GEOLOGIC

TIME SCALE
 GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE
1. What is the age of the Earth?
2. What was the Earth like million of years ago?
3. When did man first appear on Earth?
4. The first organism found(Prokaryotes)
5. First Land animal
6. First Vertebrate
7. first Plant on land
8. first Dinosaur
EVENTS OF GEOLOGIC TIME
SCALE
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.
The Geological Time Scale (GTS)

A. Four eras - Precambrian; Paleozoic; Mesozoic;

Cenozoic

B. Periods under the Paleozoic era - Cambrian,

Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous,
Permian

C. Periods under the Mesozoic era - Triassic, Jurassic,

Cretaceous

D. Periods under the Cenozoic era - Tertiary and

Quaternary
 EVENTS OF
GEOLOGIC TIME
SCALE
 The Precambrian or Cryptozoic Era
(4.6 Ga – 540 Ma)

a. Represents 80% of Earth’s history

b. Eon of “Hidden Life” – fossil record

obscure. Ask the students why there
is very little record of life
during the Precambrain
Hadean Eon (4.56 -3.8 Ga)

a. From “Haedes” Greek god of the

underworld
b. Chaotic time, lots of meteorite
bombardment
c. Atmosphere reducing (Methane,
Ammonia, CO2)
d. Start of the hydrologic cycle and the
formation of the world oceans
e. Life emerged in this “hostile”
environment
Archean Eon (3.8 – 2.5 Ga)

a. Anaerobic (lack of oxygen)

b. No Ozone
c. Photosynthetic prokaryotes (blue
green algae) emerged and started
releasing oxygen to the
atmosphere
d. Life forms still limited to single celled
organisms without a nucleus
(prokaryotes) until 2.7 Ga when
Eukaryotes emerged.
Proterozoic Eon (2.5 Ga to 540
Ma)

a. Oxygen level reaches ~ 3% of

the atmosphere
b. Rise of multicellular organisms
represented by the Vendian Fauna
c. Formation of the protective
Ozone Layer
Phanerozoic Eon (540 Ma to Present)

a. Eon of “visible life”

b. Diversification of life. Many life forms represented in the
fossil record
c. Life forms with preservable hard parts
Paleozoic Era (540 – 245)

d. Age of “Ancient Life”

e. Rapid diversification of life as represented by the
Cambrian Fauna (Cambrian Explosion)
f. Dominance of marine invertebrates
g. Plants colonize land by 480 ma
h. Animals colonize land by 450 ma
i. Oxygen level in the Atmosphere approaches present day
concentration
j. Massive Extinction at the end (End of Permian Extinction)
Mesozoic Era (245 – 65 Ma)

a. Age of Reptiles
b. Dominance of reptiles and dinosaurs
c. Pangea starts to break-apart by 200 ma
d. Early mammals (220 mya)
e. First birds (150 ma)
f. First flowering plants (130 ma)
g. Mass Extinction at the end of the Cretaceous (65 ma)
Cenozoic Era (65 ma to present)

a. Age of Mammals
b. Radiation of modern birds
c. Early Primates 60 ma
d. Continents near present-day positions (40 ma)
e. First hominids (5.2 ma)
f. Modern humans (0.2 ma)
g. Global ice ages begin (2 Ma)
CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION

is the belief that there was a sudden, apparent

explosion of diversity in life
forms about 545 million years ago. The explosion
created the complexity of multi-celled organisms in
a relatively short time frame of 5 to 10 million years.
This explosion also created most of the major
extant animal groups today.
FOSSILS
Fossils are the preserved remains of plants and animals
whose bodies were buried in sediments, such as sand
and mud, under ancient seas, lakes and rivers. Fossils
also include any preserved trace of life that is typically
more than 10 000 years old.
How do fossils form?
Fossils are typically found in sedimentary rocks and occasionally
some fine-grained, low-grade metamorphic rocks. Sometimes the
fossils have been removed, leaving moulds in the surrounding
rock, or the moulds may have later been filled by other materials,
forming casts of the original fossils.
THE SIX WAYS OF FOSSILIZATION
1. Unaltered preservation - Small organism or part trapped in amber, hardened plant
sap
2. Permineralization/ Petrification - The organic contents of bone and wood are
replaced with silica, calcite or pyrite, forming a rock-like fossil
3. Replacement - hard parts are dissolved and replaced by other minerals, like
calcite, silica, pyrite, or iron
4. Carbonization or Coalification - The other elements are removed and only the
carbon remained
5. Recrystalization - Hard parts are converted to more stable minerals or small
crystals turn into larger crystals
6. Authigenic preservation - Molds and casts are formed after most of the organism
have been destroyed or dissolved
DATING FOSSILS
RELATIVE DATING

• Based upon the study of layer of rocks

• Does not tell the exact age: only compare fossils as
older or younger, depends on their position
in rock layer
• Fossils in the uppermost rock layer/ strata are
younger while those in the lowermost
deposition are oldest
RULES OF DATING
A. LAW OF SUPERPOSITION:

Sedimentary layers are deposited in a specific time- youngest

rocks on top, oldest rocks at the bottom
B. LAW OF ORIGINAL HORIZONTALITY:

Deposition of rocks happen horizontally- tilting,

folding or breaking happened recently
LAW OF CROSS-CUTTING RELATIONSHIPS:

If an igneous intrusion or a fault cuts through existing

rocks, the intrusion/fault is YOUNGER than the rock it
cuts through INDEX FOSSILS (guide fossils/
indicator fossils/ zone fossils): fossils from short-lived
organisms that lived in many places; used to
define and identify geologic periods
ABSOLUTE DATING

• Determines the actual age of the fossil

• Through radiometric dating, using radioactive
isotopes carbon-14 and potassium-40
• Considers the half-life or the time it takes for half of
the atoms of the radioactive element to
decay
• The decay products of radioactive isotopes is stable
atoms.
thank you