The Geologic Time Scale

Start the Tour or click on an Era, Period, or Epoch below to view some details...

Or see our Notes and Links
Era
Period
EpochYears Ago
Cenozoic
Quarternary
Holocene40,000
Pleistocene1,800,000
Tertiary
Pliocene5,000,000
Miocene24,000,000
Oligocene37,000,000
Eocene58,000,000
Paleocene65,000,000
Mesozoic
Cretaceous144,000,000
Jurassic208,000,000
Triassic245,000,000
Paleozoic
Permian286,000,000
Carboniferous360,000,000
Devonian408,000,000
Silurian438,000,000
Ordovician505,000,000
Cambrian570,000,000
Proterozoic
Pre-Cambrian2,500,000,000
Archaean
Pre-Cambrian3,800,000,000
Hadean
Pre-Cambrian4,500,000,000

Notes


On dates: Dates given for the Eras, Periods, and Epochs are taken from Stanley, Earth and Life through Time, WH Freeman, 1989; there are slight differences in the boundary dates given by different sources.

A few other Geologic Time pages worth visiting


If I'd realized how many of these there were, I wouldn't have picked this topic; nevertheless, hopefully the combination of EARS 2 material and my own hominid-centric knowledge from various Anthro courses will have made this interesting enough.
  • UCMP Web Time Machine
  • NASA Classroom of the Future Geologic Time page
  • Dr. Bob's Geologic Time Page (at EIU)
  • On Yahoo: Science/Earth_Sciences/Geology_and_Geophysics/Geologic_Time