Significant events in Earth History

Environmental Geology

Precambrian Events
Note that the evidence for geological events is often patchy. Age dates can be very approximate. Interpretations are subject to change as more becomes known.

Precambrian Events
Age (by) 4.6 3.8 3.5 3.3 Event Formation of the Earth Oldest known Earth rocks Bacteria around hot springs Algal stromatolites

Note how soon evidence for life is seen

Precambrian Events
Note that the early atmosphere would have been very different from that measured today. Estimates of its composition are made from volcanic gases. Life originated in a non-oxygenated environment - oxygen was a poisonous byproduct of life.

Precambrian Events
Banded iron formations are used as evidence for low atmospheric oxygen levels - their replacement by red beds is used to suggest increasing atmospheric oxygen. Increasing oxygen implies that the organisms have developed a mechanism to cope with the poison.

Precambrian Events
Calcium carbonate precipitation is promoted by the metabolic activity of algae. Significant carbonate deposition implies flourishing biological activity.

Precambrian Events
Age (by) 3.0 2.3 2.1 Event Sizeable continental masses Significant oxygen Formation of ozone layer, protecting life from harmful radiation, allowing more complex cell material.

Precambrian Events
Age (my) 1000 700 Event First (?) supercontinent (Rodinia) Proliferation of multicellular life (Ediacara fauna), followed by ice age and mass extinction.

Phanerozoic events
Major extinctions: end Ordovician Frasnian/Famennian (late Devonian) end Permian end Triassic end Cretaceous ?present

Phanerozoic events
Age (my) 550 Event Proliferation of large sized animals, many with mineralised skeletons First land plants End Ordovician ice age Carboniferous ice age

450 440 290

Phanerozoic events
Age (my) 280 250 125 65 55 Event First proto-mammals Siberian plume eruptions Southern Pacific plume Deccan traps First primates

Phanerozoic events
Age (my) 40 Event Mountain building, Andes & Himalayas, start of global cooling Start of Antarctic ice cap First hominids Uplift of Tibet, start of monsoon

30 18 8

Phanerozoic events
Age (my) 2.5 1.2 0.2 0.1 Event Tool using hominids N hemisphere ice sheets Neanderthal man First Homo sapiens

Observations
Life started very early on in the history of the Earth. (Do carbonaceous chondrites suggest that life came from elsewhere?) Late Precambrian proliferation of life, ice age and mass extinction. Late Ordovician ice age and mass extinction.

Observations
Mass extinction coincident with volcanism 250 my 65 my Climatic change coincident with tectonism 40 my 8 my

Rates of change
Plate movements cm/yr Oceanic crust lifespan <250 my Mountain range lifespan <50 my Mountain altitude increase cm/yr Meteor impact instantaneous Volcanic plumes > my Ice ages 10-100 my

Conclusions
Earth s environment is varied and changing. Geological and biological processes of the Earth are interdependent. There have been times in the Earth s history when changes have been relatively rapid. Current changes (e.g. in biota) are rapid in geological terms.