Learn How the Earth Was Made | Full Documentary (S2, E3) | History

This video transcript explores the geological mystery of the birth of the Earth. Scientists investigate how the Earth first formed from the dust of the solar system, how molten rocks solidified to land, how oceans filled with water, and how life arrived on Earth. They discover that meteorites are older than any rocks on Earth, and use this key to unlock the secret of Earth's formation. They theorize that mineral grains in the solar dust cloud collided and stuck together, forming small pieces of rock that eventually grew into the Earth. They also discover that the Earth melted from the inside out due to the incorporation of hot radioactive elements, and that it only took 30 million years for the planet to grow to almost its present size. They then try to figure out the age of the Earth, with the Irish Archbishop James Usher calculating it to be October 23, 2004 BC. Geologists then realize that the earth must be much older than that, and physicist Ernest Rutherford discovers that measuring radioactive decay can accurately date the age of rocks. In 1953, C.C. Patterson dates a meteorite and finds that the earth is 4.5 billion years old. Bill Hartman proposes a radical new theory that the moon was formed by debris from a collision between the earth and another planet. The investigation then moves on to the mystery of the origin of Earth's water and life, with scientists discovering evidence of liquid water trapped inside salt crystals in a 4.5 billion year old meteorite, and amino acids, the building blocks of life, found in meteorites. Finally, the episode discusses the emergence of stromatolites, which were made by cyanobacteria that produced oxygen through photosynthesis, changing the atmosphere of Earth forever and allowing for the evolution of all plant and animal life.