The Gulf of Mexico basin was created by an episode of crustal extension and sea-floor spreading during the Mesozoic breakup of Pangea (Salvador, 1987; Sawyer et al., 1991; Buffler and Thomas, 1994; Harry and Londono, 2004; Jacques and Clegg, 2002).
Title: Life Before Earth. Abstract: An extrapolation of the genetic complexity of organisms to earlier times suggests that life began before the Earth was formed. Life may have started from systems with single heritable elements that are functionally equivalent to a nucleotide.
Planet Overview - Earth. Earth is the only planet we know of in our solar system that humans can live on. No other planet has oceans, other life forms, and enough oxygen to comfortably breathe. Because we have so much water, Earth is called the Blue Planet. From space the oceans combined with the atmosphere makes the planet look blue. Earth - What It's All About. About 71 per cent of the Earth is covered with water. Earth is the only planet where water can exist in liquid form on the surface.