ACTIVITY 8.

1
Which Came First?

The planet Earth is a terrestrial planet and one of the things that distinguishes it from other planets,
including other terrestrial planets, is that it supports life. Due to the presence of the atmosphere and
hydrosphere, life on Earth is able to flourish over the years. The hydrosphere is defined as the total
amount of water on our planet (National Geographic, 2011), while the atmosphere is defined as a
layer of gases that surrounds our planet (National Geographic, 2011).

During the primordial time, intense volcanic activity was present which released gases from the
Earth’s interior, this process is called outgassing (Britannica, 2021). The gases accumulated above
the surface and eventually resulted in the formation of the early atmosphere. The early atmosphere
was composed of water vapor, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and other gases. It is also important to
note that oxygen was not yet present during the time of the early atmosphere. This is supported by
an article which stated that the early atmosphere was composed of methane, ammonia, water
vapour, and the noble gas neon, but it is said to lack free oxygen (Hayes, 2020).

As the Earth’s surface cooled and solidified, the water vapor condensed and precipitated into liquid
water which caused the formation of the first oceans on Earth (Walter, 2018) and thus the early
hydrosphere. Moreover, other articles suggest that comets also played a role in bringing water into
our planet billions of years ago. In an article by NASA (2019), scientists predicted that water-carrying
bodies in the early solar system, similar to ice-rich asteroids or comets, crashed into our planet and
contributed to the formation of the oceans (NASA, 2019).

After understanding the module along with other sources on the internet, I believe that it would be
very unlikely that the hydrosphere was formed next. From the facts stated above, it is evident that
the early atmosphere contributed to the formation of the first oceans. Therefore, assuming that the
early lithosphere had already been created, the early atmosphere was formed next which was then
followed by the early hydrosphere.