How Did The Atmosphere Form?

Evolution Of Atmosphere

Hello, atmospheric adventurers and skyward dreamers! Have you ever taken a deep breath of fresh air and wondered about the story behind the invisible blanket that envelops our planet? The formation of Earth’s atmosphere is a tale as ancient as the planet itself, woven from the threads of cosmic events, volcanic eruptions, and the breath of life. We’re setting off on a journey through time to uncover the origins of the atmosphere, exploring how it transformed from a thin veil of gases to the life-sustaining envelope we cherish today.

About 4.6 billion years ago, the hot globe was surrounded by a thick layer of its original atmosphere consisting primarily of hydrogen and helium. These light gases tended to float upwards and so gradually escaped into space. The cooling earth was subject to violent volcanic eruptions accompanied by the release of vast amounts of other gases, water vapor, carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane, and sulfur dioxide. At the prevailing high temperatures, ammonia and methane reacted with trace amounts of oxygen, resulting in a secondary atmosphere. It is composed chiefly of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen.

About 3.8 billion years ago, when the Earth’s surface cooled below 100 degrees Celsius, the water vapor condensed to form seas and oceans. Nearly 3 billion years ago, the first primitive life forms developed in blue-green algae and bacteria waters. The former began to utilize solar energy to produce nutrients by photosynthesis. As a result, the oxygen content of the atmosphere started to increase.

Simultaneously, the proportion of carbon dioxide began to fall because the plants absorbed the gas. This plant activity led to the formation of the present atmosphere about 200 million years ago. It has not changed much since then. Today, four-fifths of the atmosphere is nitrogen, which is 21 percent of oxygen. The remaining fraction can be made up of other gases, such as carbon dioxide and water vapor.

From the release of volcanic gases to the miraculous advent of photosynthesis, this exploration promises to reveal the dynamic processes that have shaped the air we breathe. Whether you’re a passionate environmentalist, a curious science enthusiast, or simply someone who loves to ponder the mysteries of nature, this story is bound to captivate and enlighten. So, let’s take a deep breath and dive into the atmospheric tale of how Earth’s protective shroud came to be.

How Did The Atmosphere Form? (History/Evolution)

The formation of the Earth’s atmosphere can be attributed to a combination of processes that occurred during the planet’s early stages of development. Here is a general overview of how the atmosphere formed:

Primordial Atmosphere: The initial atmosphere of the Earth, known as the primordial atmosphere, was primarily composed of gases present during the planet’s formation. These gases were released from the interior through volcanic activity and outgassing from the Earth’s interior. The primordial atmosphere consisted of gases such as water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), and nitrogen (N2).

Outgassing and Volcanic Activity: Volcanoes played a significant role in the early Earth’s atmosphere. Volcanic activity releases gases from the Earth’s interior, including water vapor, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen compounds. These gases were expelled into the atmosphere, gradually accumulating and shaping their composition.

Water Vapor and the Formation of Oceans: As the Earth cooled, water vapor in the atmosphere condensed and formed liquid water on the planet’s surface, giving rise to the Earth’s oceans. This process, known as the “outgassing and condensation” hypothesis, contributed to the significant amount of water in the Earth’s atmosphere and the formation of a water cycle.

Impact Events: During intense meteorite and asteroid impacts known as the Late Heavy Bombardment, which occurred roughly 4 billion years ago, these impacts released large amounts of gases and vaporized rock into the atmosphere. The energy from these impacts also generated substantial heat, which affected the composition and structure of the atmosphere.

Evolution of Life: The emergence of early life on Earth, particularly photosynthetic microorganisms like cyanobacteria, played a crucial role in transforming the atmosphere. These organisms absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and release oxygen as a byproduct. Over millions of years, this process led to the buildup of oxygen in the atmosphere, gradually changing its composition and paving the way for the development of more complex forms of life.

The Sun, the Earth, and other solar system planets were formed when matter coalesced from a rotating nebula approximately 4,567 million years ago. The atmosphere of the earth has been changing regularly since its formation. The Earth’s atmosphere has a thickness of about 100 kilometers.

But above 35 kilometers from the Earth’s surface, the air pressure is so low that water cannot exist in liquid form. The habitable zone is within 5 kilometers of sea level. The highest city globally is La Rinconada in Peru, at an altitude of 5,100 meters (16,700 ft). It has an economy based on gold mining. This city is at about the same elevation as Mt. Everest base camp.

  • The air at this altitude has only 11% oxygen compared to 21% at sea level. The nebula that produced the solar systems originated from the explosion of older stars containing heavy elements like iron. The mass accumulation at the center of the rotating nebula was so large. That gravitational compression initiated hydrogen fusion into helium. Thus giving birth to Sun.

The planets orbit the Sun and are formed by accretion. The heavier elements concentrated in the cores, and the lighter gaseous elements became the atmospheres. The most abundant chemical elements in the Sun are hydrogen, 73.5%, and helium, 24.9%.

All other elements are in concentrations of less than one percent. The atmosphere of Jupiter is a giant planet. It is mostly hydrogen, with about 10% helium and small amounts of other gases like methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and water.

These compositions indicate that the solar system’s nebula originated mainly from hydrogen, helium, and small amounts of heavier elements. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars lost their hydrogen and helium rapidly because their gravitational pull was not strong enough to retain these light elements.

Further away from the Sun, where methane is much colder, it can condense as a liquid. Saturn’s moon, Titan, has a predominantly nitrogen atmosphere with pools of liquid methane on its surface.

When the Earth’s material coalesced and melted, it organized into layers with dense materials at the core and less dense compounds closer to the surface. The atmosphere’s gases formed the outermost layer and were similar to the gases of the condensing planetary nebula.

  • During the Hadean Eon, the Earth’s surface consisted of molten rock, a magma ocean, and water existed only as vapor in the atmosphere.

Hydrogen and helium were lost early in the Hadean Eon due to Earth’s weak gravity. The circulation of molten metallic iron-nickel alloy in the core of the Earth established the magnetosphere. It is a region in space where the Earth’s magnetic field controls the motions of gas and fast-charged particles.

The magnetosphere deflects most solar wind ions before they penetrate the atmosphere. However, the charged particles that are not deflected are directed toward the Earth’s magnetic poles. There are high-energy collisions with atmosphere atoms born in an aurora light display.

History of the Atmosphere

Around 4.45 billion years ago, the Earth experienced a violent collision with a planetoid called Theia, about the size of Mars. The impact added extra mass to the Earth. But some of the impact debris went into orbit and accreted to form the Moon.

The great collision sent much of the atmosphere into space. But most of it remained within the Earth’s gravitational field. It was recaptured when the debris from the giant impact cooled and was partitioned between the Earth. The Moon gave them a similar crustal composition.

Earth’s Hadean atmosphere had methane, ammonia, water vapor, and small nitrogen and carbon dioxide percentages. Around 3.9 billion years ago, a cataclysmic meteorite bombardment kept much of the Earth’s surface molten. The incoming impactors may have brought additional water, methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and other gases that supplemented the atmosphere.

  • During the Hadean eon, the high surface temperature of the Earth favored the depletion of atmospheric methane through the endothermic reaction of methane with steam in the atmosphere. The resulting carbon monoxide is readily combined with metals to form carbonyl compounds.

The Hadean Eon was too hot for liquid water to condense on the surface of the Earth. But water vapor would have condensed at high altitudes in the atmosphere and produced rain. That evaporated as it fell when it approached the ground. Toward the end of the Hadean Eon, volcanic activity started. It was increasing the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The Earth’s surface changed from molten lava to solid rock, and liquid water accumulated on the surface. The crust of the Earth started to cool down during the Archean Eon. Water vapor in the atmosphere decreased as water started condensing into liquid form.

  • Continuous rainfall for millions of years led to the buildup of the oceans. As steam condensed into water, the atmospheric pressure of the Earth decreased. Liquid water dissolved gases like ammonia and removed them from the atmosphere by creating ammonium compounds. Amines and other nitrogen-containing substances are suitable for the origin of life.

Liquid water changed the chemistry of the Earth’s surface. Water combined with sulfur dioxide to produce acid rain created new minerals on the Earth’s surface. Volcanic carbon dioxide peaked during the Archean Eon and decreased by forming carbonate minerals. That resulted from reactions of metals with the carbonic acid generated from carbon dioxide and water.

Evolution of Earth’s atmosphere

How has the Earth’s atmosphere changed over time? Microfossils of sulfur-metabolizing cells have been found in 3.4 billion-year-old rocks. It is known that the first aquatic photosynthetic organisms originated around 3.5 billion years ago.

During the Archean Eon, the oxygen cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) produced reacted with metal ions in the anoxic sea. Billions of years would pass before the photosynthetic microorganisms could eventually change the atmosphere’s composition.

In the middle of the Archean Eon, the Earth had cooled enough. So, most of the water vapor in the atmosphere condensed as water. The Earth had its first days without clouds. Ammonia and methane were only minor constituents of the atmosphere.

  • Carbon dioxide comprised about 15% of the atmosphere, and the percentage of nitrogen was 75%.

Most of the original components of the atmosphere had escaped the Earth, precipitated as liquids, or reacted chemically to form solid compounds. Volcanic activity and photosynthetic bacteria were the major factors influencing the Earth’s atmospheric composition.

Monocellular life proliferated during the Proterozoic Eon. Anaerobic microbial life thrived during the beginning of the Proterozoic Eon because the Earth had little oxygen. Anaerobic organisms do not require oxygen for growth. They obtain their energy in various ways. Methanogens combine hydrogen and carbon dioxide to produce methane and water.

Sulfate-reducing bacteria get their energy by metabolizing methane and sulfate radicals. Organisms, such as cyanobacteria, were capable of photosynthesis. They used sunlight to convert the abundant carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates and oxygen. Oxygen was deadly to the anaerobes. So, this gave photosynthetic organisms a competitive advantage.

By the first quarter of the Proterozoic Eon, the Sun had become brighter. Its luminosity had increased to 85% of the present level. By this time, most carbon dioxide had been depleted from the atmosphere, leaving nitrogen as the primary atmospheric gas with a small percentage of oxygen.

  • Nitrogen gas, which is quite inert chemically, had been a small percentage of the Earth’s atmosphere during the Hadean Eon.

But it became the major atmosphere component during the Proterozoic Eon once all the other gases were gone.

Timeline of Earth’s Atmosphere Evolution

Photosynthetic organisms have been releasing oxygen since the Archean Eon, but the oxidation immediately depleted the oxygen of metals. An increased period of oxygen production occurred between 2.4 and 2.0 billion years ago and is known as the Great Oxidation Event or the Oxygen Catastrophe.

The higher oxygen level created banded iron formations by precipitating dissolved iron as iron(III) oxide. Enough free oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere to kill anaerobes near the Earth’s surface, creating an opportunity to develop aerobic life forms.

Around 2.4 billion years ago, oxygen molecules migrated into the upper atmosphere, forming an ozone layer. This is a region in the stratosphere located between 15 to 35 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

  • The Sun’s ultraviolet rays on this surface convert oxygen molecules (O2) to ozone (O3).

The reverse conversion of ozone back to oxygen releases heat. The ozone layer absorbs high-energy ultraviolet radiation and converts it to heat. High-energy UV light is dangerous for life because it can cause mutations in DNA sequences.

During the last billion years of the Proterozoic Eon, the Earth’s atmospheric composition was steady, with approximately 10% oxygen. At this time, soft-bodied multicellular organisms developed. By 850 million years ago, the minerals in the sea and the excess oxygen began to accumulate in the atmosphere.

  • With the increased oxygen levels and the ozone layer protection, organisms can cause aerobic respiration. They could now increase all over the surface of the Earth.

The abundance of multicellular life marks the Cambrian period at the beginning of the Phanerozoic Eon. Most of the major groups of animals first appeared at this time. Vegetation covers the surface of the Earth, and oxygen comprises 30% of the atmosphere. Air enriched with oxygen allowed giant insects to develop and caused frequent forest fires by lightning.

A great mass extinction event occurred 251 million years ago, marking the boundary of the Permian and Triassic periods. Oxygen levels dropped from 30% to 12%, and carbon dioxide levels reached about 2000 parts per million. This was Earth’s worst mass extinction, eliminating 90% of ocean dwellers and 70% of land plants and animals. This mass extinction was caused by volcanic events in Siberia that lasted for about one million years. It released large volumes of carbon dioxide and gases containing sulfur, chlorine, and fluorine.

By 228 million years ago, oxygen levels had risen to about 15% of the atmosphere. The first dinosaurs appeared. Oxygen levels continued to increase and, by the end, were Cretaceous.

About 100 million years ago, oxygen had risen to about 23% of the atmosphere. At this time, dinosaurs were well established, and modern mammals and birds developed. For the last 100 million years, the percentage of oxygen has fluctuated between 18% and 23%.

  • The Earth’s current atmosphere contains about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, and 400 parts per million carbon dioxide.

The combustion of fossil fuels has generated large quantities of carbon dioxide since the Industrial Revolution. Also, it continues today at a very high rate. Mammals, including humans, can only live within a skinny layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. We should keep our air clean to live in harmony with nature.


We’ve traveled through billions of years, witnessing the transformation of Earth’s atmosphere from a hostile veil of gases to the nurturing canopy that sustains life as we know it. This journey through time has not only illuminated the past but also highlighted the delicate balance that allows our planet to flourish. As we part ways, let’s carry forward the awe for the complex and beautiful system that is our atmosphere, along with a renewed commitment to preserving this precious gift for future generations.

Thank you for joining me on this enlightening expedition into the origins and evolution of Earth’s atmosphere. Until our next adventure into the wonders of our planet and beyond, keep looking up, keep questioning, and cherish the air that connects us all in the intricate web of life.

More Articles:

Details About The 5 Layers Of The Atmosphere

Details About Troposphere

What Is The Mesosphere?

What Happens In The Stratosphere Layer?

Temperature Of The Thermosphere

References:

“Earth’s Atmosphere Composition: Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon and CO2”. Earth How.
Seki, K.; Elphic, R. C.; “On Atmospheric Loss of Oxygen Ions from Earth Through Magnetospheric Processes.”
Gunell, H.; Maggiolo, R.; “Why an intrinsic magnetic field does not protect a planet against atmospheric escape.” Astronomy and Astrophysics.
“Scientists Detected An Incoming Asteroid The Size Of A Car Last Week – Why That Matters To Us.”
Williams, Matt (2016-01-07). “What Is The Atmosphere Like On Other Planets?”. Universe Today.

Julia Rose

My name is Julia Rose. I'm a registered clinical therapist, researcher, and coach. I'm the author of this blog. There are also two authors: Dr. Monica Ciagne, a registered psychologist and motivational coach, and Douglas Jones, a university lecturer & science researcher.I would love to hear your opinion, question, suggestions, please let me know. We will try to help you.

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