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The first eon in Earth's history, the Hadean, begins with the Earth's formation and is followed by the Archean eon at 3.8 Ga. [2]: 145 The oldest rocks found on Earth date to about 4.0 Ga, and the oldest detrital zircon crystals in rocks to about 4.4 Ga, [34] [35] [36] soon after the formation of the Earth's crust and the Earth
The Precambrian includes approximately 90% of geologic time. It extends from 4.6 billion years ago to the beginning of the Cambrian Period (about 539 Ma).It includes the first three of the four eons of Earth's prehistory (the Hadean, Archean and Proterozoic) and precedes the Phanerozoic eon.
This questioning represented a turning point in the study of the Earth. It was now possible to study the history of the Earth from a scientific perspective without religious preconceptions. With the application of scientific methods to the investigation of the Earth's history, the study of geology could become a distinct field of science.
The geologic history of Earth's Moon has been divided into a time scale based on geomorphological markers, namely impact cratering, volcanism, and erosion. This process of dividing the Moon's history in this manner means that the time scale boundaries do not imply fundamental changes in geological processes, unlike Earth's geologic time scale.
Solidified lava flow in Hawaii Sedimentary layers in Badlands National Park, South Dakota Metamorphic rock, Nunavut, Canada. Geology (from Ancient Greek γῆ (gê) 'earth' and λoγία () 'study of, discourse') [1] [2] is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. [3]
The two models and the data that support them can be reconciled by large-scale recycling of the continental crust, particularly during the early stages of Earth's history. [55] New continental crust forms as a result of plate tectonics, a process ultimately driven by the continuous loss of heat from Earth's interior.
18th-century geologist James Hutton contributed to an early understanding of the Earth's history by proposing the theory of uniformitarianism, which is now a basic principle in all branches of geology. Uniformitarianism describes an Earth formed by the same natural phenomena that are at work today, the product of slow and continuous geological ...