Earth was barren, underwater 4.4 billion years ago: Study
Australia-based scientists have found that early Earth was likely to be barren, mountainless, and almost entirely under water, following their analysis of 4.4-billion-year-old mineral grains. Scientists said that Earth (4.54 billion years old) was a "quiet and dull place" in absence of continental collisions during the first 700 million years after which the first life forms emerged.