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Geologic Time Scale

The document provides an overview of the geologic time scale, which divides Earth's history into distinct time intervals measured in years. The longest divisions are eons such as the Archean and Proterozoic, which are further divided into eras, periods, and epochs. Geologists use radiometric dating methods to determine the absolute ages of rocks and fossils to construct this time scale. Key events in Earth's history defined the boundaries between time periods, while advances in dating techniques have allowed scientists to refine the time scale over the past 200 years.

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Abdur Rehman
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197 views5 pages

Geologic Time Scale

The document provides an overview of the geologic time scale, which divides Earth's history into distinct time intervals measured in years. The longest divisions are eons such as the Archean and Proterozoic, which are further divided into eras, periods, and epochs. Geologists use radiometric dating methods to determine the absolute ages of rocks and fossils to construct this time scale. Key events in Earth's history defined the boundaries between time periods, while advances in dating techniques have allowed scientists to refine the time scale over the past 200 years.

Uploaded by

Abdur Rehman
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE

INTRODUCTION:
Geologic Time, time scale that covers Earth’s entire
geologic history from its origin to the present. Before the growth
of a geologic time scale in the 19th century natural historians
recognized that Earth has a lengthy history, but the scale used
today developed over the last 200 years and continues to evolve.
A geologic time scale helps scientists think about the history of
the planet in manageable sections of time. See also Earth;
Geology.

Before radiometric dating, which measures the amount of a


radioactive element in an object to determine its age (see Dating
Methods: Radiometric Dating), estimates of Earth’s age ranged
from about 4,000 years to hundreds of millions of years. Today
the established age is about 4.6 billion years.

The present geologic time scale is based on radiometric dating


and the record of ancient life preserved in layers of rock. Most
boundaries in recent geologic time coincide with periodic
extinctions and appearances of new species. Divisions in the
older part of the record are based on dates provided by
radiometric dating methods.

DIVISION OF TIME:
The geologic time scale adopted by the
International Union of Geological Sciences in 2004 breaks Earth’s
history into distinct intervals of varying lengths measured in
calendar years. The longest intervals are eons. Each eon is
subdivided into eras. Each era is made up of periods, which are
further divided into epochs.

There are three eons: the Archean, the Proterozoic, and the
Phanerozoic. The Archean, the earliest eon, is defined as about
3.8 billion to 2.5 billion years before present. The time before the
Archean Eon, simply called pre-Archean, is marked by the
formation of the planet. The Proterozoic Eon lasted from about
2.5 billion to 542 million years before present. The Archean and
Proterozoic eons are also collectively called Precambrian time.
An explosion of invertebrate life marks the end of the Proterozoic
and the beginning of the Phanerozoic.

The Phanerozoic Eon started about 542 million years ago and
continues into the present. It is divided into three eras: the
Paleozoic (542 million to 251 million years before present),
Mesozoic (251 million to 65 million years before present), and
Cenozoic (65 million years before present to present).

The Paleozoic Era is divided into six periods. From oldest to


youngest they are the Cambrian (542 million to 488 million years
before present), Ordovician (488 million to 444 million years
before present), Silurian (444 million to 416 million years before
present), Devonian (416 million to 359 million years before
present), Carboniferous (359 million to 299 million years before
present), and Permian (299 million to 251 million years before
present). The Paleozoic began with the appearance of many
different life-forms, which are preserved as abundant fossils in
rock sequences all over the world. It ended with the extinction of
over 90 percent of all living organisms at the end of the Permian
Period. The cause of this event is currently unknown.

The Mesozoic Era is made up of the Triassic (251 million to 200


million years before present), Jurassic (200 million to 145 million
years before present), and Cretaceous (145 million to 65 million
years before present) periods. The Mesozoic began with the
appearance of many new kinds of animals, including the
dinosaurs and the ammonites, or extinct relatives of modern
squid. The Mesozoic ended with another major extinction in
which about 80 percent of all living organisms died. This
extinction may have been the result of a large asteroid that
crashed into Earth on the present-day northern Yucatán
Peninsula of Mexico.

The Cenozoic Era has two geologic periods, the Paleogene (65
million to 23 million years before present) and the Neogene (23
million years before present to the present). The Paleogene
Period is made up of three epochs: the Paleocene (65 million to
56 million years before present), Eocene (56 million to 34 million
years before present), and Oligocene (34 million to 23 million
years before present). The Neogene Period is divided into four
epochs: the Miocene (23 million to 5.3 million years before
present), Pliocene (5.3 million to 1.8 million years before
present), Pleistocene (1.8 million to 11,500 years before present),
and Holocene (11,500 years to the present) epochs. The
Holocene is marked by the rapid retreat of the last continental
ice sheets in Europe and North America, an accelerated rise in
sea level, climatic moderation, and the expansion of human
societies in every part of the world.

DATING METHODS:
Geologists can determine the age of a rock layer
in terms of absolute years, or in relation to the layers of rock
around it. In order to determine the relative age of rock layers,
scientists use three simple principles. The first is the law of
superposition, which states that younger beds of rock occur on
top of older beds of rock in an undisturbed sequence of layers
(see Stratigraphy). The second is the law of cross-cutting
relationships, which states that any feature or structure that
cuts through and disturbs a rock sequence must be younger than
the disturbed beds.

The third principle, that of fossil succession, deals with fossils in


sedimentary rock. Careful mapping around the world has
revealed that rock of certain ages contains distinctive
combinations of fossils—Paleozoic rocks contain trilobite and
graptolite fossils, Mesozoic rocks contain dinosaur remains and
ammonite fossils, Cenozoic rocks contain remnants of flowering
plants and abundant mammal remains. By matching the fossil
content of rock sequences, even across widespread geographic
regions, paleontologists believe that certain sequences are
probably about the same age. All of these methods facilitate the
relative dating of rock sequences, but do not provide absolute
ages for the rocks.
Geologists have several methods for determining the actual age
of a rock layer. The most important is radiometric dating, which
uses the steady decay of radioactive elements (see
Radioactivity) in the rock to provide a measure of age.
Radioactive elements decay to form elements or isotopes (atoms
of an element that differ in mass but share the same general
chemical properties) of an element. An element’s half-life is the
time required for half the number of its atoms to decay. Different
elements can have dramatically different half-lives.

The two radioactive decay sequences most useful to geologists


are the decay of carbon-14 into nitrogen-14 and the decay of
potassium-40 into argon-40. Carbon-14, or radiocarbon, dating
works for organic materials less than about 50,000 years old.
Geologists measure the amounts of carbon-14 and nitrogen-14 in
wood, charcoal, fabric, paper, fossil seeds and insect remains,
shell materials, or even water containing dissolved carbon. The
ratio of carbon-14 to nitrogen-14 provides a good estimate of the
sample’s age.

Geologists can use potassium-argon dating to determine ages of


rocks from about 100,000 years old to as old as the earth itself.
The ratio of potassium-40 to argon-40 provides a good estimate
of the age of a rock as long as the rock has not been heated to
temperatures above 125°C (257°F). Heat allows argon to escape,
making the rock appear older than it actually is.

A few nonradiometric techniques, such as varve analysis,


dendrochronology, and paleomagnetism, also provide absolute
ages. Varves are layers of sediment deposited yearly in glacial
lakes. A thick layer of coarse sediment deposited during the
spring by glacial runoff and a thinner layer of fine sediment that
settles out during the calmer winter make up each varve. Earth
scientists extract cores of sediment from these glacial lakes and
can count back the number of years since a certain geologic
event took place.
Dendrochronology is a technique that uses the annual rings of
trees in temperate climates to estimate a tree’s age. Some trees
can live for thousands of years, so this technique is useful in
dating trees from 3,000 to 4,000 years before present, but it has
also been used in fossil trees from further back in Holocene time.

Paleomagnetism involves measuring the angle of magnetic


molecules in rocks. When lava is hot, magnetic minerals in the
molten rock orient themselves to the earth’s magnetic field. As
the temperature of cooling lava drops to a certain point, these
tiny magnets lock into place. Because the earth’s magnetic field
has switched orientations several times during the history of the
earth, the magnetic orientation of the rocks that cooled during
different times may be different. Scientists know the dates of the
magnetic reversals, so the magnetic orientation of a rock sample
can provide an estimate of its age.

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