@YearOnEarth

At midnight on the 31st of December 2017, I started a little project for the year:

Following a shockwave from a nearby supernova, a cloud of interstellar gas began to collapse into a young T Tauri type star.
As the star grew, its gravity drew in more gas and dust. As the gas and dust got denser, a process of runaway accretion began, forming primitive planets

— Earth (@YearOnEarth) December 31, 2017

The aim of @YearOnEarth is to live tweet the entirety of the geological history of the earth compressed into the year of 2018.
4.54 billion years - in 365 days.
Earth's history is unimaginably vast but by telling the story in this medium, I hope to give some context to our planet's past.

The history of this world begins with the Hadaen eon - starting at midnight on the 1st of January 2018 (UK time)

— Earth (@YearOnEarth) December 31, 2017

Some numbers to put things in perspective:
In one day of 2018 time, 12.44 million years of earth time pass.
In one hour of 2018, 518,264 years will pass.
In one minute of 2018, eight thousand years (or most of human history) will pass.
And in just one second, you've witnessed the passage of 143 years.

This period is informally referred to as the 'cryptic era'. Very little geological evidence exists of this time.
The earth looks very different right now. The planet is hot. The sparse crust is weak and thin. Impacts constantly pummel the surface, recycling any rocks that form.

— Earth (@YearOnEarth) January 1, 2018

Even with history passing at this rate, it will still be a long time before anything that most of us are familiar with will happen. You'll have your 2018 advent calendar up before dinosaurs walk the earth! However, the history of the early earth is still fascinating, and I hope to tell as much of its story as is known.

Finally, it's very important I point out that I am no expert in earth history, just an enthusiastic amateur geology graduate. Any comments, corrections or tips are greatly appreciated.
You can direct message @YearOnEarth on Twitter, or email me directly at:
[email protected]