CHAPTER 8: GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE

What is Geologic Time?

A timeline that illustrates Earth’s history based on geologic events and life forms. It is a system
of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and
geochronology (a scientific branch of geology that aims to determine the age of rocks).

Nicolas Steno (1669)

A Danish scientist who published the first laws of stratigraphy -- the science of interpreting the strata, or
layers of rock, in Earth's outer surface. Steno argued that the layers closer to the surface must be younger
than the layers below So the farther down you dig, he thought, the older the fossils are that you find there.
But in Steno’s Day, when some people thought that fossils had literally fallen from the sky, for some reason
this was pretty revolutionary idea.

Giovanni Arduino (1760’s)

Building on Steno's ideas, Italian geologist Giovanni Arduino went a step further and began naming the
layers of rock. In the 1760s, Arduino studied the Italian Alps, organizing their layers based on their depth
and composition. The lowest layers of metamorphic and volcanic rocks, he called the Primary layer. Above
those were hard sedimentary rocks which he called Secondary And the top layers of sotter alluvial deposits
he named Tertiary and Quaternary. But, because rock layers don't appear in this same order all over the
world, there was no way for geologists to compare rocks from one location to another. Without a way to
compare strata, there could be no universal time scale.

William Smith (1819)

Finally, in 1819, English geologist William Smith figured out the solution to this problem: Fossils By
comparing the remains of ancient organisms from different rock formations, Smith could match their ages,
regardless of how Far apart they were.

Four Divisions of Geologic Time Scale (GTS)

1. EON
A geologic eon is the largest unit of time for the geologic time scale. Geologic eons are
also referred to as "eonothems" (the chronostratigraphic name) or simply "eons". Eons
are hundreds, even thousands, of years in length. Eons are made up with shorter eras.
2. ERA
An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in
the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given
calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth.
3. PERIOD
A Period lasts tens of millions of years, which is the time it takes to form one type of rock
system.
4. EPOCH
 Unit of geological time during which a rock series is deposited. It is a subdivision of a
geological period, and the word is capitalized when employed in a formal sense.
Additional distinctions can be made by appending relative time terms, such as early,
middle, and late.
The geologic time is divided into two eons:
A. Pre-Cambrian eon
• Refers to the earliest part of the Earth’s history
Divided into three eons: the Hadean eon, Archean eon and Proterozoic eon.
• HADEAN EON
Occurred 4.6 billion to 4 billion years ago. During this time, the solar system was
forming within a cloud of dust and gas known as the solar nebula, which eventually
spawned planets, moon and etc.

• ARCHEAN EON
Between 4 billion and 2.5 billion years ago, the first form of life on our planet was
created in the oceans.

• PROTEROZOIN EON
also called the age of hidden life, started 2.5 billion years ago. In this time, Enough shield
rock had formed to start recognizable geologic processes such as plate tectonics.
B. Phanerozoic eon
• The current geologic eon in the geologic time scale
• The Phanerozoic Eon is the current geologic eon in the geologic time scale, and
the one during which abundant animal and plant life has existed. It covers 541
million years to the present and began with the Cambrian Period when animals
first developed hard shells preserved in the fossil record.
• The Phanerozoic eon is subdivided into three ERAs:
Paleozoic era, Mesozoic era and Cenozoic era
 Paleozoic Era
The era ran from about 542 million years ago to 251 million years ago. The era began with the
breakup of one supercontinent and the formation of another. Plants became widespread. And is
divided into six periods;
Cambrian period (53 million years ago) Known for ushering in an explosion of life on Earth.
This Cambrian explosion included the evolution of arthropods (ancestor of todays insects and
crustaceans) and chordates (animals with rudimentary spinal cords).
Ordovician period (45 million years ago) Ordovician period, part of the Paleozoic era, a rich
variety of marine life flourished in the vast seas and the first primitive plants began to appear on
land—before the second largest mass extinction of all time ended the period.
Silurian period (433-416 million years ago) The Silurian was a time when the Earth underwent
considerable changes that had important repercussions for the environment and life within it.
One result of these changes was the melting of large glacial formations.
Devonian period (45 million years ago) The Devonian Period is sometimes called the “Age of
Fishes” because of the diverse, abundant, and, in some cases, bizarre types of these creatures that
swam Devonian seas.
Carboniferous period (359-299 million years ago)
The Carboniferous Period is famous for its vast swamp forests, such as the one depicted here.
Such swamps produced the coal from which the term Carboniferous, or "carbon-bearing," is
derived.
Permian period (299-251 million years ago)
During the Permian Period, Earth's crustal plates formed a single, massive continent called
Pangaea. In the correspondingly large ocean, Panthalassa, marine organisms such as
brachiopods, gastropods, cephalopods (nautiloids and ammonoids), and crinoids were present.
On land, reptiles replaced amphibians in abundance.
  Mesozoic Era
The Mesozoic ranges from 252 million to 66 million years ago. Also referred to as the Age of
Reptiles, Age of Dinosaurs or Age of Conifers, The Mesozoic featured the first time the
sauropsids ascending to ecological dominance over the synapsids, as well as the diversification
of many modern ray-finned fish, insects, molluscs (particularly the coleoids), tetrapods and
plants.
  Cenozoic era
Cenozoic (66 million years ago until today) means 'recent life. ' During this era, plants and
animals look most like those on Earth today. Periods of the Cenozoic Era are split into even
smaller parts known as Epochs, so you will see even more signposts in this Era.
Paleogene Period
During the Paleogene the continents drifted farther apart, heading toward their modern positions.
Oceans widened the gaps, Europe severed its last ties with North America, and Australia and
Antarctica finally parted ways.

 Neogene Period
The Neogene Period was a time of big changes for the earth. The climate became cooler and
drier. Grasslands replaced forests. The animals had to adapt to these changing conditions or face
extinction. Drop in sea levels opened up land bridges between continents. This allowed animals
to migrate between continents.
  Quaternary Period
The Quaternary Period began with an ice age about 1.8 million years ago. It is often called the
Age of Humans. It continues up to the present time and is the period that we live in. During the
quaternary period the positions of the continents were much the same as they are today. What has
changed during this time is the climate.
It was during the Pleistocene epoch that the most recent episodes of global cooling, or ice ages,
took place. Much of the world's temperate zones were alternately covered by glaciers during cool
periods and uncovered during the warmer interglacial periods when the glaciers retreated.
The Holocene Epoch is known as the ''Age of Man'', but that hasn't necessarily been a great
thing. During this period, the climate has seen some warming and cooling, including the Little
Ice Age, large mammals have gone extinct, and humans have possibly caused the Holocene
extinction event and added to global warming.