1 / 9

Geological History of the Earth

Geological History of the Earth. Hadeon Eon. No rocks because the Earth was molten. Archean Eon. Earth’s crust cooled enough that rocks and continental plates began to form. Two theories:

Download Presentation

Geological History of the Earth

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Geological History of the Earth

  2. Hadeon Eon • No rocks because the Earth was molten

  3. Archean Eon • Earth’s crust cooled enough that rocks and continental plates began to form. • Two theories: • Because the Earth was hotter, plate tectonic activity was more vigorous than today and prevented cratonization and continent formation until the mantle cooled and convection slowed down • Because the mantle was too buoyant, subduction would not occur.

  4. Proterozoic Eon • Featured massive, rapid continental accretion, supercontinent cycles, and orogenic activity. • Glaciations occurred

  5. Phanerozoic Eon • Current eon—covers roughly 545 million years • Divided into three eras • Paleozoic • Mesozoic • Cenozoic

  6. Paleozoic Era • Started shortly after the breakup of a supercontinent called Pannotia at the end of a global ice age • At the beginning, Earth’s landmass was broken up into a large number of small continents • Toward the end, the continents gathered together into a supercontinent called Pangaea

  7. Mesozoic • Pangaea gradually split into a northern continent Laurasia and a southern continent, Gondwana • Later, Laurasia and Gondwana broke up into modern-day continents, but their locations were much different than they are today.

  8. Cenozoic • Laurasia became North America and Eurasia • Gondwana split into South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica and India, which collided with the Asian plate.

  9. Pangaea Breaking Apart

More Related