History of the Geology of Earth Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History of the Geology of Earth - Research Paper Example The earth has undergone very many physical changes on its geological features since its formation. The earth’s continents have been drifting apart for millions of years since their formation. 760 million years ago, during the initial stages of drifting, the earth’s continents had combined to form the Rodinia super continent. Around 600 million years ago, after rodinia broke apart, the continents drifted and formed Pannotia. Pannotia broke apart and the continents later formed Pangaea. Pangaea broke apart and the continents started drifting away from each other, 180 million years ago. The history of the geology of the earth is divided into chronological eras during which the earth had some outstanding characteristics and major geological events took place. This paper addresses the history of the geology of the earth. The Precambrian eon The Precambrian is the era began at the time of the formation of the earth and lasted till around 570 years ago. This period of time mak es up to about 90% of the earth’s geology history. In the initial period of the Precambrian, the earth was cooling down and it formed a crust that made its surface. The rocks that were formed were mainly volcanic and igneous intrusions rocks which were spread all over the surface of the crust. The Precambrian had three long eras, the hadean, Archean and the Proterozoic. The Hadean lasted almost 700 million years after the earth’s formation. During this period, the earth cooled down and there was the formation of the earth’s surface which was mainly composed of volcanic belts. The temperature of the earth’s surface was still very hot but it was gradually cooling down due to the reduction in collisions with huge rocks in the earth’s orbit. It is also during this period that the earth’s moon was formed. Archean is the era that followed. It lasted from 3900 to 2500 million years ago. The earth experienced tectonic processes that formed sedimenta ry basins on its surface (Stanley 55). The rocks dated from this period reveal that there was simple life; bacteria and algae fossils were present on the rocks. The proterozoic period, 2500 to 570 million years ago, was characterized by the formation of vast rifts on the earth’s crust. The rifts were filled with volcanic rocks as well as the sedimentary rocks from the sedimentary basins (Sasso 59). This period also saw the formation of seas in which a lot of iron minerals were formed. There was early life in the seas and the amounts of oxygen kept increasing in the atmosphere. In the proterozoic eon, the Rodinia super continent drifted apart and later the Pannotia super continent was formed. Glaciers also started forming on the earth’s surface in the eon. The Phanerozoic Eon This is the eon in which the earth is currently in. It wraps the geology history of the earth from 550 years ago to date. After the breaking of the Pannotia super continent, the continents drifted and recombined to for the Pangaea. Pangaea then broke into the current continents. The continents have been constantly drifting apart. The phanerozoic eon is also categorized into three eras, the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and the current Cenozoic eras. All these eras experienced significant geological changes of the earth (Zhao, Sun,Wilde & Li 94). The Paleozoic Era The Paleozoic era, 570 to 245 million years ago, marked the end of the ice age and the beginning of early life on earth in the seas. It