GEOLOGIC TIME

Formation
• The Earth is
estimated by
Scientists to be 4.5
Billion years old.
• The First Era of
Geologic history is
referred as the
Precambrian era.
• During this era, the
Earth formed into a
planet.
• The era was a time
where massive
tectonic activity took
place.
• During the first billion
years of the era,
Earth was lifeless.
• Earth’s atmosphere
contained no oxygen
and no water.
• Water arrived either
from inside the earth
or perhaps from outer
space.
• Water accumulated to
form the first oceans.
• After the Oceans
developed, the first
life forms appeared.
• These simple single
cell organisms
developed about 3.5
billion years ago.
• For another billion
years they were the
only life on Planet
Earth.
• Some of these single
celled organisms used
Photosynthesis to turn
the Sun’s light into
energy.
• An important byproduct of
this was the creation of
Oxygen that eventually
created our atmosphere.
• During this era the
Canadian Shield
Landform region was
formed.
• At the end of the
Precambrian Era, life
began to evolve into
multicelled
organisms.
• Around 540 MYA
(Million years ago)
The Paleozoic era
began.
• The Major event near
the beginning of the
era was the
Cambrian explosion,
a sudden massive
expansion of life on
Earth.
• Soon the first animals
appeared that had
evolved skeletons.
• Marine shellfish and
mollusks flourished.
• The first fish soon
followed.
• Throughout the next
several million years
there were many
mass extinctions in
which large
percentages of
lifeforms died off.
• Plants evolved in the oceans.
• Also during this time , life emerged from the
oceans and colonized the land.
• The Paleozoic Era
was when the
Appalachians
landform first
formed.
• About 350 MYA the
supercontinent of Pangea
was formed.
• Insects also
emerged on the
land
• Towards the end of
the Paleozoic,
amphibians
developed and began
to live on the land.
• 248 MYA the
Mesozoic Era began.
• This is often called
the age of the
Dinosaurs.
• Tectonic activity
created the
Western
Cordillera
Mountain range
during this
period.
• The tectonic activity also split Pangea into 2
continents Laurasia in the North and
Gondwanaland in the South.
• At this time, the
interior plains of
Canada were covered
by an inland tropical
ocean.
• Towards the end of
the Mesozoic
primitive mammals
appeared.
• Mammals were
different because they
were warm blooded.
• The end of the
Mesozoic was
marked by a
cataclysmic event, the
extinction of the
Dinosaurs.
• This may have been
caused by a
Meteorite impact.
• The last major era in
Geologic time is the
current era known as
the Cenozoic which
began 65 MYA.
• In this era mammals
evolved and human
ancestors developed.
• Australopithecus was
a early human
ancestor or hominid.
• Eventually after
hundreds of
thousands of years,
Modern humans
appeared.
• The inland seas in
North America dried
up and formed the
Interior Plains.
• During this period the
continents also drifted
into their current
positions.