A primary research objective in the study of Archean rocks (>2.5 Ga) has been to determine conditions on the surface of the Earth during the first two billion years of its history. Recent advances in isotope geochemistry and geochemical microanalysis have allowed new insights into the earliest few hundred million years of Earth’s history, and have pushed back the time at which the first life could have emerged.
The earliest subdivision of the Archean Eon beginning with Earth’s accretion at 4.56 Ga and extending to ca. 4.0–3.8 Ga, has been called both the Priscoan (“previous time”) Era and Hadean (“Hell-like”) Era. These divisions of geologic time are based on the inherent bias of the rock record, making distinctions in part based on whether or not rocks have survived. The term “Hadean” is also based on the preconception that Earth was so hot from formation and bombardment by meteorites that the atmosphere was dominated by steam and rock debris, and solid material would have been...
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Peck, W.H., Valley, J.W. (2009). Archean Environments. In: Gornitz, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4411-3_11
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