The World Before Plate Tectonics

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There was a time in Earth’s history that was so stable, geologists once called it the Boring Billion. But the fact is, this period was anything but boring. In fact, it set the stage for our modern version of plate tectonics - and probably for the rise of life as we know it.
Thanks to Fabrizio de Rossi for the excellent supercontinent reconstructions: / artoffabricious
This video features a map by the USGS as well as this Paleogeographic Map: Scotese, C.R., 2019. Plate Tectonics, Paleogeography, and Ice Ages, KZbin video: • Scotese Plate Tectonic... .
Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: / pbsdigitalstudios
Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
Anthony Callaghan, Heathe Kyle Yeakley, Anton Bryl, Jeff Graham, Shelley Floryd, Laura Sanborn, Henrik Peteri, Zachary Spencer, Chandler Bass, Joao Ascensao, Andrey, Ben Thorson, Marcus Lejon, Ilya Murashov, Jerrit Erickson, Merri Snaidman, David Sewall, Leonid, Gabriel Cortez, Jack Arbuckle, Robert Noah, Philip Slingerland, Todd Dittman, Ben Cooper, James Bording, Eric Vonk, Robert Arévalo, Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle, Jon Monteiro, Missy Elliott Smith, Jonathan Wright, Gregory Donovan, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, PS, Brad, Maria Humphrey, Larry Wilson, Hubert Rady, John Vanek, Tsee Lee, Daisuke Goto, Gregory Kintz, Matt Parker, Tyson Cleary, Case Hill, Stefan Weber, Betsy Radley
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References: docs.google.co...

[@turpialito]

This channel is a jewel. To me, one of KZbin's very finest. Thanks so much.

[@areiahibbitt9124]

Really could not agree more, idk how i would be surviving without these guys

[@jimmym3352]

This and Space Time, and it's Okay to be Smart.

[@DmDrae]

Amen

[@royv.d.v4477]

Jeah and jake paul right

[@nakenmil]

Absolutely. This is what KZbin was made for.

[@KetchupBlood94]

The word Nuna took me by surprise for a moment as it is a word from Inuit languages, Kalaallisut being my native language. "Nuna" simply means "Land".

[@Arc125]

Cool! That's probably where it's from. Better than calling it Columbia, too confusing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_(supercontinent) And I mean also... because y'know... lets not name things after Columbus.

[@mayday6916]

In Swedish slang, Nuna means face :-)

[@alanlee1355]

We learned something today. 🤯

[@OrdinaryCritic]

Interesting. “Nuna” seem to be a cognate of “duta” and “yuta” in my dialect (Hiligaynon from some islands in the Philippines). The words have very similar tongue placement, and mean the same thing: land. I’m not saying that the words are related, but they’re quite similar to my ear.

[@blastulae]

The Ur-supercontinent Nuna is now more often referred to as Columbia.

[@Webberjo]

In case anyone's curious, the names of the supercontinents in order from oldest to youngest are: Vaalbara Ur Kenorland Arctica Atlantica Columbia (Nuna) Rodinia Pannotia Gondwana Laurasia and Gondwana Pangaea

[@toucanpam1281]

For everyone wondering the REAL super continents in order from youngest to oldest here you go: Ohio “It’s all Ohio?” You might say. *clocks gun* Always has been.

[@zorakj]

Cool! Thank you!

[@bruhmingo]

I didn’t know there were so many lmao

[@evosagan2877]

Cheers. I'd only heard of the last few on the list and this is a subject I love

[@faithfullyfaded4206]

Much obliged, I wasn't aware of this

[@Jatt2613]

"Hey supercontinent, what's your name?" "Nuna ya business."

[@joshou3759]

No

[@nunya___]

Hey now that's MY super continent. 😉❤️

[@southaussielad2496]

That's gold 😂

[@jimmyshrimbe9361]

Oahkery I wish I could take away all of your "likes". You don't deserve a single one.

[@gabor6259]

Forced.

[@thefreakmachine]

Geologists call it the Boring Billion. Then came Disco.

[@TheAdekrijger]

You my friend are one funny two-legger.

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Leonardo Crocetta I hate the term boring billion. But I like your comment.

[@donkeyslayer4661]

As I remember it, Disco resulted in catastrophic mass extinction... of rock.

[@MalaysianTropikfusion]

@@donkeyslayer4661 AFAIK, rock wrecked disco in the 80s.

[@faizalf119]

Then the plates start moving and don't stop moving because disco is not dead

[@objectivelypatrician5023]

"Geologists have opinions about that" How dare they

[@bidishadey3815]

🤣🤣🤣

[@Muskoxing]

It's true! I actually disagree with the conclusions in this video: I think plate tectonics is way older than 800 million years, and different processes were responsible for the boring billion. Source: I'm a geology grad student studying exactly this!

[@grauwolf1604]

And nobody expected an opinion!

[@amacuro]

@@Muskoxing hey Adam, I'm not expert on this at all but wondering how you explain some of the things mentioned in this video, like for example no Archean metamorphic rocks that reached a mantle-deep depth, other than the mantle was too hot and would melt anything that approaches that depth?

[@troop22airsoft7]

@@Muskoxing hi I don’t have any good questions like the guy above me but what school do you go to

[@francoislacombe9071]

How far back in time could a stranded time traveler still survive by living off the land?

[@НазарИльдаров]

Devonian. Plant life expanded and diversified and there wasnt anything on land that could harm human (as we know for now).

[@bdsingletary]

Very good question

[@theunknown4645]

Most likely we won't the food will be vastly different and we probably wouldn't even be able to digest these ancient plants

[@jacobvardy]

Maybe 500,000 years ago, with the rise of homo sapiens. Humans are a deeply social species. Co-operation is our competitive advantage. Most people can not survive long term isolation. You start to see neurological decay after a week in solitary confinement. Part of being a co-operative species is having access to a store of knowledge developed by ancestors. What is safe to eat. What is poisonous or venomous. How to take shelter. How to forage. All of which gets taught in childhood. Humans have a greater store of knowledge that includes stuff like how to make tools, and when the rains will come. Little of which a stranded time traveler would have. Even if a lone time traveler can bare up mentally, and actually know what is safe to eat,, it is almost inevitable that there will be some accident that will prevent them from foraging for a period. Which is the start of a disaster cascade, as they get less and less able to survive. Long term survival requires hooking up with other homo sapiens. Although maybe others from the homo genus would do in a pinch.

[@НазарИльдаров]

@@theunknown4645 Ironically ancient plants could've been safer to eat. Because toxins that modern plants have, evolved as defence mechanism against herbivores. No herbivores - no need for defence of any kind

[@martijnjanssen7789]

This channel makes me feel like a kid again. I always used to want to be a paleontologist and you guys make me feel a bit closer to that dream :)

[@chrissmook5307]

me too. But not because i wanted to be a paleontologist, but by the way she speaks like a kindergarten teacher.

[@ExploringExotics]

I always wanted to be one too. Ive moved to herpology/zoology but paleontology will always hold a special place in my heart

[@dexterricketts8490]

If the old 1950's grammar school books were true concerning geology our planet would STILL be a "stagnant lid" planet w/o plate tectonics because plate tectonics was pretty much laughed at in the world of our grandparents.

[@Misses-Hippy]

And watching videos is much easier on the back!

[@stuartsummers1303]

The best thing about this channel is the lack of comments from people denying evolution and the fact the earth is billions of years old.

[@kit_the_inevitable]

@@gkraith2995 idk what's up with you but this dude is literally just pointing out the lack of those comments... a lot of other sci vids have them so it's a valid thing to notice. they're literally saying it's a good thing (i think)

[@cadenrolland5250]

That is not common any more. There are calls by religious leaders to start pushing their beliefs on others periodically. It doesn't last long and the zealots expose themselves to new ideas that they would never have gotten otherwise, opening their eyes to the much bigger, much more complicated, world around them. If I remember correctly the last big religious onslaught was about 6 or 7 years ago, and reasonable discussions about biology and geology of any kind in the comment section were almost impossible.

[@gyozakeynsianism]

I think they just block them. Which is the right thing to do. They are just polluting the discussion and making learning harder for many.

[@ferengiprofiteer9145]

I don't want to start anything but I'm a saved Christian. I'm into my eighth decade on this rock and have been fascinated by and studied science my entire life. Geology is one of my favorites. And paleontology, and biology and astronomy and electromagnetism. All of it. Einstein proved time is relative. 6 billion, 6 thousand, or 6 days. There are places in this universe where each is the true age. It's all so fascinating and elegant and wonderous for us. Just us (so far). I don't get why many scientists claim atheism nor why religious folks deny science. To me every discovery, invention, change in perspective is another brushstroke on the portrait of god. I can't see how all the dominoes were set up just so and the first one fell over by accident. It's beyond me not to have a creator. I am gnostic about Christ. I can't shake him. He won't let go. My prayers get answered a lot. Haven't been a member of a church in 50 years. Maybe I am starting something. We know we don't know everything. The more we know, the less reason I see to reject the notion that there is intelligence behind it. A lot of us are jazzed about learning stuff. I mean life committing jazzed. Where did that come from? It's almost like it was built in.

[@yeetusfeetus5508]

No its 2020 years old

[@humanetrout8805]

You know, I wouldn't mind being a squishy microbe.

[@paisenpaisen]

what if we’re just oversized squishy microbes

[@marzocchi_bummer0784]

Ll Lll hll look ou L ko

[@marzocchi_bummer0784]

Pbh

[@marzocchi_bummer0784]

Hllhllhhll Poul h u

[@marzocchi_bummer0784]

Edie STEWART pour h Phlhhu P to

[@StitchTheFox]

I love it when they do geology videos

[@k_andr3]

I see you like roccs

[@vigilantsycamore8750]

The Boring Billion: a long period of time where (supposedly) very little happened 2020: a short period of time where *everything* happens

[@LawrenceCaldwellAuthor]

Wacko culture is something to behold, no?

[@Camaika1997]

-Cries in 2022

[@tnoelart]

You guys make actually learning about Earth fun. Ive been a patron for a few months now, happy to support a channel promoting knowledge!

[@gyozakeynsianism]

I've been a patron Patreon for over a year and it's worth every penny.

[@Muskoxing]

I'm currently doing my Masters on the tectonics of the Boring Billion! This is a great video, that I'll definitely link to my friends to explain what I'm studying! You're definitely right that there's debate about this, the start of modern-style plate tectonics is a hot topic (no pun intended) in geology right now. With regards to the comment at 7:15 about finding minerals exclusive to deep subduction indicating the start of plate tectonics, Palin & White (2016) and Korenaga (2016) showed that those minerals might not have been able to form during early Earth history due to the different composition of the subducting crust. So it's possible that blueschist-facies subduction went on earlier, despite the lack of old blueschists. There's also geochemical evidence for thicker continental crust all the way from the Archean to present (Balica et al 2020), which would indicate consistent modern style plate tectonics starting at about 3.2 Ga. Roberts (2013) attributes the thin crust during the Mesoproterozoic to 'lid tectonics', where the supercontinent Nuna insulated the underlying mantle, keeping things hot and thin. Neat stuff! Great video as always! Edit: said eclogite when I meant blueschist. Whoops!

[@Ullmannite]

Hmmm, what rocks do they expect instead of eclogite? I was also wondering if the metamorphosis in this time differs due to the over all higher temperature in the mantle. Is it then more like HP granulite? Great to have a expert in the comment section!

[@Muskoxing]

@@Ullmannite Ah, that should say 'blueschist' instead of eclogite. Whoops! Palin and White showed using phase petrology that the more Mg-rich mid-ocean-ridge basalt (MORB) that you'd have in the Archean/Proterozoic should generate a mineral assemblage that looks like greenschist, rather than glaucophane like you'd expect in blueschist. So some of the 'greenschists' in greenstone belts may actually be obducted blueschists. There's even some simple chemistry that you can do to show that, though as far as I know no work on that has yet been done.

[@Eveseptir]

What did the pacific ocean look like before plate spreading?

[@Muskoxing]

@@Eveseptir It didn't really exist. None of the oceanic crust today is more than a few hundred million years old. Oceanic plates in the Archean were similar to today, but the ocean would have been bit shallower since everything was hotter.

[@RobertWF42]

If the Earth's early crust was a uniform layer of basalt covered by ocean, what initiated the first phase of crustal melting (or plate tectonics) if every spot on Earth looked the same? Large meteorite impacts? Differences in the Earth's rotational velocity at higher latitudes?

[@gabethisismyname]

Holy, as a geologist I can say this was pretty accurate and VERY didactic. What a video, congratulations. Sharing this with all my community.

[@eons]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@antwan1357]

I have a hard time imagining the earth without plate tectonics.

[@nyoodmono4681]

Earth was pretty much just a huge shallow ocean

[@jamesmueller8701]

maybe like seattle is now ??? LOL

[@EuropaMilkshake]

Just have a look at Venus: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Venus#Tectonic_activity

[@AgentJRock805]

... .. Mars!

[@AgentJRock805]

@@404here5 Because people in Asia look like people in the middle east which look like Africans who look like Europeans. We essentially evolved on a supercontinent or a landmass all connected to each other in which we can migrate.

[@Muskoxing]

First of all, this is a fantastic video. I'm actually doing my Masters on this exact topic! However, the claim at 7:15 is not supported by the latest science. The mineral referred to is glaucophane, which can only occur in modern-style cold steep subduction zones. Korenaga (2016) showed that glucophane would not have been able to be formed before around 800 Ma, due to the different composition of oceanic crust. Therefore, the appearance of glaucophane-bearing rocks does not mark the start of modern-style plate tectonics. There's lots of other evidence for plate tectonics being much, much older. Balica et al (2020) showed evidence for tectonics all the way back in the Archean 3.3 billion years ago.

[@granodiorite9032]

In-text citation in a comment?? slow down there bud.

[@Muskoxing]

@@granodiorite9032 Gotta cite your sources!

[@gwenstarnes1177]

I am glad you said this! I found it hard to believe that a hotter Earth with a thinner crust would have no plate tectonics. I can imagine the convection currents being less uniform and not making giant rifts like we have today, but not nonexistent.

[@Muskoxing]

@@gwenstarnes1177 More intense plate tectonics isn't straight-up correlated to a hotter mantle. A hot thin crust will behave quite differently than modern plate tectonics. During the early Archean you had more vertical tectonics. 'Granite-greenstone belts' is the search term if you want to learn more.

[@gwenstarnes1177]

Ooo! Thanks for the research topic! I'll look into that.

[@snorgonofborkkad]

Can you imagine an earth with no life on land? How incredibly eerie it would be to stand on a beach during that time.

[@samuelbedsole5089]

Nothing but the sound of the surf and wind, your only company the bacterial colonies out in the shallows and the muck in the tide pools.

[@sorrenblitz805]

As a former time traveler, I don't actually need to imagine it. It was pretty peaceful, just some wind, the sound of the ocean, had to breathe through an oxygen unit cause there was too much CO² in the air but I gotta say, ancient earth, looked a lot like every 70's sludge/stoner metal album cover ever depending on when and where you go to. Word of advice though if you do figure out how to build a time machine for yourself, there's gonna be a lot of trial and error, space and time aren't always synchronous, and I've had many trips where I did in fact travel through time but my position in real space didn't change meaning I was stuck floating in space 500 million years in the past. I found I had higher luck in remaining spacially synchronized with shorter jumps. Oh and if anyone ever tries to tell you to upgrade your temporal displacement system with a Strong Force Amplification Coil Loop, you tell them to shove it those things are a total scam. The loop filaments overheated and shattered ALL THE TIME, I made that mistake and now my time machine is dead because I don't remember how I built the original hydrogen fueled subatomic oscillation matrix.

[@davidevans3227]

​@@sorrenblitz805 so you're stuck here with us now? sorry.. 🙂

[@justnoah2073]

Scrat is the reason why this is no longer the world we live in.

[@buddha5446]

I misread this as "scat" at first.

[@foreyfriend145]

..and is not longer "boring". Finally a qualified opinion, thx.

[@mostlytypical3275]

Lmaoooooo XD

[@zakz5319]

I dislike u

[@justnoah2073]

@@zakz5319 hey that's rude.

[@RoyceD95]

Please do a video on every super continent!! And the animals that used to live in that era!!

[@alexiscoutinho8078]

I think they already talked about the supercontinents saga.

[@RoyceD95]

@@alexiscoutinho8078 I mean a video that details each continent, with their respective wildlife's and eco systems. So a video per super-continent ...My mouth is watering just thinking about it :P

[@spencerfry6395]

I second this

[@michaelblacktree]

I didn't realize plate tectonics was a recent thing (geologically speaking). Thanks for sharing! 👍

[@Muskoxing]

It's an intense debate in geology actually. 800 million years ago is way on the young end of estimates. Many researchers (myself included) believe modern-style plate tectonics started in the Archean, around 3 billion years ago.

[@I_am_a_cat_]

You should look up earthquakes in your area. I just did, and it's insane how often they happen. Mostly small ones that we don't even feel, but still. I live on the Pacific subduction zone, so we definitely don't want a big one any time soon. We get little earth quakes at least once a day here though, just don't feel them because they're so deep

[@extragoogleaccount6061]

@@Muskoxing Finished your degree? Any update on the estimated start of plate techtonics?

[@kunaljain712]

Yeah, absolutely. But I guess 90% Geologically speaking, and 10% Astronomically speaking too! 🙂

[@geraldinegaynor1360]

I really value these videos from you. I am a retired registered nurse and have been studying the creation of the earth ( among other things ) since the coming of Covid. I love learning and find your programs easy to understand and very informative. I tell people that I am learning through the University of U Tube. Keep up the good work. Much appreciated.

[@RXTRUX1]

The moon was much closer causing much more crustal flexing.

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Yiglic Persfactious the moon being closer would have had an effect for sure. We just don’t know how much. Mercury, Venus, and Mars have no large moons.

[@ZeusTheIrritable]

Crustal Flexing is the name of my Guns n Roses cover band.

[@Nilguiri]

@@nibrocnoel3240 Norom.

[@terryowens3860]

Wouldn't that raise the question on why/ how it was a landmass in the first place?

[@RXTRUX1]

@D K Tidal bores must have been insane.

[@freezingmoon5663]

I love this channel so much, watched almost everything you ever posted. There's just an overwhelming feeling when you think what odds we beat to exist right now, but also how crazy it is that all lined up favorably for life, and how insignificant we actually are on the timeline of billions of years. This channel is amazing.

[@connarcomstock161]

"It's all Ohio..." *gun* "Always has been..."

[@guyperson5832]

Was looking for this

[@marik354]

I was searching for this comment

[@c-fink]

O-H

[@Noman1000]

Should have made that the globe in the beginning 🤣

[@itzmedb8290]

its really hard to focus on the video because the Ohio Super Continent is all i can think about

[@rohitdeb6664]

Noob question: why did continents form in the first place? I mean, why were certain parts of the crust thicker than others during the 'supercontinent era', if I may call it that?

[@Muskoxing]

This is a great question, and a hot debate in geology! The initial crust of the earth would have a silica-poor basaltic composition, like the oceanic crust of today. When you start to melt a basalt, the first fraction to melt is more silica-rich than what you started with. This more silica-rich crust is less dense, so it sits ('floats') higher in the mantle. This is the first continental crust! The first continents likely accumulated from these initial blocks of crust piling up together.

[@toniatchison3678]

@@Muskoxing well done! Great explanation without getting too complex.

[@thatgirlinautumn5995]

@@Muskoxing Thank you so much! That's really interesting 😊

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Adam Brudner that’s a good way of putting it!

[@gibranhenriquedesouza2843]

This can lead to a nice video!

[@b.rileyjowett6925]

I love how you guys can make an interesting video covering something as broad as plate tectonics, or something as isolated as the evolutionary history of a single species of animal on an island, it’s one of my favorite aspects of this channel.

[@akumaking1]

Next time someone complains about life being boring, show them this video and/or time-travel them to the era for a little bit.

[@seamon9732]

Remember to bring oxygen tanks and lots of as high as possible SPF solar cream! :D

[@JosephSchneider26]

"Hot fresh ocean crust" now I'm hungry. Time for some plate tectonics.

[@CelloMaster2000]

See, the world before plant life is so mind boggling. We have become so used to the idea of grass and trees being part of our everyday environments that seeing a time without it is strange. For me at least, I consider grass and moss as part of the ground. And when I see recreations of pre-life earth it always amazes me how much plant life actually affects us

[@davidevans3227]

uk is very green.. i like that 🙂

[@ronnie4697]

This episode just further proves that PBS Eons is one of the best programs on KZbin. I love when they dive into very early times on earth like this.

[@walterjimenez6565]

Man, I love Geology. Just took a course at college and completely fell in love with it !

[@davidevans3227]

even starting to get into geology on Mars!

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

You should see the geology around the Sudbury crater.

[@alexandermaier8332]

I have just discovered this channel and I just want to say God bless whoever came up with this. Its amazing.

[@29jgirl92]

No matter how much I learn about this topic, I am still always overwhelmed by how old the earth is, and how much it has been through and how our lives are just tiny little blips in comparison!!

[@toniatchison3678]

My favorite topic-- Plate techtonics! I would love to see a video covering the Illinois Basin, and how that formation also gave us faults and Starved Rock. The little bit I've learned so far is fascinating!

[@gabor6259]

Oddly enough you can't spell the name of your favorite topic.

[@toniatchison3678]

@@gabor6259, I am often guilty of ignoring Spell check when I'm in a hurry, lol.

[@toniatchison3678]

@Dana Chapin thank you! I'll check the library!

[@drew-shourd]

"Like cookies right outta the oven".....crap!!...now I gotta bake some cookies....hahahahaha...great video!! THANX!

[@nathanwindom3978]

I guess you could say this episode really helped PBS Eons live up to its name.

[@WickedWildlife]

Could you do a video on the divergence between marsupials, monotremes and eutherians?

[@snowwyflake]

Check out their video titled “How the Egg Came First”

[@bumblingfool2211]

Am i right in assuming eutherians are mammals?

[@MaureenLycaon]

@@bumblingfool2211 Yep. They're placental mammals. (Well, okay, the early forms may not have had a placenta yet, so weren't strictly speaking placentals. But that's a technical distinction most people probably wouldn't care about.)

[@LiamborninDC]

I love how even PBS Eons' world map doesn't include New Zealand, which technically is its own continent.

[@bluecapeprincestudios3446]

Ooo cool! Watching documentaries about Earth is what's been getting me through this pandemic! Now another cool video to watch yahs!

[@pancake9656]

Lol

[@KWifler]

I remember before internet. When I was sick and bedridden and had to start permanent quarantine. It has come a very long way since then. Almost far enough to make permanent quarantine bearable.

[@kristinerivera6637]

Slow progress is still progress, they call it boring yet it’s calm and clean

[@alannao2535]

It brough me back to my geology class and made me feel so excited about the rock cycle and the plates movements . I love your channel!! Looking forward to the next videos.

[@piotrkowalewski1111]

I got addicted to watching PBS Eons. Thanks a lot! Your content helps me to teach about Earth's history and rocks better in my environmental classes.

[@jimspace3000]

I love this channel, one of the best on KZbin. You make complicated and controversial subjects easy to understand.

[@ChristmasLore]

I'm french. I don't get how any of this could be even slightly controversial, but then we don't have religious crazies here, and they most certainly wouldn't have a say about public education. It's a scary thought. (But then, most comments' sections of KZbin scare me, so does Twitter.)

[@jimspace3000]

@@ChristmasLore hi, well this video is not controversial, but when Eons does broach a controversial subject (like support for human evolution), they diffuse the tension and make it easier to understand.

[@ChristmasLore]

@@jimspace3000 , I got it, but I what I wrote having specifically evolution in mind. Around here, we only have a handful of mormons doubting it, and that's about it 🍃 But indeed they're doing amazing job, making it easy enough to understand even to people to whom these topics are not their usual field.

[@jimspace3000]

@@ChristmasLore yes that’s it. LOL about the handful of Mormons. And yes the KZbin comments section can be a scary place depending on the channel. 👍

[@limaman7262]

Yes a new Eons video! Love you guys! Pumping out videos even with a pandemic ❤️

[@76rjackson]

Not only was the ocean low in O2 and high in sulfur, it was getting stirred around by tides from a moon that was considerably closer. Would love to see an episode somewhere that would quantity this and describe it. Some smart people on the internet have done the math and the numbers seem to indicate tides a kilometer high because the power of the moon's gravity is increased by the square of the distance when the moon was closer back then.

[@antlerking69]

Earth: We must rise up against subduction

[@sodalitia]

Also Earth: hold my crust!

[@jamesfra1311]

Chuck Norris: Not anytime soon

[@frostyboyken]

Wait, did you say "we must rise up against suction of the sub section?" No wonder people are trashing you. /s

[@redactedz6146]

BOTTOM TEXT

[@tehbonehead]

0:05 it may have been more extreme than today, but not more XTREME!! than the late 90s early 2Ks... 😎

[@NoCareBearsGiven]

Disgusting

[@dellaamelia3373]

I love the narrator. It's like a storytelling. And not kind of book-reading. She is my fav than any other narrator! ❤

[@mememaker9146]

Jeopardy app: A very dull time Me: What is the boring period.

[@snorgonofborkkad]

Don’t: Comment Like: This

[@kurtgoetzinger]

I love this KZbin channel! Wonderful content presented on a level the layperson can understand. Keep up the great work!

[@cgaccount3669]

I agree. Their pbs space channel used to be good but evolved into a site for advanced physicists.

[@madelinematthews5693]

The amount of serotonin I get when I see a new video keeps me going

[@hunterc626]

PBS Eons: serious geologic talk about the Ring of Fire Me: (imitating Bloat) THE RING OF FIRE!!

[@danraahauge3777]

Ooh! I think Farron Cousins is great!

[@newbiechu7024]

Shark Bait Ohhh Haa Haa!!!

[@quantumdino]

Ive become completely addicted to this channel. Watching in my lunch half hour.

[@davidec.4021]

Thank you PBS Eons ❤️

[@veggieboyultimate]

This channel can really cover any major events from our planet’s history can’t it? Maybe they could do the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution next?

[@jordanbstone]

Always fascinating. Great channel.

[@thedirty530]

Who need science fiction...when you got life thriving specifically on giant melting fireballs!

[@neiladlington950]

Somewhere 3 billion light years away a distant astronomer in another corner of the universe is just now receiving the arriving photons from our then young galaxy.

[@ericodijk]

I can watch Eons forever, so does my son. Love it!

[@drdon5205]

You guys make fascinating videos. Hats off to the technical crew and the hosts, who are all amazing. I look forward to seeing your videos every week. If I didn't become a physicist, I might have followed your professional path.

[@supervedo1]

Awesome!!! Information is easy to digest. Excellent job guys 👍👍

[@Heavy-metaaal]

I like this channel because it's about Geology, Biology and Paleontology and Chemistry. Very beautiful!

[@thelonelykid1551]

Ok , I was early on an early Earth video. Neat.

[@Panzer_Runner]

Ok, I was early to be alive on Earth. Neat.

[@borikuarokero4309]

Doesnt anyone find it weird that Pangea is just half a planet? Are there any known planets where there is one super continent on one side of the planet and the rest of the planet is covered in oceans. Why was the earth like this? What geological occurrence would have caused one enormous land mass to form in one side of the planet and not the other? If the current theory of how the moon was formed is correct, then, what were seeing with Pangea, may have been the aftermath of the impact that formed the moon.

[@amberrichards2778]

There were 7-9 supercontinent cycles between the formation of the moon and pangea. I think it's interesting how Charles Darwin's son had a similar theory of lunar formation. He thought the early molten Earth spun so quickly the moon lobbed off of it like a water droplet in a centrifuge. He claimed that the Pacific (might have claimed the Atlantic, I'm wrong pretty often) was the scar left behind by the moon leaving.

[@siyacer]

Earth and life are in a symbiotic relationship that goes back billions of years.

[@rekashum7293]

@0 0 yeah true i think we're gonna replace earth with a new home

[@boygenius538_8]

Red I think we’ll just die

[@fuzzy9429]

Pangaea: Hi The crust of the planet: I'm gonna end this man's whole career

[@keithphillips1722]

Wow...94 dislikes...are these people in disagreement with the science? Or bored...or alternate facts?

[@lexiecrewther7038]

Look up EXPANDING EARTH THEORY

[@1TW1-m5i]

@Bob TrenwithHistorically, it was a genuinely considered hypotheses before the continent shapes were explained by plate tectonic theory.

[@odizzido]

Could easily be people on mobile clicking stuff as they scroll. Happens fairly often to me. That's the problem when the screen and interface are the same and only thing.

[@michaeldavis9552]

Probably religious types clinging to a young earth model.

[@matthewwelsh294]

I bet they believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old lol

[@Zaire82]

I think "The Boring Billion" is probably fitting. You aren't interested in the stage crew when they're setting up the play props, you're only here for the actual play. (The boring billion is the stage crew, setting the stage for the _interesting_ part of history)

[@Ciridan]

That moment when you wait on the voice to know is hosting a new video. Like Christmas morning all over again

[@hereigoagain5050]

Thanks PBS! Loved the description of the early mantel as soft cookies just taken out of the oven.

[@claudiomaldonadosalvador591]

The Boring Billion is Earth being emotionally stable before a toxic relationship

[@slacksviii9824]

My grandpa and i just visited the painted hills formation yesterday and the sheep rock formation today and were going to the clarno formation tomorrow in the John day paleontology area!!!

[@meganbruns9353]

I had no idea that there were different names for the supercontinents! Going to be useful at the next trivia night.

[@Muskoxing]

Oh yeah! Fun fact, Nuna used to be called 'Columbia', but the scientific community has been shying away from that name over the past several years, for obvious reasons.

[@chrisjensen8369]

I thoroughly enjoy PBS EONS. A cool surprise at the end of this episode is the ad for the Prehistoric Road Trip. It included a pic of the Snowy Range Pass sign 35 miles west of Laramie, Wyoming. I fly fish regularly within 3 miles of the sign. Float tubing at 10,000ft while watching Bald Eagles fish & moose wander the shore line is a wonderful way to spend a summer day. The road is only open from Labor Day to mid to late October. In Laramie we just got 4" of snow on Tuesday, 9/08/2020.

[@chrisjensen8369]

I meant Memorial Day weekend to late October.

[@sandbanner6556]

STEVE, WE CAN’T FORGET STEVE!!! HI STEVE!!!!! THANKS STEVE!!!!

[@juliem540]

better than 'and the rest of the family'.

[@vancemccarthy2554]

Plate Techtonics as a science is relatively recent. People wondered a hundred or so years ago and were called insane.

[@MrScottdoty]

Absolutely love this channel. I feel like a kid on a Saturday morning again watching these, chomping on a bowl of cereal and watching a 'wild kingdom' show. I learn so much from you folks. Please don't stop!

[@nielsjosefsen431]

These accient rocks that ‘survived’ one of them are in the fiord of the Greenlandic capitol Nuuk. They’re almost 4 billion years old.

[@fatfrog997]

Wow, I was early this time.

[@misoweli]

LaSt TiMe I wAs ThiS eArLy ThE eArTh DidN't HaVe TecToNiCs

[@Winteramen]

Omgme2

[@samsmith2635]

8:21 Iron and Silica, also critical for the Blacksmith :P

[@kit_the_inevitable]

Yum! I very rarely hear about pre-cambrian Earth, so I absolutely loved this vid! Nice and long too UwU

[@Aeronor2001]

When quarantine has you horny for geology

[@TheJohnblyth]

Wonderful perspectives! Thanks, PBS Eons!

[@meouby2]

One of the pbs best channel . Kudos

[@planecrush772]

0:54 The 9 dislikers of this videos are from New Zealand I suppose

[@fredwood8158]

Something people don't seem to take into account is the effect of the young Moon on the thin crusted Earth. When the Moon was formed, both planets were molten with the Earth cooling from the poles toward the plane of the moon's influence. The Moon caused great tides in the liquid surface, some say as much as several hundred feet of rise in a bulge, just as oceans do now, though to a much lesser degree. A thin crust might form but the Moon was moving around the Earth much faster than now and the Earth itself was spinning much faster as well, making that tidal bulge move very fast and keeping the channel clear for a long time, but the edges of the surface, unaffected by the tidal bulge would be growing in thickness and would be caught in the bulge and twisted, even past ninety degrees, up and down. This, aided by the Coriolis effect, may be the cause of Plate Tectonics. No other planet in our system has anything like plate tectonics and none have a moon like ours, formed like ours and acting like ours.

[@mechamudskipper]

"Wait, it's all Ohio?"

[@antjecramer5324]

💀

[@geovidyaa8539]

:) :)

[@BryooCG]

*loads gun* "always been"

[@IamGhede]

The continents spreading at 8:26 is so cool. I wonder if there is a possible stable position the earth will come to and stop continental drift. Would that be possible? Consequences?

[@sarahhartman3360]

Oo, now I'm curious -- when she says at the end that Earth is so far the only planet we've found that has this type of plate tectonics, have we found many planets that definitely *don't* have this type of geologic movement, or is it more a matter of not having found any that definitely do?

[@mek101whatif7]

Mars and Mercury are dead and static. Venus seems to have it's own weird thing where the crust breaks and the mantel errupts, covering the entire surface in magma periodically

[@mathmeetsmusic]

Thanks so much PBS Eons! love your content every time I see it!

[@Crow0567]

This is something I havent looked into before, this'll be an interesting watch 👀

[@triciajohnson8332]

this channel continues to suprise and entertain. thank you for creating it.

[@kevindahlgren8026]

There were less protests in those days. Microbes knew how to get along.

[@amberrichards2778]

The Great Oxygenation Event would like a Word with you

[@samwoodcock5136]

From my own uni studies of early tectonics, I'd contest that the boring billion was pre-tectonic. I'd suggest that tectonics started with the formation of rocks called TTGs in the Archaean. It's late here so I shan't get into too much detail, but their trace element composition tends to suggest that they formed from very deep melting of oceanic crust (or rocks of a similar composition). Though it's possible to generate these without tectonics in some models, there aren't convincing modern TTG analogues formed by hotspots (there's a close one in Króksfjödur, Iceland, formed by melting the base of the crust, but it melted too shallow to get the right composition). Meanwhile, rocks called adakites, which form when subducting plate melts, do act as good modern compositional analogues. That would suggest Archaean subduction, to modern depths. I find it fairly convincing evidence of Archaean tectonics (though it's still a topic of fierce debate). Sorry for no sources and being a bit rambling, it's late here. Maybe I'll reference this tomorrow 😅.

[@jcheck1107]

Man The only thing more volatile than plate tectonics is my ex wife...........I’m sorry I’ll show myself out

[@patrickdyer1224]

PBS does some nice stuff.

[@kingkull9111]

That's when the Elder Things arrived.

[@Articulate99]

Always interesting, thank you.

[@alanlee1355]

Listening to Kallie makes me feel these special feelings. I think I've got a...........

[@damienthonk1506]

... passion for science and geology. Luckily for you, there are plenty more videos on Eons and other channels to make you even smarter :)

[@francoaccifonte2395]

I love this channel