Geological Timescale

Geologic Time Scale

Geologic Time Scale

• Similar to the period table we organize these events into a table or timeline we call the Geologic time scale. It is huge and stretches over all of Earth's years. 

• The Earth is believed to be about 4.6 Billion Years Old we need somewhere to organize all of this time which is why scientists use the Geologic Time Scale.

​Eon, Era, Period, Epoch

• ​The Geographic time scale HAS to be organized, therefore we organize it by dividing them into fractions of time (Some are larger then others).

Multiple Choice

What is the largest unit of time on the geologic time scale

• Era

• Eon

• Epoch

• Period

Multiple Choice

What Eon, Era, Period and Epoch are you living in today?

• Phanerozoic, Cenozoic, Quaternary, Holocene

• Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous

• The Cambrian period

Multiple Choice

What are the fractions of time in order from LEAST to GREATEST?

• Epoch, Eon, Era, Period

• Eon, Era, Period, Epoch

• Period, Epoch, Eon, Era

• Epoch, Period, Era, Eon

Multiple Choice

The Earth is believed to be about ______ years old.

• 4.2 Billion

• 4.6 Million

• 5.4 Billion

• 4.6 Billion

​Uniformitarianism

• Earth is about 4.6 Billion years old

​

• ​The principle of uniformitarianism states that geologic events (Like mountain building or erosion) that happened in the past can be explained by current geologic events.

• Summarized: Its the idea that Earth's features are always changing and the present is an indication to what happened in the past.

​Gradualism

• ​Gradualism shows that fossils change very slowly over time.

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• Many fossils show that many present day organisms possess similar features to their past ancestors.

​

• ​Brontosaurus

​Giraffe

​Catastrophism

• ​the theory that changes in the earth's crust during geological history have resulted chiefly from sudden violent and unusual events.

​

Examples:

• ​Meteor Impacts (Dinosaur Extinction)

• Ice Age​

• Hurricanes, Tornados, ​Blizzards, Droughts

• MASS EXTINCTION​

Multiple Choice

The geologic time scale is a record of....

• the history of fossils only

• the history of rocks

• the history of rock layers and fossils

• geologist notes

Multiple Choice

Paleontologists infer that the earth is approximately how many years old?

• 4.5 million years

• 450 billion years

• 4.6 billion years

• 450 million years

Multiple Choice

Which Rock Layer is the oldest?

• A

• B

• C

• D

Multiple Choice

Which Rock layer is the youngest?

• A

• B

• C

• E

Multiple Choice

What Period are we currently in?

• Triassic

• Cenozoic

• Quaternary

• Jurassic

Multiple Choice

What does this picture represent

• Uniformitarianism

• Gradualism

• Catastrophism

Multiple Choice

What does this represent

• Catastrophism

• Gradualism

• Uniformitarianism

Multiple Choice

What does this image represent?

• Gradualism

• Catastrophism

• Uniformitarianism