8 -- 272.3 Mya ) Cisuralian ( 272.3 -- 298.9 Mya ) Carboniferous ( 298.9 -- 358.9 Mya ) Pennsylvanian ( 298.9 -- 323.2 Mya ) Mississippian ( 323.2 -- 358.9 Mya ) Devonian ( 358.9 -- 419.2 Mya ) Late ( 358.9 -- 382.7 Mya ) Middle ( 382.7 -- 393.3 Mya ) Early ( 393.3 -- 419.2 Mya ) Silurian ( 419.2 -- 443.8 Mya ) Pridoli ( 419.2 -- 423.0 Mya ) Ludlow ( 423.0 -- 427.4 Mya ) Wenlock ( 427.4 -- 433.4 Mya ) Llandovery ( 433.4 -- 443.8 Mya ) Ordovician ( 443.8 -- 485.4 Mya ) Late ( 443.8 -- 458.4 Mya ) Middle ( 458.4 -- 470.0 Mya ) Early ( 470.0 -- 485.4 Mya ) Cambrian ( 485.4 -- 541.0 Mya ) Furongian ( 485.4 -- 497 Mya ) Series 3 ( 497 -- 509 Mya ) Series 2 ( 509 -- 521 Mya ) Terreneuvian ( 521 -- 541.0 Mya ) Proterozoic eon2 ( 541.0 Mya -- 2.5 Gya ) Neoproterozoic era ( 541.0 Mya -- 1 Gya ) Ediacaran ( 541.0 - ~ 635 Mya ) Cryogenian ( ~ 635 - ~ 720 Mya ) Tonian ( ~ 720 Mya - 1 Gya ) Mesoproterozoic era ( 1 -- 1.6 Gya ) Stenian ( 1 - 1.2 Gya ) Ectasian ( 1.2 - 1.4 Gya ) Calymmian ( 1.4 - 1.6 Gya ) Paleoproterozoic era ( 1.6 -- 2.5 Gya ) Statherian ( 1.6 - 1.8 Gya ) Orosirian ( 1.8 - 2.05 Gya ) Rhyacian ( 2.05 - 2.3 Gya ) Siderian ( 2.3 - 2.5 Gya ) Archean eon2 ( 2.5 -- 4 Gya ) Eras Neoarchean ( 2.5 -- 2.8 Gya ) Mesoarchean ( 2.8 -- 3.2 Gya ) Paleoarchean ( 3.2 -- 3.6 Gya ) Eoarchean ( 3.6 -- 4 Gya ) Hadean eon2 ( 4 -- 4.6 Gya ) kya = thousands years ago. Mya = millions years ago. Gya = billions years ago. 1 = Phanerozoic eon. 2 = Precambrian supereon. Source : ( 2017 / 02 ). International Commission on Stratigraphy. Retrieved 13 July 2015. Divisions of Geologic Time -- Major Chronostratigraphic and Geochronologic Units USGS Retrieved 10 March 2013. GND : 7860411 - 4 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hadean&oldid=836954027 '' Categories : Geological eons Geological history of Earth Hadean Precambrian Precambrian geochronology Hidden categories : Webarchive template archiveis links Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2016 All articles containing potentially dated statements Articles containing potentially dated statements from February 2017 Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Afrikaans বাংলা Беларуская Български Brezhoneg Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Euskara فارسی Français Galego 한국어 Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ಕನ್ನಡ Қазақша Latina Lietuvių Magyar Bahasa Melayu Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk nynorsk Plattdüütsch Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog ไทย Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 粵語 中文 41 more Edit links This page was last edited on 17 April 2018, at 21 : 02. 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Question: how did the hadean eon get its name
Answer: Hades