Major Periods of Geological Time
Era Period Epoch Duration Events
Quarternary Holocene 100,000bp to present .
Pleistocene 2 mya to 100,000bp .
Cenozoic Tertiary Pliocene 5 to 2 mya .
Miocene 24 to 5 mya .
Oligocene 38 to 24 mya Formation of Himalayas and Alps.
India collides with Asia (30 mya)
Eocene 55 to 38 mya Australia splits away from Antarctica (45 mya)
Palæocene 65 to 55 mya Formation of the Rockies
Cretaceous 144 to 65 mya India splits from Antarctica (105 - 100 mya)
Mesozioc Jurassic 213 to 144 mya South Atlantic starts to open (140 - 130 mya).
Triassic 248 to 213 mya North Atlantic starts to open.
Pangaea starts to break up (200 - 180 mya).

Urals raised

Permian 286 to 248 mya Appelachians and Central European mountains raised (280 mya).
Carboniferous 360 to 286 mya .
Palæozioc Devonian 408 to 360 mya Calendonian mountains raised.
Silurian 438 to 408 mya Life comes ashore.
Ordovecian 505 to 438 mya .
Cambrian 590 to 505 mya .
Archaen Precambrian 4,600 to 590 mya Formation of present day atmosphere

Origin of life (3,300 mya)
Formation of crust, continents and oceans.

Origin of Earth.

bp = before present and mya = million years ago
All figures are approximate and are based on currently available evidence.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page