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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 latest version of the geologic time scale was published in 2004, [6] and includes a comparison of present and past time scales. The greater efforts of geochronometry today are aimed at retrieving accurate ages of major events in the Earth's history and of stage / age boundaries.
Historical geology or palaeogeology is a discipline that uses the principles and methods of geology to reconstruct the geological history of Earth. [1] Historical geology examines the vastness of geologic time, measured in billions of years, and investigates changes in the Earth , gradual and sudden, over this deep time .
Geologic time is the timescale used to calculate dates in the planet's geologic history from its origin (currently estimated to have been some 4,600 million years ago) to the present day. Radiometric dating measures the steady decay of radioactive elements in an object to determine its age.
Geologic time shown in a diagram called a geological clock, showing the relative lengths of the eons of Earth's history and noting major events The geological history of the Earth follows the major geological events in Earth's past based on the geological time scale , a system of chronological measurement based on the study of the planet's rock ...
The geological time scale encompasses the history of the Earth. [13] It is bracketed at the earliest by the dates of the first Solar System material at 4.567 Ga [ 14 ] (or 4.567 billion years ago) and the formation of the Earth at 4.54 Ga [ 15 ] [ 16 ] (4.54 billion years), which is the beginning of the Hadean eon – a division of geological time.
For the enormously long geologic time frame, it is advantageous to use corresponding large, equal time intervals encompassing the events and processes that have shaped our planet. The development of mountain ranges, ocean basins, and continents takes tens to hundreds of millions of years, and large time units thus are convenient for discussing ...
In chronostratigraphy, a stage is a succession of rock strata laid down in a single age on the geologic timescale, which usually represents millions of years of deposition.A given stage of rock and the corresponding age of time will by convention have the same name, and the same boundaries.