history of the earth

geological
time scale.
geological time scale.
eons. largest intervals of geologic time, hundreds of millions of years in duration
eras. smaller time intervals as division of eons.
very significant events in earth's history are used to determine the
boundaries of the eras
periods. subdivisions of eras
events that bound the periods are wide-spread in their extent but are not as
significant as those which bound the eras.
epochs. finer subdivisions of time
a subdivision of periods into epochs can be done only for the most recent
portion of the geologic time scale : older rocks have been buried deeply,
intensely deformed and severely modified by long-term earth processes;
the history contained within these rocks can not be as clearly interpreted.
geological time scale. PRECAMBRIAN EON
Precambrian eon, before Cambrian
(4.5B (beginning) – 544M years ago)
about 90% of all geologic time about
geological time scale. PHANEROZOIC EON (544 MYA - present)
period of abundant, complex life on the Earth

Paleozoic era, age of ancient life

(544M – 248M years ago)
• began with an unexplained
explosion in animal life
• ended with the world's largest
mass-extinction known to man,
P-T mass extinction
geological time scale. PHANEROZOIC EON (544 MYA - present)
period of abundant, complex life on the Earth

Mesozoic era, age of medieval life

(248 - 65 million years ago)
• a.k.a age of reptiles
• began (P-T) and ended (K-T)
with a mass-extinction
geological time scale. PHANEROZOIC EON (544 MYA - present)
period of abundant, complex life on the Earth

Cenozoic era, age of recent life

(65M years ago - present)
• a.k.a age of mammals
geological time scale. 1.Ordovician-Silurian (443 MYA).
MASS 2.Late Devonian (359 MYA).
EXTINCTIONS 3.Permian-Triassic (P-T) (248 MYA). The Great Dying
4.Triassic-Jurassic (200 MYA).
5.Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) (65 MYA). Death of the Dinosaurs