Geological Time Scale
The beginnings of our planet formed some 4.5 billion years ago and the Geological Time Scale lower down represents the ongoing development of
GEOLOGICAL TIME SCALE and NAMIBIA . The beginnings of our planet formed some 4.5 billion years ago and the Geological Time Scale lower down represents the ongoing development of the…
Geological Time Scale and Namibia
Early life began in the seas about 3,500 million years ago in the Archean Era, but it was not until the Paleozoic Era, about 570 million years ago that a profusion of marine invertebrates developed such as cephalopods, corals, gastropods, trilobites and worms. The early fish were invertebrates having their bodies within 'armour casings'. The first vertebrates appeared about 500 million years ago and fish evolved into creatures having a bone skeletal frame and became the dominant vertebrate. About 410 million years ago certain species of fish developed into amphibians and began to colonize the land. It was about 360 million years ago that the early reptiles evolved and they in turn began to displace the amphibians as the dominant land species.
Geological Time Scale used is as determined by the International Committee on Stratigraphy (ICS)
1. Eons are the greatest chronological divisions of which there are four. The Hadian and Archean being the earliest 2.5 billion years of the Earth's development, followed by the Proterozoic, 1.5 billion years, and the Phanerozoic which began 542 million years ago until today.
(a) The Proterozoic is subdivided into the Palaeoproterozoic, Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic Eras.
(b) The Phanerozoicis subdivided into the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras.
(a) The Paleoproterozoic into the Siderian. Rhyacian, Ososirian, Stratherian and Calymmian.
(b) The Mesoproterozoic into the Calymmian, Ectasian and Stenian.
(c) The Neoproterozoic into the Tonian, Cryogenian and Ediacaran.
(d) The Paleozoic into the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous.
(e) The Mesozoic into the Permian, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.
(f) The Cenozoic into the Palaeogene and Neogene.
It was as early as 1620 that the English philosopher Francis Bacon commented on the apparent similarity of the shape of the West coastline of Africa and the Eastern coastline of South America. However, Bacon made no reference that the two continents could have once been joined. In 1858, an American called Antonio Schneider made the suggestion that the continents had somehow moved in respect to each other. But, it was not until 1915 that German meteorologist Alfred Lothar Wegener (1880-1930) published in his book, 'THE ORIGIN OF CONTINENTS AND OCEANS' the theory of Continental Drift . Wegener proposed that the earth had once consisted of a single land mass surrounded by a vast ocean. He named this super continent Pangaea and explained that it had long ago divided forming two great continents - Laurasia in the North and Gondwana in the South and that, in time, these two continents had further divided.
Wegener's theory was viewed with scepticism by the Geological fraternity until the 1960s by which time advanced scientific measuring equipment had been developed and the phenomenon of Paleomagnetism was accepted.
Earth 'entering new age of geological time' The Earth has entered a new age of geological time – the epoch of new man, scientists claim.
“The Anthropocene represents a new phase in the history of both humankind and of the Earth, when natural forces and human forces became intertwined, so that the fate of one determines the fate of the other. Geologically, this is a remarkable episode in the history of this planet.”
3 Ma: Karstification Carbonate Rocks - Otavi Mountains - Gaub Cave Naukluft Mountains
In Namibia: 750 Ma: Third mountain building phase. Folding of the Damara Granites. Auas, Naukluft. Formation of the Otavi Mountains by marine deposits
In Namibia: 1,000 Ma: Land erosion, Luderitz Peninsula, Khomas Hochland
In Namibia The Epupa, Grootfontein and Huab Metamorphic Complex were formed
Acknowledgements and further reading: E1, E2, G1, G2, G3, M2, W1, W2
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