(Q003) There is no rock record for the Earth's first 500 million years becauseGroup of answer choicesthe surface then was one huge ocean basin filled with hot water and nothing else.intense meteorite bombardment may have destroyed most land surface.billions of years of mountain building have destroyed the ancient rock.surface rock was too cool to allow the radiometric clocks to start ticking.
Question
(Q003) There is no rock record for the Earth's first 500 million years becauseGroup of answer choicesthe surface then was one huge ocean basin filled with hot water and nothing else.intense meteorite bombardment may have destroyed most land surface.billions of years of mountain building have destroyed the ancient rock.surface rock was too cool to allow the radiometric clocks to start ticking.
Solution
The most likely reason there is no rock record for the Earth's first 500 million years is because intense meteorite bombardment may have destroyed most land surface. During the Hadean eon, approximately 4.6 to 4 billion years ago, the Earth was subject to heavy bombardment by space debris. This period is often referred to as the "Late Heavy Bombardment". The impacts would have been powerful enough to melt, vaporize, and eject large amounts of rock from the Earth's surface, thereby destroying or altering any existing rock record.
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