Module 24

Historical Geology

EARTHS VERY EARLY HISTORY

About 4.6 billion years ago . . .
The Earth started out cool
Probably with uniform composition/density
mostly silicate compounds iron and magnesium
oxides
Temperature increased with heat sources:
meteorite impacts
gravitational compression
radioactive decay
Heated up enough to melt iron and nickel

EARTHS VERY EARLY HISTORY

Earths differentiation
Differentiation = segregated into layers of
differing composition and density
Early Earth was
probably uniform
Molten iron and
nickel sank to form
the core
Lighter silicates
flowed up to form
mantle and crust

EARTHS VERY EARLY HISTORY

Forming the Earth-Moon system
4.6 to 4.4 billion years
ago
the young Earth was
impacted by Marssized or larger
planetesimal
ejected large quantity
of hot material
and . . .
formed the Moon

EARTHS VERY EARLY HISTORY

Forming the Earth-Moon system

EARTHS VERY EARLY HISTORY

Moon

Most of the lunar material came from the mantle of

the colliding planetesimal
The material cooled and crystallized into lunar layers

EARTHS VERY EARLY HISTORY

Moon

Light-colored areas
are lunar highlands
Heavily cratered
provide striking
evidence of massive
meteorite
bombardment

EARTHS VERY EARLY HISTORY

Earth

Atmosphere
Hydrosphere
CMC-sphere
Biosphere

EARTHS VERY EARLY HISTORY

CMC-sphere
CRUST
continental-crust:
granitic (sialic)
composition
oceanic-crust:
basaltic (mafic)
composition
MANTEL
composed largely of
peridotite
dark, dense igneous
rock
rich in iron and
magnesium
CORE
composed largely of
iron and a small
amount of nickel

GEOLOGIC TIME

From the human perspective, time units are in

seconds, hours, days, years
Ancient human history
hundreds or even thousands of years
Geologic history
millions, hundreds of millions, billions of years

GEOLOGIC TIME
Geologic Time Scale
Resulted from the work of many 19th century
geologists who
pieced together information
from numerous rock exposures,
constructed a sequential chronology
based on changes in Earths biota through time
The time scale was subsequently dated in years
using radiometric dating techniques

GEOLOGIC TIME
Geologic Time Scale

GEOLOGIC TIME
Geologic Time Scale and football field

The history of plate movement

150 million years ago

100 million years ago

60 million years ago

30 million years ago

5 million years ago

The history of plate movement during the last

200 million years has been reconstructed from
all available geologic and geophysical data.
These maps show the general directions of
movement from the time Pangaea began to
break up until the continents moved to their
present positions

The history of organism

SUMMARY
Universe began with
a big bang 15 billion years ago
Solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago
by condensation and gravitational collapse
of a rotating interstellar cloud
Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago
as a swirling eddy in the solar system nebula
Moon may have formed
when a planetesimal collided with Earth
4.6 to 4.4 billion years ago
Earth probably started solid
then differentiated into layers
as it heated and melted

SUMMARY
Earths layers mostly solidified
into the core, mantle and crust,
with the upper mantle and crust
making up the soft asthenosphere
and the solid lithosphere
Lithosphere is broken into plates
that diverge, converge and
slide sideways past each other
Plate tectonics is a unifying theory
that helps explain features and events
including volcanic eruptions,
earthquakes and mountain forming

SUMMARY
An appreciation
of the immensity of geologic time
is central to understanding Earths evolution
Uniformitarianism holds that the laws
of nature have been constant through time
Geology is part of our lives
and our standard of living depends
on our use of natural resources
that formed over billions of years