travel_exploreDiscovery · Deep Earth time

🪨 Deep Earth time

How old is the Earth? Simple, true deep earth time facts for young children, each with a fun fact, a tiny activity and a question to talk about together.

Tap a question to reveal the answer, share the fun fact, try the tiny activity, then talk about it together.

schedule3 minstarHardgroupTogether

How old is the Earth? Revealexpand_more

The Earth is about four and a half billion years old, a number so huge it is almost impossible to picture. If all of that time were squeezed into one single day, humans would only appear in the last few seconds before midnight. Our planet has a very, very long story.

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Talk about itThinking in billions of years is dizzying. What is the oldest thing you have ever touched?

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Did you know?Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for far longer than humans have even existed.

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Try itDraw a long line for Earth's history and try to mark where people begin. You will need the very tip of the end.

Explore the map

🪨🦴How do fossils form?🦕How do we know dinosaurs really existed?🗺️How do continents slowly move?

🤖Still curious?How do scientists figure out the age of the Earth?arrow_forward

schedule3 minstarHardgroupTogether

How do fossils form? Revealexpand_more

A fossil is the ancient remains or shape of a living thing turned to stone. When a plant or animal is buried in mud or sand, its soft parts usually rot away, but the hard parts like bones can slowly be replaced by minerals over millions of years. That leaves a stony copy for us to find.

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Talk about itIf you found a fossil in your garden, what would you hope it was?

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Did you know?Even footprints and tiny leaf shapes can survive as fossils.

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Try itPress a shell or leaf into playdough and lift it out. The dent you leave is like the imprint a fossil can make.

Explore the map

🪨🦕How do we know dinosaurs really existed?⏳How old is the Earth?🗺️How do continents slowly move?

🤖Still curious?Why do we only find fossils of some animals and not others?arrow_forward

schedule3 minstarHardgroupTogether

How do we know dinosaurs really existed? Revealexpand_more

We have never seen a living dinosaur, but they left plenty of evidence behind. Scientists dig up their fossil bones, eggs and footprints, then piece them together like a giant puzzle. By comparing them with animals alive today, they can work out how dinosaurs looked, moved and even what they ate.

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Talk about itIf you could dig up any dinosaur fossil, which one would you want to find?

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Did you know?Some dinosaur footprints are so well preserved you can see the shape of each toe.

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Try itPress your hand into wet sand and lift it away. That print is a clue about you, just like a dinosaur footprint.

Explore the map

🪨🦴How do fossils form?🦤Why do animals go extinct?⏳How old is the Earth?

🤖Still curious?How do scientists know what colour a dinosaur was?arrow_forward

schedule3 minstarHardgroupTogether

How do continents slowly move? Revealexpand_more

The Earth's surface is broken into giant slabs that float on the hot, soft rock beneath, and they creep along incredibly slowly. Over millions of years this has pulled the continents into new positions. Long ago they were all joined in one huge landmass before drifting apart into the shapes we know.

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Talk about itIf the map keeps slowly changing, what might the world look like far in the future?

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Did you know?The continents move about as fast as your fingernails grow, a few centimetres a year.

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Try itLook at a world map and notice how South America and Africa could fit together like puzzle pieces. They once did.

Explore the map

🪨⛰️How are mountains made?⏳How old is the Earth?🌋What is a volcano?

🤖Still curious?What are the giant slabs of the Earth's surface called?arrow_forward

🪨 Deep Earth time

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