Which geologic period do you live in

What is the oldest era? What are the 6 major time periods of world history? What era means ancient life?

What are the 5 eras? What is the most important era in human history? What is the next era called? What era is today known as?

What is the longest Eon? How much is a eon? What ended the Proterozoic Eon? What animals lived during the Proterozoic Eon? How long was the Proterozoic Eon? Which EON did life appear? What did the Earth look like during the Proterozoic Eon? For example, one chunk of time when many dinosaurs lived is called the Jurassic.

As a result, many of the names they used came from towns or other local places where they studied in Europe. Ordering rock layers from oldest to youngest was a first step in creating the geologic time scale. It showed the order in which life on Earth changed. It also showed us how certain areas changed over time in regard to climate or type of environment. However, the early geologic time scale only showed the order of events.

It did not show the actual years that events happened. With the discovery of radioactivity in the late s, scientists were able to measure the exact age in years of different rocks. Measuring the amounts of radioactive elements in rocks let scientists use absolute dating to give ages to each chunk of time on the geologic time scale.

For example, they are now able to state that the Jurassic began about million years ago and that it lasted for about 55 million years. Today, the geologic time scale is divided into major chunks of time called eons. Eons may be further divided into smaller chunks called eras, and each era is divided into periods.

Figure We now live in the Phanerozoic eon, the Cenozoic era, and the Quarternary period. Note that chunks of geologic time are not divided into equal numbers of years.

Instead, they are divided into blocks of time when the fossil record shows that there were similar organisms on Earth. One of the first scientists to understand geologic time was James Hutton. In the late s, he traveled around Great Britain and studied sedimentary rocks and their fossils. They also named the Greenlandian as the first age of the Holocene, ranging from 11, years ago to 8, years ago.

This age ended when the planet abruptly cooled from melting glacial water flowing into the North Atlantic. These new divisions of geologic time will likely bring some order and clarity to an era defined by monumental change, but not all scientists agree that the new ages are the best way to reclassify recent history.

We have lots of new definitions that perhaps now contradict the Anthropocene Working Group and go against what most scientists perceive to be the most important change on Earth in the last 10, years.

But it may be possible for both the Anthropocene and the Meghalayan to exist at the same time. And regardless, the Anthropocene is tough to define precisely—plenty of very smart people are struggling with the definition. It's hard to say how this geologic debate will play out. Defining the past is clearly hard enough; what happens in the future is anyone's guess. The other two ages are the Greenlandian 11, years to 8, years ago and the Northgrippian 8, years to 4, years ago , the IUGS said.

Geologists have systematically divided up, and named, all of Earth's roughly 4. From the longest to shortest, these lengths of time are known as eons, eras, periods and ages.

Currently, we're in the Phanerozoic eon, Cenozoic era , Quaternary period , Holocene epoch and as mentioned the Meghalayan age. The IUGS shared an image of the newly named ages in a tweet. However, the group later issued a correction about the Meghalayan's length. That age goes to the present, not to as the IUGS mistakenly tweeted.