Toward the end of the early Precambrian, the earth’s
surface began to cool significantly. Starting around 4-
3.8 bya, most of the earth’s surface was covered in
water accumulated from the outgassing of volcanoes
and from impacts of icy meteors. Volcanic activity,
while not as extreme as during the earliest
Precambrian, was still very significant. Due to this
volcanic activity and the cooler temperatures, small
rudimentary land masses began to accumulate around
the earth. These masses moved relatively rapidly
during this time, in many cases colliding to form larger
land masses. In turn, collisions of these larger,
combined land masses formed cratons, or the core
land masses of the continents that we know today.