Name(s): ______

Geologic Time Project – History & Development of Our Planet

Group 1: Time Breakdowns

Name(s): ______

Directions: Split your ticker tape into 3 LONG sections. The top section should be your eons, the middle will be your eras, and then the bottom will be your periods (see example below).

Label and Color each so we can easily recognize how time is broken down.

Then create a key explaining how each subsection is divided.

Measurements(Given in millions of years ago) based on a 5 meter long piece of ticker tape

Name(s): ______

Eons

Phanerozoic = Present – 540,000,000

Proterozoic = 540,000,000 – 2,500,000,000

Archean = 2,500,000,000 – 3,800,000,000

Hadean  3,800,000,000 – 4,500,000,000

****Convert all numbers to centimeters by moving the decimal SEVEN places to the LEFT!!!

Eras

Cenozoic = Present – 65,000,000

Mesozoic = 65,000,000 – 248,000,000

Paleozoic = 248,000,000 – 540,000,000

Precambrian = 540,000,000 – 4,500,000,000

Periods

QuaternaryPeriod= Present – 1,800,000

TertiaryPeriod= 1,800,000– 65,000,000

CretaceousPeriod = 65,000,000 -144,000,000

JurassicPeriod= 144,000,000– 206,000,000

TriassicPeriod= 206,000,000 – 248,000,000

PermianPeriod = 248,000,000 – 290,000,000

CarboniferousP. = 290,000,000 – 354,000,000

DevonianPeriod =354,000,000 – 417,000,000

SilurianPeriod= 417,000,000 – 443,000,000

OrdovicianPeriod = 443,000,000 -490,000,000

CambrianPeriod 490,000,000 – 543,000,000

Name(s): ______

Background: HowoldistheEarth? IftheEarthcelebrateditsbirthdayeverymillionyears, therewouldbe4,600candlesonitsbirthdaycake!Humanshavebeenaroundonlylongenoughtolightthelastcandleonthecake.BecausetheEarthis4.6billionyearsold,geologistshavecreatedageologictimescaletomaketheirjobofstudyingEarth’shistoryeasier.ThegeologictimescaleisastandardmethodusedtodividetheEarth’slonghistoryintosmallerparts.Justasyourlife’shistoryisbrokenupinto sections,thehistoryoftheEarthisbrokenupintosmallersectionscalled eons.Yourhistorycanbebrokenupintosectionsandlabeledasbirth,elementaryyears,middleschoolyears,highschoolyears,professionalyears,etc. Eonscanbebrokendownevenfurther,theycalltheseeras.Justthinkhowyourschoolyearscanbebrokendownintogrades(elementary=1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.).Erascanbefurtherbrokendowntoperiods.Thinkofthislikeevery9weeksineachgrade.

So, Eons are the largest division of geologic time. Each eon is defined by life formation. Eons are then broken down into Eras, which are defined by mass extinction. Each Era is then further divided into periods, which are defined by fossils.

Geologic Time Project – History & Development of Our Planet

Group 2: Atmosphere & Water

Directions: Section off each of the atmospheres and add in the dates and events.

Using the other information, create a short summary on an index card or a ¼ sheet of paper.

A good idea would be to color each section based on what was happening at the time.

  • Primordial Atmosphere (4,600,000,000 – 4,000,000,000 Years)
  • Origin of the Earth = 4,600,000,000 Years Ago
  • Collision that Formed the Moon = 4,450,000,000 Years Ago
  • Composition: Methane, Ammonia, Water Vapor, Small Amounts of Nitrogen & CO2 (Carbon dioxide)
  • Extremely high temps converted methane into CO (Carbon Monoxide) and Hydrogen
  • 2nd Atmosphere (4,000,000,000 Years – 2,500,000,000 Years Ago)
  • Meteorite Bombardment = 3,900,000,000 Years Ago
  • Earth cooled & water vapor turned liquid
  • Million year rain & produce oceans = 3,800,000,000 Years Ago
  • Mix of water & gases created acid rain, adding new minerals to Earth’s surface
  • 1st day without clouds = 3,700,000,000 Years Ago
  • End: Left the atmosphere mainly nitrogen & CO2
  • 3rd Atmosphere (2,500,000,000 – 540,000,000 Years Ago)
  • Anaerobic life dominant
  • Overtime changed Hydrogen & CO2Methane & Water & Sulfates
  • Organisms use photosynthesis = 3,500,000,000 Years Ago
  • Organisms began to convert CO2(Carbon dioxide) + H2O (water) O2 (Oxygen) + Sugars = (photosynthesis)
  • Sunlight increased in intensity = 2,100,000,000 Years Ago
  • Ozone layer formed = 2,400,000,000 Years Ago
  • Anaerobic life started to die with increase of oxygen making way for aerobic life (about 10% Oxygen)
  • Present Atmosphere (540,000,000 Years Ago – Present)
  • Great Oxidation Event = 2,300,000,000 Years Ago
  • Most oxygen was used to oxidize minerals on the surface & in the oceans
  • Mass Extinction Event = 251,000,000 Years Ago
  • Mass Extinction (volcanic eruptions) made CO2 increase
  • Return of Plants = 228,000,000 Years Ago
  • Return of plants made our present atmosphere
  • Composition Today: 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% Mix of Argon, CO2, Neon, & Trace Gases

Patterns?(Attach this as a summary)

•With an increase in CO2 (Carbon dioxide) – the planet is hotter  Volcanoes, Animals

•With an increase in O2 (Oxygen) – the planet is cooler  Plants, Bacteria

****Convert all numbers to centimeters by moving the decimal SEVEN places to the LEFT!!!

What is the “Oxygenation Catastrophe”? (summarize this article)

Approximately 2.3 billion years ago, Earth could have been easily mistaken for a hostile alien planet. Methane spewed into the atmosphere by constant volcanic activity, and fatal UV radiation bombarded the surface without the protection of an ozone layer. The primordial seas were blood red, a hue caused by the massive amounts of suspended iron in the water. It is beneath these red waves in which almost all life on the planet survived, most of which would require a microscope to view. Anaerobic single celled organisms were the dominant life form on earth at the time; they lived in the hostile chemical makeup of the primordial sea without the need of oxygen. However just one of these single celled organisms may have caused the greatest extinction event on planet Earth: the Cyanobacteria.

What was formerly known as blue-green algae, the Cyanobacteria are actually bacteria that have the unique ability of photosynthesis. This single-celled organism had emerged only a few hundred millions years before, at a time where all other organisms relied on methods of anaerobic respiration. By creating its own energy from the sun, this bacterium was able to generate up to 16 times more energy than its counterparts, which allowed it to outcompete and explode in reproduction. This seemingly innocent organism would spell doom for most of life on the planet, as photosynthesis produced free oxygen molecules as a byproduct.

Oxygen was a poisonous element to the dominant life on the planet at the time, anaerobic bacteria. In the primordial waters, oxygen molecules would normally be absorbed by decomposing organisms or would bind with iron in the water to create rust, so oxygen did not have time to accumulate. We can see in the geological record that 2.3 billion years ago, there was a highly unusual amount of rust being deposited on the ocean floor. We know based on this evidence that there was a huge spike of oxygen in ocean at this time. It is thought that Cyanobacteria werw producing so much oxygen that it reached complete global saturation. With this, oxygen began to leave the waters and accumulate in the atmosphere, which would have profound effects on the planet.

In a relatively short amount of time, Earth went from having very little oxygen to what may be the highest levels of atmospheric oxygen it has ever had. This event had wiped out most of life on the planet to which the oxygen was poisonous. Some of these anaerobic organisms were though to have survived by burrowing into the earth where oxygen levels were survivable. What may have the biggest change is that when oxygen accumulated in the methane rich atmosphere, the concentration of this greenhouse gas dwindled, causing temperature levels to drop. They dropped so low in fact, that this oxygen event is thought to have triggered the Huronian glaciation, the longest snowball Earth period.

Over 2.3 billions years later, Cyanobacteria is still among us and continues to produce oxygen. Its byproduct is now an essential part of the earth’s atmosphere and a necessity for survival for many forms of life. This great oxygen event is credited with drastically changing the make-up of the planet, giving birth to thousands of new minerals, an environment where multi-cellular organisms could evolve, and the cooling of earth’s temperature.

Geologic Time Project – History & Development of Our Planet

Group 3: Land Development

Directions: Plot the dates and events on the timeline.

Draw or add a picture to illustrate each stage of the Earth.

If a section has/needs a summary, create a short summary on index cards or ¼ sheet of paper and attach.

Major Events

  • Solar Nebula = 4,600,000,000 Years Ago
  • Distance from Sun(SUMMARY)
  • Thehabitable zone, sometimes referred to as the “Goldilocks Zone,” is the region around a star that has just the right conditions to find liquid water on a planet's surface. And liquid water is a key ingredient in the search for life.
  • Origin of the Earth = 4,540,000,000 Years Ago
  • Magnetic Field – Spinning liquid metal outer core generates a magnetic field that protects the planet (SUMMARY)
  • Composition – A planet’s composition determines the soil type (original bedrock material), layers of the Earth, etc. (SUMMARY)
  • Collision formed the Moon = 4,450,000,000 Years Ago
  • Earth cooled = 4,400,000,000 Years Ago
  • Meteorite Bombardment = 3,900,000,000 Years Ago
  • Rain =3,800,000,000 Years Ago – created the oceans
  • One solid massive continent surrounded by water:
  • RodiniaPanthalassa Ocean = 750,000,000 Years Ago
  • Pangaea = 300,000,000 Years Ago
  • LaurasiaGondwana = 150,000,000 Years Ago
  • Early Continents = 100,000,000 Years Ago
  • Present Continents = 40,000,000 Years Ago

Original Surface(SUMMARY)

  • Soil – Development of Soil
  • Soils differ from one part of the world to another, and even from one part of a backyard to another. They differ because of where and how they formed. Over time, five major factors control how a soil forms. They are climate, organisms, relief (landscape), parent material, and time--or CLORPT, for short.
  • Every soil originally formed from parent material: a deposit at the Earth’s surface. The material could have been bedrock that weathered in place or smaller materials carried by flooding rivers, moving glaciers, or blowing winds. Over time, sun, water, wind, ice, and living creatures help transform, or change, the parent material into soil.
  • As a soil ages, it gradually starts to look different from its parent material. That’s because soil is dynamic. Its components—minerals, water, air, organic matter, and organisms—constantly change. Some components are added. Some are lost. Some move from place to place within the soil. And some components are transformed into others.

****Convert all numbers to centimeters by moving the decimal SEVEN places to the LEFT!!!


Geologic Time Project – History & Development of Our Planet

Group 4: Surface Development

Directions: Read each section and give a summary of each topic on an index card or ¼ sheet of paper.

Plot the dates and use blue and red to show warmer and cooler temperatures.

When possible use pictures to help show the events of the timeline.

****Convert all numbers to centimeters by moving the decimal SEVEN places to the LEFT!!!

Major Events

How is the surface altered?

  • Wind – Blows soil from one place to another
  • More extreme in hot/dry places (Oasis)
  • Gravity – Causes soil and rock to fall

Name(s): ______

  • Rock Slides
  • Landslides
  • Avalanches

Name(s): ______

  • Water
  • Shorelines – Causes the shorelines to change that can affect evidence to the past
  • Waves/Development of Oceans
  • Pangaea = 300,000,000 Years Ago
  • Present Continents = 40,000,000 Years Ago
  • Rivers/Streams – Carves, cuts, and transports sediment
  • Warm Periods
  • Neoproterozoic = 600,000,000 - 635,000,000 Years Ago
  • Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum = 56,000,000 Years Ago
  • Ice
  • Glaciation Periods
  • Quaternary = 2,580,000 – Present
  • Ice Age = 18,000 Years Ago
  • Created the fertile lands of the Midwest & the Great Lakes
  • Karoo = 360,000,000 – 260,000,000 Years Ago
  • Andean-Saharan = 450,000,000 – 420,000,000 Years Ago
  • Cryogenian = 720,000,000 – 635,000,000 Years Ago
  • Huronian = 2,400,000,000 – 2,100,000,000 Years Ago
  • Physical Processes
  • Ice Wedging – expansion of water in crevices causes rock to break apart
  • Temperature Changes
  • Climate Areas – depends on what land forms is nearest the equator or the Poles
  • Chemical Processes
  • Acid Rain (Early Atmosphere)
  • Caves

What is the difference between erosion and weathering?

  • Weathering: breaking down of rocks, soil, and minerals
  • Erosion: the transportation of sediment to other places via wind, gravity, water, or ice
  • Weathering and erosion slowly chisel, polish, and buff Earth's rock into ever evolving works of art—and then wash the remains into the sea.
  • The processes are definitively independent, but not exclusive.Weatheringis the mechanical and chemical hammer that breaks down and sculpts the rocks.Erosiontransports the fragments away.
  • Working together they create and reveal marvels of nature from tumbling boulders high in the mountains to sandstone arches in the parched desert to polished cliffs braced against violent seas.
  • Wateris nature's most versatile tool. For example, take rain on a frigid day. The water pools in cracks and crevices. Then, at night, the temperature drops and the water expands as it turns to ice, splitting the rock like a sledgehammer to a wedge. The next day, under the beating sun, the ice melts and trickles the cracked fragments away.
  • Repeatedswings in temperaturecan also weaken and eventually fragment rock, which expands when hot and shrinks when cold. Such pulsing slowly turns stones in the arid desert to sand. Likewise, constant cycles from wet to dry will crumble clay.
  • Bits of sand are picked up and carried off by thewind, which can then blast the sides of nearby rocks, buffing and polishing them smooth. On the seashore, the action of waves chips away at cliffs and rakes the fragments back and forth into fine sand.
  • Plants and animalsalso take a heavy toll on Earth's hardened minerals. Lichens and mosses can squeeze into cracks and crevices, where they take root. As they grow, so do the cracks, eventually splitting into bits and pieces. Critters big and small trample, crush, and plow rocks as they scurry across the surface and burrow underground. Plants and animals also produce acids that mix with rainwater, a combination that eats away at rocks.
  • Rainwateralso mixes with chemicals as it falls from the sky, forming an acidic concoction that dissolves rock. For example, acid rain dissolves limestone to form karst, a type of terrain filled with fissures, underground streams, and caves like the cenotes of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.
  • Back up on the mountains, snow and ice buildup intoglaciersthat weigh on the rocks beneath and slowly push them downhill under the force of gravity. Together with advancing ice, the rocks carve out a path as the glacier slumps down the mountain. When the glacier begins to melt, it deposits its cargo of soil and rock, transporting the rocky debris toward the sea. Every year, rivers deposit millions of tons of sediment into the oceans.
  • Without the erosive forces of water, wind, and ice, rock debris would simply pile up where it forms and obscure from view nature's weathered sculptures. Although erosion is a natural process, abusive land-use practices such asdeforestationandovergrazingcan expedite erosion and strip the land of soils needed for food to grow.

Geologic Time Project – History & Development of Our Planet

Group 5: Development of Life

Directions: Add each event and sketch/color a small picture

to represent the event.

Important Events

Name(s): ______

  • Humansappear= 2,000,000 Years Ago
  • Large carnivores= 35,000,000 Years Ago
  • First flowering plants=130,000,000 Years Ago
  • Firstbirds= 150,000,000 Years Ago
  • First mammals= 190,000,000 Years Ago
  • Firstdinosaurs= 225,000,000 Years Ago
  • Firstreptiles= 315,000,000 Years Ago
  • Firstinsects = 363,000,000 Years Ago
  • Firstamphibians= 370,000,000 Years Ago
  • Firstlandplants= 420,000,000 Years Ago
  • First vertebrates= 485,000,000 Years Ago
  • Firstfish= 510,000,000 Years Ago
  • First multi-celled organism= 1,200,000,000 Years Ago
  • Firstinvertebrates (animals without backbones) = 3,500,000,000 Years Ago
  • First single-celled organism= 3,500,000,000 Years Ago
  • Origin of Earth=4,600,000,000 Years Ago

Name(s): ______

Major Mass Extinctions

  • Ordovician-Silurian Extinction = 440,000,000 Years Ago
  • Small marine organisms died out
  • Devonian Extinction = 365,000,000 Years Ago
  • Many tropical marine species went extinct
  • Permian-Triassic Extinction = 250,000,000 Years Ago
  • The largest mass extinction (95% of all species) event in Earth's history affected a range of species, including many vertebrates
  • Triassic-Jurassic Extinction = 210,000,000 Years Ago
  • The extinction of other vertebrate species on land allowed dinosaurs to flourish
  • Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction (KT Boundary) = 65,500,000 Years Ago
  • ¾ of the plant and animal species on Earth

Use this reading to help you create your timeline!

In the very beginning of earth's history, this planet was a giant, red hot, roiling, boiling sea of molten rock - a magma ocean. The heat had been generated by the repeated high speed collisions of much smaller bodies of space rocks that continually clumped together as they collided to form this planet. As the collisions tapered off the earth began to cool, forming a thin crust on its surface. As the cooling continued, water vapor began to escape and condense in the earth's early atmosphere. Clouds formed and storms raged, raining more and more water down on the primitive earth, cooling the surface further until it was flooded with water, forming the seas.

It is theorized that the true age of the earth is about4.6 billion years old, formed at about the same time as the rest of oursolar system. The oldest rocks geologists have been able to find are 3.9 billion years old. Usingradiometric datingmethods to determine the age of rocks means scientists have to rely on when the rock was initially formed (as in - when its internal minerals first cooled). In the infancy of our home planet the entire earth was molten rock - a magma ocean.

Since we can only measure as far back in time as we had solid rock on this planet, we are limited in how we can measure the real age of the earth. Due to the forces ofplate tectonics, our planet is also a very dynamic one; new mountains forming, old ones wearing down, volcanoes melting and reshaping new crust. The continual changing and reshaping of the earth's surface that involves the melting down and reconstructing of old rock has pretty much eliminated most of the original rocks that came with earth when it was newly formed. So the age is a theoretical age.

When Did Life on Earth Begin? - Scientists are still trying to unravel one of the greatest mysteries of earth: When did "life" first appear and how did it happen? It is estimated thatthe first life forms on earth were primitive, one-celled creatures that appeared about 3 billion years ago.That's pretty much all there was for about the next two billion years. Then suddenly those single celled organisms began to evolve into multicellular organisms. Then an unprecedented profusion of life in incredibly complex forms began to fill the oceans. Some crawled from the seas and took residence on land, perhaps to escape predators in the ocean. A cascading chain of new and increasingly differentiated forms of life appeared all over the planet, only to be virtually annihilated by an unexplained mass extinction. It would be the first ofseveral mass extinctions in Earth's history.