2

PLANETARY TIME SCALE

K.L. Tanaka1, W.K. Hartmann2
1U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ, United States; 2Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, United States

Northern part of the western hemisphere of Mars. Left half shows a color elevation, shaded-relief view highlighting
the immense volcanic shields of the Tharsis rise. Right half shows a true-color view of the vast Valles Marineris and
Kasei Valles canyon systems, which connect to the dark basin of Chryse Planitia at upper right. From Tanaka et al., 2014;
Image data from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Introduction definition of chronologic units. The following

summary is mainly reproduced from Tanaka
Formal stratigraphic systems have been and Hartmann (2008, 2012).
developed for the surfaces of Earth’s Moon, Relative ages of these units in most cases
Mars, and Mercury (Fig. 2.1). The time scales can be confirmed using size–frequency dis-
are based on regional and global geologic tributions and superposed craters. For the
mapping, which establishes relative ages of Moon, the chronologic units and cratering
surfaces delineated by superposition, trans- record are constrained by radiometric ages
action, morphology, and other relations and measured from samples collected from the
features. Referent map units are used to define lunar surface. This allows a calibration of the
the commencement of events and periods for areal density of craters versus age, which
A Concise Geologic Time Scale. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-59467-9.00002-9
Copyright © 2016 James G. Ogg, Gabi M. Ogg, and Felix M. Gradstein. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 9
10  Chapter 2  PLANETARY TIME SCALE

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 Chapter 2  PLANETARY TIME SCALE   11

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Figure 2.1  Planetary time scale with selected major events.  Thick dashed line separates the Venus and Mercury
time scales. Diagram revised by G. Ogg from Tanaka and Hartmann (2012).
12  Chapter 2  PLANETARY TIME SCALE
permits model ages to be measured from cra-
ter data for other lunar surface units. Model
ages for other cratered planetary surfaces are
constructed by two methods: (1) estimating
relative cratering rates with Earth’s Moon and
(2) estimating cratering rates directly based
on surveys of the sizes and trajectories of
asteroids and comets (e.g., Hartmann, 2005).
The Moon
The first formal extraterrestrial strati-
graphic system and chronology was developed
for Earth’s Moon beginning in the 1960s, first
based on geologic mapping using telescopic
observations (Shoemaker and Hackman,
1962). These early observations showed that
the rugged lunar highlands are densely cra-
tered, whereas the maria (Latin for “seas”)
form relatively dark, smooth plains consisting
of younger deposits that cover the floors of
impact basins and intercrater plains. Resolv-
ing power of the lunar landscape improved
greatly with the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft
(Fig. 2.2), which permitted also the first map-
ping of the farside of the Moon. By the end of
the decade and into the 1970s, manned and
unmanned exploration of lunar sites by the
Apollo and Luna missions brought return of
samples. The majority of early exploration
involved the lunar nearside (facing Earth),
and the stratigraphic system and chronology
follow geologic features and events primarily
expressed on the nearside (see Fig. 2.3).
The cratering rate was initially very
high; uncertain is whether the lunar crater-
ing rate records a relatively brief period of
catastrophic “Late Heavy Bombardment”
in the inner solar system at ∼4.0 Ga, possi-
bly spawned by perturbations in the orbits
of the giant outer planets (e.g., Strom et al.,
2005). Alternatively, the dense population of
highland craters records the gradual trailing
off of the accretionary period itself. Tele-
scopic surveys of the numbers, sizes, and
orbits of asteroids indicate that they have
been the prime contributor to the lunar cra-
tering record.
The materials of the early crust and the
emplacement of extensive lava flows that
make up the lunar maria were dated by
geologic inferences and by radiometric
methods on samples returned by the Apollo
missions (e.g., Wilhelms, 1987; Stöffler and
Ryder, 2001). Attempts were also made
to use the samples to date certain lunar
basin-forming impacts and the large cra-
ters, Copernicus and Tycho. Two processes
have mainly accomplished resurfacing:
impacts and volcanism. Analogous to vol-
canism, impact heating can generate flow-
like deposits of melted debris that can infill
crater floors or terrains near crater rims. As
on Earth, the broadest time intervals are
designated “Periods” and their subdivisions
are “Epochs” (if not meeting formal strati-
graphic criteria, these unit categories are
not capitalized).
From oldest to youngest, lunar chrono-
logic units and their referent surface materials
and events include:
1. pre-Nectarian period, earliest materials
dating from solidification of the crust (a
suite of anorthosite, norite, and troctolite)
until just before formation of the Nectaris
basin;
2. Nectarian Period, mainly impact melt and
ejecta associated with Nectaris basin and
later impact features;
3. Early Imbrian Epoch, consisting mostly of
basin-related materials associated at the
beginning with Imbrium basin and ending
with Orientale basin;
4. Late Imbrian Epoch, characterized by
mare basalts post-dating Orientale basin;
5. Eratosthenian Period, represented by
dark, modified ejecta of Eratosthenes cra-
ter; and
6. Copernican Period, characterized by rela-
tively fresh bright-rayed ejecta of Coperni-
cus crater.
 Chapter 2  PLANETARY TIME SCALE   13

Figure 2.2  Lunar stratigraphy: (A) Photograph of the Moon. Provided by Gregory Terrance (Finger Lakes
Instrumentation, Lima, New York; www.fli-cam.com).
14  Chapter 2  PLANETARY TIME SCALE

Figure 2.2 (Continued) (B) Copernicus region of the Moon. Approximate location of this region is shown on
a photograph of the Moon. Copernicus crater (C) is 93 km in diameter and centered at latitude (lat) 9.7°N, longitude
(long) 20.1°W. Copernicus is representative of bright-rayed crater material formed during the lunar Copernican
Period. Its ejecta and secondary craters overlie Eratosthenes crater (E), which is characteristic of relatively dark
crater material of the Eratosthenian Period. In turn, Eratosthenes crater overlies relatively smooth mare materials (M)
of the Late Imbrian Epoch. The oldest geologic unit in the scene is the rugged rim ejecta of Imbrium basin (I), which
defines the base of the Early Imbrian Epoch (Lunar Orbiter IV image mosaic; north at top; illumination from right; cour-
tesy of US Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Team).

Mars the Moon (Fig. 2.4). Beginning in the 1970s

The Red Planet has a geologic character sim-
ilar to the Moon, with vast expanses of cratered
terrain and lava plains, but with the important
addition of features resulting from the activity
of wind and water over time. This results in a
geologically complex surface history; geologic
mapping has assisted in unraveling it, follow-
ing the approaches developed for studies of
with the Mariner 9 and Viking spacecraft, and
continuing with a flotilla of additional orbiters
and landers beginning in the 1990s, Mars has
become a highly investigated planet. Geologic
mapping led to characterization of periods
and epochs as on the Moon (e.g., reviews in
Tanaka, 1986; Kallenbach et al., 2001; Nimmo
and Tanaka, 2005; Tanaka et al., 2014)
(Fig. 2.1).
 Chapter 2  PLANETARY TIME SCALE   15

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16  Chapter 2  PLANETARY TIME SCALE

90° N
Boreum
Va s t i t a s B o r e a l i s
60° N

Acidalia Deuteronilus
Utopia Alba Tempe
Arcadia
30° N
Olympus Arabia
Elysium Chryse
Amazonis Lunae
Isidis Syrtis
Tharsis Xanthe Major
0° N 120° 180° 240° 300° 0° E 60°
Valles Margaritifer
Marineris Sabaea
Tyrrhena
Daedalia S y r i a
Hesperia Cimmeria Thaumasia
30° S
Noachis
Promethei Sirenum Hellas
Argyre
Aonia Malea
60° S
Australe
90° S

GEOLOGIC UNITS
A polar layered deposits H materials N-EH volcanic materials
EA Vastitas Borealis unit LN-EH knobby materials N materials
LH-LA volcanic materials LN-EH materials EN massif material

Figure 2.4  Global geologic map of Mars.  Generalized geologic map of Mars showing distribution of major
material types and their ages. Chronologic unit abbreviations: N, Noachian; H, Hesperian; A, Amazonian; E, Early; L,
Late. (Adapted from Nimmo and Tanaka (2005).) Terrain names shown without descriptor terms. Mollweide projection,
using east longitudes, centered on 260°E, Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) shaded-relief base illuminated from
the East. On Mars, 1° latitude = 59 km.

The pre-Noachian period represents the
age of the early crust and is not represented
in known outcrops, but a Martian meteorite,
ALH84001, was crystallized at ∼4.5 Ga.
Heavily cratered terrains formed during
the Noachian Period. These include large
impact basins of the Early Noachian Epoch,
vast cratered plains of the Middle Noachian,
and intercrater plains resurfaced by fluvial
and possibly volcanic deposition during the
Late Noachian when the atmosphere appar-
ently was thicker and perhaps warmer and
heat flow was higher.
Hesperian Period rocks are much less cra-
tered and record waning fluvial activity but
extensive volcanism, particularly during the
Early Hesperian Epoch. Mars Express and
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data indicate
that clay minerals occur in some Noachian
strata, whereas hydrated sulfates are mostly
in Hesperian rocks. A thick permafrost zone
developed as the surface cooled, and much of
the fluvial activity during the Late Hesperian
Epoch occurred as catastrophic flood out-
bursts through this frozen zone, perhaps initi-
ated by magmatic activity.
The Amazonian Period began with expan-
sive resurfacing of the northern lowlands,
perhaps by sedimentation within a large
body of water. Much lower levels of volcanism

and fluvial discharges, coupled with aeolian
deposition and erosion continued into the
Middle and Late Amazonian Epochs. Contin-
ued weathering has led to iron oxidation of
surface materials.
The polar plateaus, covered by bright
deposits of residual ice as well as seasonally
waxing and waning meter-thick CO2 frost, are
among the youngest features on the planet.
Ice-rich mantles and glacial-like deposits at
middle and equatorial latitudes signal climate
oscillations in the relatively recent geologic
record.
The NASA rover, Curiosity, is investigat-
ing Gale Crater, which formed toward the end
of the Noachian Period (Le Deit et al., 2012).
This crater was partly filled by fluvial, deltaic,
and lacustrine sediments over a few hundred
million years during the early part of the Hes-
perian Period. These deposits were partially
exhumed by wind erosion during the middle
Hesperian (ca. 3.3 to 3.1 billion years ago) to
form the massive Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp)
of cyclic sediment deposits up to 5-km thick
and 6000 km2 in area within the Gale crater
(e.g., Grotzinger et al., 2015). There has been
only very slow eolian erosion since the middle
Hesperian.
Mercury
The innermost planet was partly imaged
by flybys of the Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974
and 1975, enabling stratigraphic studies that
reveal a remarkably similar surface history to
that of Earth’s Moon (e.g., Spudis and Guest,
1988). Consequently, a Mercurian chronol-
ogy was developed based on impact basins
and craters that may have similar histories to
comparable lunar features (Fig. 2.1).
Thus, five major periods have been pro-
posed that correspond to those of the Moon, as
follows:
pre-Tolstojan (equivalent to the lunar
pre-Nectarian)
Chapter 2  PLANETARY TIME SCALE   17
Tolstojan (Nectarian)
Calorian (Imbrian)
Mansurian (Eratosthenian)
Kuiperian (Copernican)
Absolute ages for these periods are much
more uncertain than for the Moon and Mars.
Venus
The Venusian surface has been investi-
gated extensively with orbiters and landers,
most recently by the Magellan orbiter with
its mapping radar in the 1990s. Impact cra-
ter densities are low. Statistics of nearly 1000
impact craters on its surface indicate that
Venus has an average surface age of hundreds
of millions of years. Despite its spectacular
volcanic surface dotted with thousands of
volcanoes and broad fields of lava flows, all of
which has been tectonically disrupted to vary-
ing degrees, the details of the global geologic
evolution of this Earth’s twin planet in size
are not well constrained. Possibilities range
from local to regional events driven by mantle
plumes to global volcanic and tectonic evolu-
tion driven by atmospheric greenhouse-heat-
ing effects on Venusian climate (e.g., Bougher
et al., 1997).
Other solar system bodies
The solid surfaces of asteroids and sat-
ellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Nep-
tune show varying degrees of cratering that
reflect surface ages (e.g., Schenk et al., 2004).
Although asteroids are commonly saturated
with craters, indicating their primordial ori-
gin, some asteroids, comet nuclei, and other
bodies demonstrate later resurfacing as their
rocky or icy crusts evolved. Dating these sur-
faces relies on inferences of the populations
of projectiles across time and space. Absolute
dates are very poorly constrained. Complica-
tions in estimates of cratering rates include
the relative importance of asteroids in the
18  Chapter 2  PLANETARY TIME SCALE
inner solar system versus that of comets and
other icy materials of the Kuiper Belt.
Selected publications
and websites
Cited publications
Bougher, S.W., Hunten, D.M., Phillips, R.J., 1997. Venus II:
Geology, Geophysics, Atmosphere, and Solar Wind
Environment. The University of Arizona Press,
Tucson. 1362 pp.
Grotzinger, et al., 2015. Deposition, exhumation, and
paleoclimate of an ancient lake deposit, Gale crater,
Mars (47 authors total) Science 350: 177. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aac7575 summary; full
version (12 pp.) at.
Hartmann, W.K., 2005. Martian cratering 8: isochron
refinement and the chronology of Mars. Icarus 174:
294–320.
Kallenbach, R., Geiss, J., Hartmann, W.K., 2001. Chronol-
ogy and Evolution of Mars. Kluwer Academic
Publishers, Dordrecht. 498 pp.
Le Deit, L., Hauber, E., Fueten, F., Mangold, N., Pondrelli,
M., Rossi, A., Jaumann, R., 2012. Model age of Gale
Crater and origin of its layered deposits. In: Third
International Conference on Early Mars: Geologic and
Hydrological Evolution, Physical and Chemical
Environments, and the Implications for Life (Lake
Tahoe, Nevada, 21–25 May 2012): 7045.pdf. http://
www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/earlymars2012/
pdf/7045.pdf.
Nimmo, F., Tanaka, K., 2005. Early crustal evolution of
Mars. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences
33: 133–161.
Schenk, P.M., Chapman, C.R., ZahnIe, K., Moore, J.M.,
2004. Ages and interiors: the cratering record of the
Galilean satellites. In: Bagenal, F., Dowling, T.E.,
McKinnon, W.B. (Eds.), Jupiter: The Planet, Satellites
and Magnetosphere. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, pp. 427–456.
Shoemaker, E.M., Hackman, R.J., 1962. Stratigraphic
basis for a lunar time scale. In: Kopal, Z., Mikhailov,
Z.K. (Eds.), The Moon. Academic Press, London,
pp. 289–300.
Spudis, P.D., Guest, J.E., 1988. Stratigraphy and geologic
history of Mercury. In: Vilas, F., Chapman, C.R.,
Matthews, M.S. (Eds.), Mercury. The University of
Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 118–164.
Stöffler, D., Ryder, G., 2001. Stratigraphy and isotope ages
of lunar geologic units: chronological standards for
the inner solar system. Space Science Reviews 96: 9–54.
Strom, R.G., Malhotra, R., Ito, T., Yoshida, F., Kring, D.A.,
2005. The origin of planetary impactors in the inner
solar system. Science 309: 1847–1850.
Tanaka, K.L., 1986. The stratigraphy of Mars. Proceedings
of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, 17,
Part 1. Journal of Geophysical Research 91: E139–E158.
Tanaka, K.L., Hartmann, W.K., 2008. 2 planetary time
scale. In: Ogg, J.G., Ogg, G., Gradstein, F.M. (Eds.),
The Concise Geologic Time Scale. Cambridge
University Press, pp. 13–22.
Tanaka, K.L., Hartmann, W.K., 2012. The planetary time
scale. In: Gradstein, F.M., Ogg, J.G., Schmitz, M., Ogg,
G., (Coordinators). The Geologic Time Scale 2012.
Elsevier Publisher, pp. 275–298. (An overview on the
geologic history of all inner planets, Earth’s Moon,
and briefly on the moons of Mars and Jupiter.).
Tanaka, K.L., Skinner Jr., J.A., Dohm, J.M., Irwin III, R.P.,
Kolb, E.J., Fortezzo, C.M., Platz, T., Michael, G.G.,
Hare, T.M., 2014. Geologic Map of Mars: U.S.
Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3292,
Scale 1:20,000,000, Pamphlet 43. http://dx.doi.
org/10.3133/sim3292. http://pubs.usgs.gov/
sim/3292/.
Wilhelms, D.E., 1987. The geologic history of the Moon.
U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1348 302
pp., 12 plates.
Selected further reading
Basaltic Volcanism Study Project, 1981. Basaltic
Volcanism on the Terrestrial Planets. Houston: Lunar
and Planetary Institute, Houston. 1286 pp.
Melosh, H.J., 2011. Planetary Surface Processes.
Cambridge University Press. 500 pp.
Websites (selected)
US Geological Survey Astrogeology Research
Program—astrogeology.usgs.gov/, especially:
Astropedia: astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/.
Solar System Exploration (NASA)—solarsystem.nasa.
gov.
Welcome to the Planets (JPL, NASA)—pds.jpl.nasa.gov/
planets/.
Mars Exploration Program (NASA)—marsprogram.jpl.
nasa.gov/.
Wikipedia—Lunar Geologic Timescale—en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Lunar_geologic_time_scale; and Geologic
history or Mars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Geological_history_of_Mars.