Eras geologicas de la tierra

Terminología

La unidad de tiempo mayor utilizada en geología histórica es el tiempo o supereón, que está compuesto por eones. Los eones se dividen en eras, que a su vez se dividen en períodos, épocas y edades. Al mismo tiempo, los paleontólogos definen un sistema de etapas faunales, de duración variable, basada en los cambios observados en los conjuntos de fósiles. En muchos casos, esas etapas de fauna se han adoptado a la nomenclatura geológica, aunque, en general, se han establecido más etapas faunales que unidades de tiempo geológico.

Los geólogos tienden a hablar en términos de Superior/Tardío, Inferior/Temprano y Medio para referirse a partes de períodos y de otras unidades, como por ejemplo, "Jurásico Superior" y "Cámbrico Medio". Los términos Superior, Inferior y Medio se suelen aplicar a las rocas, mientras que Tardío, Temprano y Medio se suelen aplicar al tiempo. Los adjetivos se escriben con la inicial en mayúscula cuando la subdivisión es reconocida oficialmente, y en minúscula cuando no.
Puesto que las unidades de tiempo geológicas que ocurren al mismo tiempo en diferentes partes del mundo pueden parecer diferentes y contener diferentes fósiles, hay muchos ejemplos históricos de diferentes nombres para el mismo período en diferentes ubicaciones. Por ejemplo, en Norteamérica al Cámbrico Inferior se le denominó serie Waucoban. Un aspecto clave de la labor de la Comisión Internacional de Estratigrafía es conciliar estos conflictos en terminología y definir límites universales que puedan ser utilizados en todo el mundo.

La geología histórica es la rama de la geología que estudia las transformaciones que ha sufrido la Tierra desde su formación, hace unos 4.570 millones de años, hasta el presente. Para establecer un marco temporal relativo, los geólogos han ordenado las rocas en una secuencia continua de unidades cronoestratigráficas a escala planetaria, dividida en eonotemas, eratemas, sistemas, series y pisos, basada en la estratigrafía, esto es, en el estudio e interpretación de los estratos, apoyada en los grandes eventos biológicos y geológicos. Por ejemplo, la transición entre Pérmico y Triásico se establece en base a un evento de extinción masiva. Las divisiones anteriores tienen sus equivalentes temporales, una a una, en una escala de unidades geocronológicas: eones, eras, períodos, épocas y edades respectivamente. Las dataciones por radioisótopos han permitido la datación absoluta (años) de la mayoría de las divisiones establecidas, definiendo las unidades geocronométricas equivalentes. Las etapas de la Tierra anteriores al Fanerozoico, de las que no se dispone de registro fósil adecuado, son definidas cronométricamente, esto es, fijando un valor de tiempo absoluto.

Eras geologicas de la tierra

Eras geológicas de la tierra

Era es una unidad geocronológica que se refiere a un lapso de tiempo extremadamente largo, millones de años, que abarca importantes procesos geológicos y biológicos. La unidad cronoestratigráfica equivalente es eratema. Cuatro eras han ocurrido en la historia de la Tierra: era Precámbrica, Paleozoica o primaria, Mesozoica o secundaria y Cenozoica o terciaria.

Las eras son divisiones de los eones, definidas a partir de grandes discordancias que señalan el inicio de distintos ciclos orogénicos. Así, el Fanerozoico lo integran tres eras: la Paleozoica, desde 590-245 Ma, la Mesozoica, desde 245-65 Ma, y la Cenozoica, desde 65 Ma hasta el presente.

Las eras a su vez se subdividen en períodos.

Antiguamente al Paleozoico se le llamaba «Primario» y al Mesozoico «Secundario», pero esas denominaciones han caído en desuso a favor de denominaciones biológicas, que coinciden con el carácter de los fósiles encontrados en los estratos; sin embargo se sigue utilizando el término «Terciario» para el Cenozoico, más por costumbre muy arraigada que por precisión terminológica.

Para poder organizar analizar los procesos ocurridos en la tierra su historia se divide en cuatro eras geológicas. La ciencia que estudia la historia de los cambios en relieves de la tierra es la GEOLOGÍA.

Eras Geologic Of The Earth

Ordovician Period

The Ordovician Period started at a major extinction event called the Cambrian-Ordovician extinction events some time about 488.3 ± 1.7 Ma.^[5] During the Ordovician the southern continents were collected into a single continent called Gondwana. Gondwana started the period in the equatorial latitudes and, as the period progressed, drifted toward the South Pole. Early in the Ordovician the continents Laurentia, Siberia and Baltica were still independent continents (since the break-up of the supercontinent Pannotia earlier), but Baltica began to move toward Laurentia later in the period, causing the Iapetus Ocean to shrink between them. Also, Avalonia broke free from Gondwana and began to head north toward Laurentia. The Rheic Ocean was formed as a result of this. By the end of the period, Gondwana had neared or approached the pole and was largely glaciated.
The Ordovician came to a close in a series of extinction events that, taken together, comprise the second-largest of the five major extinction events in Earth's history in terms of percentage of genera that went extinct. The only larger one was the Permian-Triassic extinction event. The extinctions occurred approximately 444-447 Ma ^[5] and mark the boundary between the Ordovician and the following Silurian Period.

The most-commonly accepted theory is that these events were triggered by the onset of an ice age, in the Hirnantian faunal stage that ended the long, stable greenhouse conditions typical of the Ordovician. The ice age was probably not as long-lasting as once thought; study of oxygen isotopes in fossil brachiopods shows that it was probably no longer than 0.5 to 1.5 million years.^[14] The event was preceded by a fall in atmospheric carbon dioxide (from 7000ppm to 4400ppm) which selectively affected the shallow seas where most organisms lived. As the southern supercontinent Gondwana drifted over the South Pole, ice caps formed on it. Evidence of these ice caps have been detected in Upper Ordovician rock strata of North Africa and then-adjacent northeastern South America, which were south-polar locations at the time.

Silurian Period

The Silurian is a major division of the geologic timescale that started about 443.7 ± 1.5 Ma.^[5] During the Silurian, Gondwana continued a slow southward drift to high southern latitudes, but there is evidence that the Silurian ice caps were less extensive than those of the late Ordovician glaciation. The melting of ice caps and glaciers contributed to a rise in sea levels, recognizable from the fact that Silurian sediments overlie eroded Ordovician sediments, forming an unconformity. Other cratons and continent fragments drifted together near the equator, starting the formation of a second supercontinent known as Euramerica. The vast ocean of Panthalassa covered most of the northern hemisphere. Other minor oceans include Proto-Tethys, Paleo-Tethys, Rheic Ocean, a seaway of Iapetus Ocean (now in between Avalonia and Laurentia), and newly formed Ural Ocean.

Devonian Period

The Devonian spanned roughly from 416 to 359 Ma.^[5] The period was a time of great tectonic activity, as Laurasia and Gondwanaland drew closer together. The continent Euramerica (or Laurussia) was created in the early Devonian by the collision of Laurentia and Baltica, which rotated into the natural dry zone along the Tropic of Capricorn. In these near-deserts, the Old Red Sandstone sedimentary beds formed, made red by the oxidized iron (hematite) characteristic of drought conditions. Near the equator Pangaea began to consolidate from the plates containing North America and Europe, further raising the northern Appalachian Mountains and forming the Caledonian Mountains in Great Britain and Scandinavia. The southern continents remained tied together in the supercontinent of Gondwana. The remainder of modern Eurasia lay in the Northern Hemisphere. Sea levels were high worldwide, and much of the land lay submerged under shallow seas. The deep, enormous Panthalassa (the "universal ocean") covered the rest of the planet. Other minor oceans were Paleo-Tethys, Proto-Tethys, Rheic Ocean and Ural Ocean (which was closed during the collision with Siberia and Baltica).

Eras geologic Of the Earth

Carboniferous Period

The Carboniferous extends from about 359.2 ± 2.5 Ma to about 299.0 ± 0.8 Ma.
A global drop in sea level at the end of the Devonian reversed early in the Carboniferous; this created the widespread epicontinental seas and carbonate deposition of the Mississippian.^[15] There was also a drop in south polar temperatures; southern Gondwanaland was glaciated throughout the period, though it is uncertain if the ice sheets were a holdover from the Devonian or not.^[16] These conditions apparently had little effect in the deep tropics, where lush coal swamps flourished within 30 degrees of the northernmost glaciers.^[17] A mid-Carboniferous drop in sea-level precipitated a major marine extinction, one that hit crinoids and ammonites especially hard.^[16] This sea-level drop and the associated unconformity in North America separate the Mississippian Period from the Pennsylvanian period.^[16]
The Carboniferous was a time of active mountain building, as the supercontinent Pangea came together. The southern continents remained tied together in the supercontinent Gondwana, which collided with North America-Europe (Laurussia) along the present line of eastern North America. This continental collision resulted in the Hercynian orogeny in Europe, and the Alleghenian orogeny in North America; it also extended the newly uplifted Appalachians southwestward as the Ouachita Mountains.^[18] In the same time frame, much of present eastern Eurasian plate welded itself to Europe along the line of the Ural mountains. There were two major oceans in the Carboniferous the Panthalassa and Paleo-Tethys. Other minor oceans were shrinking and eventually closed the Rheic Ocean (closed by the assembly of South and North America), the small, shallow Ural Ocean (which was closed by the collision of Baltica, and Siberia continents, creating the Ural Mountains) and Proto-Tethys Ocean.