GEOLOGIC EVENTS
• An identifiable event during
Formation of the great oceans
•After the Earth's surface had cooled to a
temperature below the boiling point of
water, rain began to fall—and continued to
fall for centuries. As the water drained into
the great hollows in the Earth's surface, the
primeval ocean came into existence. The
forces of gravity prevented the water from
leaving the planet.
•By about 3,900 million years ago (ma),
Earth's environment has been transformed
from a highly unstable state into a more
hospitable place. ... Water condenses in the
cooling atmosphere, and heavy rains pour
down on the planet. After several hundred
million years of falling rain, great oceans
form.
Pangaea supercontinent breaks up
•Pangaea began to break up about 250
million years ago. However it was only
the latest in a long series of
supercontinents to form on Earth as the
drifting continents came together
repeatedly in a cycle that lasts about
500 million years from end to end. ... In
another 250 million years a new
supercontinent will form.
Initiation of Seafloor Spreading
Of South China Sea
•Combined with analyses of deep-
tow magnetic anomalies, it is
inferred that the initial seafloor
spreading started around 33 Ma in
the northeastern SCS, with a 1 to 2
Myr variation along the northern
continent-ocean boundary.
•The formation of the South China
Sea Basin was closely related with
the collision between the Indian
Plate and Eurasian Plates. The
collision thickened the continental
crust and changed the elevation of
the topography from the Himalayan
orogenic zone to the South China
Sea, especially around the Tibetan
Plateau.
EON ERA
Cenozoic
Phanerozoic Mesozoic
Paleozoic
Neoproterozoic
Proterozoic Mesoproterozoic
Paleoproterozoic
Neoarchean
Archean Mesoarchean
Paleoarchean
Eoarchean
Hadean
which one or more geological
processes act to modify
geological entities.
Oxygen nears present day concentration
•The appearance of free oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere led
to the Great Oxidation Event. This was triggered by cyanobacteria
producing the oxygen which developed into multicellular forms as
early as 2.3 billion years ago.
•The Great Oxidation Event (GOE), also called the Great
Oxygenation Event, was a time period when the Earth's
atmosphere and the shallow ocean first experienced a rise in
oxygen, approximately 2.4–2.0 Ga (billion years ago) during the
Paleoproterozoic era.
•Proterozoic Eon (2.5 Ga to 540 Ma)- Oxygen level reaches ~ 3%
of the atmosphere
Formation of Pangaea Supercontinent Gondwana forms
•Pangaea formed through a gradual process •Gondwana or Gondwanaland was a supercontinent that
spanning a few hundred million years. existed from the Neoproterozoic and began to break up
Beginning about 480 million years ago, a continent during the Jurassic, with the final stages of breakup,
called Laurentia, which includes parts of North including the opening of the Drake Passage separating
America, merged with several other micro-continents South America and Antarctica occurring during the
to form Euramerica. Paleogene.
Protective Ozone in place
•When the ozone layer became thick enough to
shield organisms from the harmful spectrum of UV
radiation (around 600 million years ago), there was a
massive diversification of life. This diversification was
known as the Cambrian Explosion.
•In the Proterozoic Eon, Earth completely froze into
a Snowball Earth or Slushball Earth. It was one of
Earth's many ice ages. Because of the oxygen-
enriched atmosphere, the ozone layer thickened and
cyanobacteria were threatened. There's evidence
that eukaryotes and multicellular organisms evolved.
Initiation of the Philippine Fault Global ice ages
•The origin of the Philippine fault would thus be the flip of •The Ice Ages began 2.4 million years ago and lasted until
subduction from west to east after the locking of 11,500 years ago. During this time, the earth's climate
convergence to the west by the collision of the Philippine repeatedly changed between very cold periods, during which
mobile belt with the Eurasian margin. glaciers covered large parts of the world (see map below), and
very warm periods during which many of the glaciers melted.
• Philippine Fault system is situated in front of the Mindoro–
Panay collision zone. This collision process, generally believed
to have started between 14 and 8 Ma.
Geologic Time Scale
•The geologic time scale is the “calendar” for
events in Earth history. It subdivides all time
into named units of abstract time called—in
descending order of duration—eons, eras,
periods, epochs, and ages.