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When Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago from a hot mix of gases and solids, it had almost no atmosphere. The surface was molten. As Earth cooled, an atmosphere formed mainly from gases spewed from volcanoes. It included hydrogen sulfide, methane, and ten to 200 times as much carbon dioxide as today’s atmosphere. After about half a billion years, Earth’s surface cooled and solidified enough for water to collect on it.

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Earth was significantly warmer than it is today throughout the most of the last 290 million years. Scientists are aware that variations in the atmosphere impact the climate of Earth. Polar ice caps were minimal or nonexistent between 200 and 45 million years ago, and winters were milder all throughout the world. The arctic regions supported a wide variety of plants and animals because of the warm environment.

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The Carboniferous Period saw life again have a significant impact on the Earth's atmosphere as plants firmly established themselves on land. Around 350 million years ago, oxygen made up 20% of the atmosphere, or roughly where it is today. Over the subsequent 50 million years, it increased to as high as 35%.

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Earth's atmosphere and life have both changed over time. Tiny photosynthetic organism slowly produced enough oxygen overtime to interact with the atmosphere's methane and permanently change it. The methane cleared and the sky turned blue around two billion years ago.

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4 to 2.5 billion years ago, what was called the Archean Eon was currently occurring. During this time, the air was filled with methane droplets causing a global haze. Oxygen didn't exist on earth during this time. The only places oxygen was present in was compounds like water. In the ocean, chemical reactions made molecules with carbon into basic, living cells that don't require oxygen to remain alive. These cells made energy with sulfur and other elements.

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Cyanobacteria, tiny, bluish-green organisms, were abundant in Earth's waters about 2.7 billion years ago. Through a process known as photosynthesis, they produced gaseous, or free, oxygen from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. The amount of free oxygen in the atmosphere reached 1% of of today's level or 21 percent, as cyanobacteria produced more of it.

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After about 300 million years of photosynthetic bacteria producing oxygen, enough oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere to oxidize the iron in rocks and soil, producing reddish iron oxide and resulting in broad swaths of redbeds. Redbeds are studied by scientists to better understand the early atmosphere of earth.

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The Great woods covered the region during the Pennsylvanian, or later Carboniferous Period, which lasted from 318 to 299 million years ago. Giant swamps covered low-lying areas. Normally, when a dead plant or animal decomposes, bacteria break it down and produce carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, by combining its carbon with oxygen in the air. However, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere actually decreased as massive amounts of dead plants were buried under wetlands and cut off from oxygen. The environment grew chilly.

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In the last 65 million years, the Eocene Epoch was the warmest period. Palm trees reached as far north as Canada during the early Eocene, and Ellesmere Island, which is close to the North Pole, was covered with forests of dawn redwoods. Alligator-related creatures swam in the Ellesmere Island marshes, the Arctic Ocean wasn't always frozen, and flying lemur-related creatures scaled the redwood trees in the early morning. Since the Eocene is so recent in geological time, there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered by scientists concerning the environment, climate, and how these factors impacted life on Earth

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The buried remnants of these enormous factories underwent millions of years of heat and pressure before becoming the vast coal stockpiles that generate the majority of our energy today.