How were the continents and oceans formed?

How continents are formed

The formation of the Earth began 4.6 billion years ago from a large cloud filled with gases and dust. With the accumulation of debris in space and the Earth attracting it due to the properties of Earth’s gravity, this led to an increase in the temperature of the Earth’s interior and the melting of the ground rocks. The low-density rocks floated to the surface of the Earth and gradually cooled, forming a rocky mass. One is the Earth's crust, and the high-density rocks sank into the Earth's interior toward its center, thus forming 3 main layers of the Earth; Crust, mantle, and core.

The crust layer and the upper part of the mantle layer form a solid Earth's crust that is divided into large parts called tectonic plates. As temperatures rise in the Earth's interior, these plates have been slowly sliding apart for millions of years, which has led to the separation of the Earth's crust and its transformation from a single land mass surrounded by a primitive water ocean. into several blocks separated from each other, each of which is called a continent.

The plates continued to slide over millions of years, which led to cases of convergence of some continental blocks and adhesion between the boundaries of the tectonic plates of these blocks and the formation of what is called subduction, where the edges of the plates collide with each other, leading to one sliding under the other. Studies conducted on existing rocks have proven It is in the ancient regions of North America that the first continental pieces of land began to form about 4 billion years ago.

The divergence between tectonic plates and their adhesion to each other led to a change in the shape of the Earth’s crust and the formation of new continents. The continent is the largest continuous, unbroken area of ​​the Earth’s crust. The Earth in its current form consists of the continents of Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, and Europe. And Australia, arranged in descending order according to area. Sometimes the continents of Asia and Europe are considered one continent because of the connection between them and it is then called the continent of Eurasia.

How oceans are formed

Planet Earth appears blue from space; Because water covers the largest part of its area at a rate estimated at two-thirds of the Earth’s surface, and this water is distributed among several connected oceans, some of which have an average water depth of 3795 metres. Most scientists believe that the hydrosphere represented by the oceans is the result of gradual accumulations over millions of years of continuous discharge of water. From the interior of the earth to its surface.

Water vapor and other gases rose from the molten interior of the Earth into the atmosphere, and after the surface of the Earth gradually cooled to a degree below the boiling point of water, rain began to fall on the surface of the Earth, and the water began to drain and collect in the deep cavities of the Earth, forming large oceans, and because of the forces of gravity The ground settled this collected water in its places.

Origin of continents and oceans

The continents were one huge land mass called Pangea, while all the surface waters on the planet Earth were gathered in one ocean called Panthalassa. 180 million years ago this land mass began to disintegrate due to the movement of tectonic plates, and Pangea separated into multiple land masses that formed one whole. Including a separate continent, and this separation was called continental drift, which also separated one ocean into several oceans connected to each other, and thus the Earth was formed and became in its current form.