Planet Earth - Statherian Period

The Statherian Period ran from 1,800 to 1,600 million years ago and despite being a short period in the Palaeo-Proterzoic Era, it was an important time in the development for life on the planet. - 

The two hundred million years ensured that cratonisation led to new land platforms and supercontinents being formed; complex single celled life were formed; variance of archaeans and bacteria came into existence.

The name for this period comes from the Greek word for "stable" or "firm". The planet has already been prone to volcanic activity within the Rhyacian period; the transformation of the planet's atmosphere from methane to carbon dioxide and water vapour created the Huronian Glaciation; the bombardment of extraterrestrial material in the Orosirian period - so it was about time for a period of stability. 

During this time the smaller continents of Atlantica, Nena (Nuna) and Ur drifted towards each other to form a supercontinent, namely Columbia. But when I say drifted, I mean, they became one through a series of processes - accretion (this was mentioned here), continental shelves gaining more stable bases, fold belts (where two separate pieces of land are pushed together and form deformations in the crust), plate tectonics (a theory only accepted in the 1950s and 1960s). Columbia was made up of cratons (a stable part of the continental crust where the basement rock is exposed and then get covered in layers of sediment and, in time, sedimentary rock) and was approximately 12,900 kilometres (8,016 miles) from North to South and 4,800 kilometres (2,983 miles) at the broadest point. But as with all wrapping paper on Christmas afternoon, it gets recycled and the supercontinent started to fragment at the end of the Statherian period.

So as the progression of supercontinents through their lifecycle continues, so does the progression of life. Remember LUCA and how it split into three different life systems - the single-celled, the archaean and the eukaryotes. Well more complex versions of the single celled life and eukaryotes started to appear and become more established in the Statherian period as well as eukaryotes. More of these life forms will come to the surface in this brief history of Whatlington and Vinehall Street, have a good Tuesday.