Image 1 Caption: An artist's impression of Archean Eon (4.031--2.5 Gyr BP) on Earth.

We think that microbial life may first appeared on Earth 3.480 Gyr ago at least and perhaps 4.2 Gyr ago (Wikipedia: Earliest known life forms; Robert F. Service, 2014 Jul12, Science "Our last common ancestor lived 4.2 billion years ago" maybe; Wikipedia: Abiogenesis; Wikipedia: History of life on Earth; Wikipedia: History of life on Earth: Earliest history Earth). But we don't know how exactly it arose. But somehow:

Life was thus an almost utterly improbable event with almost infinite opportunities of happening. So it did.
---James Lovelock (1919--2022), the proposer of the Gaia hypothesis. Quotation from Tim Radford, Nature, 2019 Jun25.

Note the 4.2 Gyr value is NOT based on the fossil record, but on a statistical study of genomes that tries to identify and date the last univeral common ancestor (LUCA) of all life on Earth (Robert F. Service, 2014 Jul12, Science "Our last common ancestor lived 4.2 billion years ago" maybe). Well, except maybe viruses (Wikipedia: Last univeral common ancestor (LUCA)).

Features:

1. The formation of the Solar System is about 4.6 Gyr Before Present (PB) as we know from the Sun age = 4.6 Gyr BP (set by various methods) and presolar grains (Wikipedia: Hadean Eon (4.56730(16)--4.031 Gyr BP: first date set by first solids formed in presolar nebula); Solar System age = 4.56730(16) Gyr BP (set by first solids formed in presolar nebula)).

   The presolar grains also determine the age of the Earth = 4.56730(16) Gyr BP.

   The age of the presolar grains is determined by radioactive dating of primitive meteorites.

2. Note the Hadean Eon (4.56730(16)--4.031 Gyr BP) is followed by the Archean Eon (4.031--2.5 Gyr BP), Proterozoic Eon (2.5--0.5388 Gyr BP), and Phanerozoic Eon (0.5388--present Gyr BP). The eons are the 4 eons of geologic time (4.56730(16)--present BP).

3. Image 1 seems to represent the very early Archean Eon (4.031--2.5 Gyr BP) since the artist's impression includes impactors (in the upper left) which suggests Image 1 is set in the heavy bombardment (4.6--3.8 Gyr BP).

4. The volcano in Image 1 represents the intense early volcanism of the early Earth in the Hadean Eon (4.56730(16)--4.031 Gyr BP) and the Archean Eon (4.031--2.5 Gyr BP) (Wikipedia: Archean: Geology). This intense early volcanism of the early Earth was driven by the early Earth's primordial-radiogenic heat geology which was much stronger than it is today.

5. Image 1 gives the impression that Moon as being gigantic in the sky. Now the angular size of the Moon in any image is, in fact, rather indeterminate since it depends on the angular size of the surroundings. For example, if the angular size of the volcano were ∼0.5°, the Moon would have about the same angular diameter as it does today.

   However, Image 1 does convey the correct qualitative impression. At ∼4 Gyr BP, Moon was probably of order 10 times closer than today, and so would have an angular diameter of order 10 times bigger than today: i.e., ∼5° (Wikipedia: Origin of the Moon: Formation). Tidal accelertation caused the Moon to slowly spiral away from the Earth. Currently, the Earth-Moon distance is increasing by 3.830(8) cm/yr (Wikipedia: Tidal acceleration: Quantitative description of the Earth-Moon case).

6. Probably rather quickly ??? after the Moon's formation (maybe 4.425 Gyr BP), the Moon became tidally locked to the Earth causing the Moon to always turn the same side to the Earth. This side is the Moon's near side. The Moon's near side would have looked rather different in the earlier Archean Eon (4.031--2.5 Gyr BP) than today since there was continuing heavy impact cratering by the heavy bombardment (4.6--3.8 Gyr BP) and the lunar maria were only in their early stage of formation (Wikipedia: Lunar mare: Ages).

7. The water body in the foreground of Image 1 shows stromatolites which may be one of the earliest signs of life on Earth which are currently known as early as 3.48 Gyr BP, but they may have existed much earlier (Wikipedia: Earliest known life forms: Stromatolites: see also Wikipedia: Earliest known life forms; Robert F. Service, 2014 Jul12, Science "Our last common ancestor lived 4.2 billion years ago" maybe; Wikipedia: Abiogenesis).

   Note "stromatolites are layered sedimentary rock formations (microbialites) that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganism" (Wikipedia: Stromatolites: slightly edited).

8. Image 2 Caption: "Modern stromatolites growing in Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve, Shark Bay, Western Australia, Australia." (Slightly edited.)

Images:

1. Credit/Permission: © Tim Bertelink (AKA User:Triangulum), 2017 / CC BY-SA 4.0.
   Image link: Wikimedia Commons: File:Archean.png.
   
2. Credit/Permission: © Paul Harrison, 2005 (uploaded to Wikimedia Commons Wikipedia by User:YolanC, 2006) / CC BY-SA 3.0.
   Image link: Wikimedia Commons: File:Stromatolites in Sharkbay.jpg.