Earth resembled Mustafar when it first formed and Hoth during the Ice Age(s). Are there any other instances of Earth resembling a Star Wars planet?
Naturally, since basically all the planets of SW are based on terrestrial ecosystems. I'd rather ask if there is any instance of Earth being a Star Wars planet.
One of the things I'd like to see explored in future Star Wars movies are different ecosystems and climates on planets. So far from what we've gotten it seems like all the planets have a uniform climate and ecosystem (not saying that that's how it really is with Star Wars planets; it's just the way they are presented). Anyway, as darklordoftech said, Earth resembled Mustafar the most when it was first forming, or during the Hadean Eon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadean http://palaeos.com/hadean/ Spoiler Surface of the Earth during the Hadean Eon Mustafar Earth resembled Kamino the most during the Cambrian period, or a pre-Cambrian period like the Ediacaran (Ediacaran:635–541 million years ago; Cambrian: 541–485.4 million years ago): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ediacaran http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian During those periods, most of the life on Earth was in the oceans, and most of the Earth was covered by water as well. Unlike Kamino though, there weren't storms 24/7, and not all of the planet was covered by water or covered by water 100%. During later geological eons, eras and periods, different parts of the Earth would appear more similar to some Star Wars planets than others. For example, these cypress swamps in Florida, USA today resemble Dagobah to an extent: Spoiler During the Carboniferous period some 358-298 million years ago, the Earth was relatively hot, had much higher oxygen levels than today and the planet had a lot more swamps than today. The land was dominated by insects, some much larger in size than most insects today, as well as amphibians and reptiles started to appear. So Carboniferous period Earth was the closest to Dagobah. Spoiler Art depicting a scene from the Carboniferous Dagobah During the Permian and Triassic period, Earth was covered by vast, dry deserts in some places, much more than today (however, that's not to say that all the land was desert during these periods!). Pangaea, the super continent during the Permian and Triassic periods, due to higher global temperatures, different ocean currents, different carbon dioxide and oxygen levels and other factors, had a vast desert around the equator/interior of the continent. During those periods, the Earth resembled Tatooine and Geonosis the most (speaking of Geonosis, it always reminded me of Mars. Probably because of the orange red colors in AOTC the planet was "filmed" in; those of you who know more about cinematography should know to explain this better than me ) Note that Tatooine and Geonosis appear too dry even for Permian/Triassic interior Pangaea Earth standards. Spoiler Geonosis Mars today Hoth resembles the Arctic and Antarcitc the most today. During the Last Ice Age that ended 10 000 years ago, Earth still resembled Hoth the most at the poles, just like today. Indeed, the ice stretched much closer to the equator than today, but those places that weren't that close to the poles were like today Siberia, with tundras and taigas. Hoth, just like the North and South poles of today is an ice desert without any forests. Endor, Naboo, Yavin and Kashyyk are very similar to some places on Earth, as much as today as in many past periods of our planet, so I don't see a point to name specifics. Any planets that I've missed?
I always assumed that we were only getting a view of parts of the planet. For example, that human activity on Tatooine was concentrated around the poles which were "cool" enough for humans to live there, but that the rest of the planet was even hotter to the point of being uninhabitable. Or the reverse with Hoth, that most of the planet is even colder than we imagine and that all we saw was the "warm" area around the equator which is the only place where human being can survive. (Never seen a map of either, of course, so I don't know if that fits with what they've established elsewhere).
Wookieepedia does suggest Echo Base is on Hoth's equator: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hoth And that the habitable area of Tatooine is in it's northern hemisphere: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tatooine
That is one way to explain things. Speaking of other parts of planets in Star Wars, I love it that in KOTOR II one of the poles you visit on Telos is covered in ice, unlike the other part of the planet you were previously exploring.
To @spicer's excellent summary I want to add the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, in which Pangaea split into Laurasia and Gondwana and then began taking on their modern shape, respectively. Yavin IV would probably be the best familiar approximation for Jurassic Earth, but Kalee would be the most similar overall, with beaches and plains as opposed to thick jungle. Cretaceous Earth would be very similar to Onderon, with drexl-like pterosaurs with the wingspans of small airplanes soaring the skies, and teeming with (feathered) Ssi-ruuk. And then of course a few hundred thousand years of localised Mustafar followed by global Hoth thanks to the uninvited arrival of Polis Massa, wiping out most dinosaurs (birds being the exception). And in terms of urban landscape and its surroundings today, I feel Corellia is a reasonably close match.
I agree with the statement regarding Corellia. Of any planet most closely resembling Earth in variety of ecosystems and urban landscape, Corellia takes the cake, even though Coruscant is supposed to be the human homeworld and essentially "Earth" if Earth was a core world.