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The geologic time scale or geological time scale (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronology (a scientific branch of geology that aims to determine the age of rocks).
The process of determining a specific date (in years or some other unit of time) for an archaeological, geological or paleontological site or artifact. accident A sudden discontinuity of ground, such as a fault of great thickness, bed or lentil of unstable ground. [1] accretion A process by which material is added to a tectonic plate or ...
This is a list of official and unofficial names for time spans in the geologic timescale and units of chronostratigraphy.Since many of the smallest subdivisions of the geologic timescale were in the past defined on regional lithostratigraphic units, there are many alternative names that overlap.
Tertiary (/ ˈ t ɜːr. ʃ ə. r i, ˈ t ɜː r. ʃ i ˌ ɛr. i / TUR-shə-ree, TUR-shee-err-ee) [1] is an obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start of the Cenozoic Era, and extended to the beginning of the Quaternary glaciation at ...
Geological events range in time span by orders of magnitude, from seconds to millions of years, and in spatial scale from local to regional and, ultimately, global. [2] In contrast to chronostratigraphic or geochronological units, that define the boundaries between periods , epochs and other units of the geologic time scale , complex dynamic ...
Geochronology is different in application from biostratigraphy, which is the science of assigning sedimentary rocks to a known geological period via describing, cataloging and comparing fossil floral and faunal assemblages.
It can therefore be used as a chronostratigraphic unit of time which delineates a large span of years – less than a geological eon, but greater than its successively smaller and more refined subdivisions (geologic periods, epochs, and geologic ages).
A major achievement of geochronometry is the documentation of geologic time, as represented in geologic time scales. A geologic time scale is a scheme that integrates the geochronologic subdivisions of geologic time and their absolute ages and durations. The latest version of the geologic time scale was published in 2004, [6] and includes a ...