Kelly Rutledge
P.3/Millett
3/25/10
It was a Monday morning and Minerva McGonagall was on her way to her History of Magic class. She walked into the class only to find that Professor Binns had moved the Friday's speech to today.
"What are we going to be covering today, sir?" she asked, taking her usual seat in the front row.
"Today, we will be covering how the earth was made, And Headmaster Dippet has given me permission to extend class for as long as I deem necessary, however, I will try to be brief."
His words were met by the disappointed sighs of the class, most of which were already almost asleep.
"Okay, let's get started. Around 4.5 billion years ago, the earth was a massive ball of Lava, nearly as hot as the sun. The world had no atmosphere and as continually hit with asteroids, most of which were about 5% water. This caused the planet to begin cooling. After about a billion years, the earth was a water world, but shortly after, the massive amounts of water became green oceans, discolored by the iron content. Granite crust formed, making the continents stay above water, most of you know, but granite is much lighter than normal rock."
Minerva looked around too see which of her class mates were still awake. She counted three other than herself, Poppy Pomfrey, Severus Snape, and her boyfriend, Albus Dumbledore. Sighing, she shook Rolanda awake and settled back down to listen.
"After about three billion years, the air was clear and the water was blue. The continents, at that time, were called Rodinea, but soon, this froze over, causing the earth to look like a giant snowball."
"GO SNOWBALLS!" Rolanda shouted, causing half of the class to turn and watch her.
"Yes, Miss. Hooch? Is there something you would like to add?" Professor Binns asked, making Rolanda blush.
"No, professor" she replied, sinking into her chair looking as though she would die of embarrassment.
"Nice RO, what were you thinking?" Minerva whispered, giving Rolanda the "you have no excuse" look.
"Sorry!" Rolonda replied, "I didn't mean to say it allowed, I was half asleep, heard something to do with snowballs and shouted the first thing that came to my mind."
"Class! Back to the speech!" Professor Binns shouted. "Now, where were we? Oh yes, around six hundred million years the earth was heating, this caused the ice to melt. After the ice had melted, complex life began to form on earth."
"Professor, what is complex life?" Poppy asked, waking everyone up.
"It is an organism that has more than one cell. Now back to our speech, after our atmosphere formed, there were no more dangerous U.V. rays, so life was sustainable on land. Then, two hundred fifty million years ago, mantel eruptions began and Pangaea was formed. Pangaea was a super continent that contained all seven of today's continents. About twenty million years later, dinosaurs were roaming the earth, but thirty million years after that, the continents split, heading towards where they are today.
Later on, eruptions from deep in the earth, pushed diamonds to the surface, scattering them across the earth. Thirty five million years after that, a huge meteor hit earth, killing all of the dinosaurs. A fun fact that will be on your test is that fifty five million years ago, the Grand Canyon formed, now back to what were working on. Six million years ago, mammals evolved on earth, but sadly, the earth went into another ice age, forming the bridge between Asia and North America. After the ice had melted, which was around ten thousand years ago, humans had free reign over the plant." Professor Binns said, pleased with how little of the class had managed to sleep through the entire thing.
"Professor Binns? Will there be another ice age?" Albus asked, looking concerned.
"Yes, but that won't be for another fifteen thousand years, so don't worry about it." Professor Binns replied, dismissing the class.
"Well that was interesting!" Minerva exclaimed as she and Albus made their way to their dormitory for a quick game of chess before lunch.