If we understand that "created work," and "dark, void and without form," are two polar opposites, we have no problem realizing that there is a gap in the written account of the Bible.

vs 1:  "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth."
vs 2:  "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
Something had to have happened between those two verses. Creation isn't void, dark and formless.

Notice that the deep--the seas--already existed.  As did the earth.  But in verse two, nothing is said about the heavens that were created in verse one.  It doesn't say that the heavens were without form, void and dark.  The heavens stayed the same as when they were created.  It was the  earth that went through some sort of catastrophe.

When we have a volcanic eruption--anywhere in the earth--ash, debris, smoke particulate, etc. stretches around the globe.  If the eruption is large enough, debris particles blot out the sun.  I think that could have been why the earth was dark.  Remember the dust bowl??  In those conditions--if it lasts for very long--nothing much grows.  And because of the loss of sun, chlorophyll, plants and animals would die out.  But the seeds from plants don't die out.  That becomes important later.

Another fact that we know, is that asteroids hit the earth causing much of the same effect.  Now that we have cameras circling the earth, we have discovered evidence of huge impacts in the gulf of Mexico, Northern Russia, and other places.  If asteroids are big enough, they have the strength to throw the earth off kilter.  An earthquake in S. America a couple of years ago was so powerful that it changed the speed of rotation of the earth. The resulting effect is to change the length of a day.  So as we look at days one through six, remember that it never says rotation occurred in twenty-four hours.  I don't know what the rotational speed of the earth was back then.  Just don't get stuck on 24 hours.

Another interesting phenomenon is that the polar magnetism of the earth has changed.  It seems that North and South poles haven't always been where they are now.   In other words, the world is not static.  It changes with cataclysmic events.  God's word doesn't change.