Geological time scale

The geological time scale is the correspondence and didactic organization of the evolution of the planet Earth and the forms of life that inhabit or have inhabited it. It is an instrument used by geologists and Earth scientists to analyze and chronologically categorize the natural evolution of the world we live in, in order to better understand the your past.

It is important to emphasize, in this sense, that, as the Earth is about 4.6 billion years old, there is a big difference between the geological time and the historical time. The first is data based on millions or hundreds of millions of years, with those events that last a few millennia being considered fast. On the other hand, the second covers a shorter scale, dating back decades or centuries, since History is considered from the invention and development of writing.

To get a better idea of ​​the size of the

Earth's geological time, just consider its length equals the period of one year. If so, the first and oldest evidence of life on Earth would have appeared only on March 2nd. The division of Pangea and the emergence of the derived continents would have occurred only in mid-November, whereas the human being would only emerge at 7 pm on December 31.

For this reason, all this great earth history it is divided into several geological eras, starting with the Precambrian, the longest era of all and also the one that is least known, which is almost 4 billion years long. Then come the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Each era is divided into several periods and some of these periods are subdivided into epochs. An ordered set of geological ages makes up an Eon. Note the following image.