Geological Time Scale

Basic Information

Physical Environment > Geological Time Scale

This site tells the story of the history of the universe. Click Earlier and Later to follow the story. Note: Many facts have been simplified to make them easier to understand.

Geologists have given strange names to rocks of different ages. These names, and the ages of the rocks measured in millions of years ago, are given in this table.
This web site also contains a universal time line.

Precambrian Eon (4500 to 544)	Hadean (4500 to 3800)
	Archaean (3800 to 2500)
	Proterozoic Era (2500 to 544)	Paleoproterozoic (2500 to 1600) Mesoproterozoic (1600 to 900) Neoproterozoic (900 to 544) Vendian(650 to 544)
Phanerozoic (544 to today)	Paleozoic Era (544 to 245)	Cambrian (544 to 505) Tommotian (530 to 527) Ordovician (505 to 440) Silurian (440 to 410) Devonian (410 to 360) Carboniferous (360 to 286) Mississippian (360 to 325) Pennsylvanian (325 to 286) Permian (286 to 245)
	Mesozoic Era (245 to 65)	Triassic (245 to 208) Jurassic (208 to 146) Cretaceous (146 to 65)
	Cenozoic Era (65 to today)	Tertiary (65 to 1.8) Paleocene (65 to 54) Eocene (54 to 38) Oligocene (38 to 23) Miocene (23 to 5 mya) Pliocene (5 to 1.8) Quaternary (1.8 mya to today) Pleistocene (1.8 mya to 11,000 yrs) Holocene (11,000 years to today)

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Physical Environment > Geological Time Scale

Basic Information