How The Mountains Grew, John Dvorak, c. 2021 -- Free Association

Formal notes to the book are here.

I'll begin this from memory, what I recall, and then fill in as necessary.

There are three concurrent themes running through the book. Somehow I would like to be able to place all three on one page as we go through earth's history.

The three concurrent themes, obviously the fourth data point is age/time for all three themes:
the geologic / rock / strata history: eons, eras, periods, formations, sub-formations
evolution / life / biology
land masses / earth's crust / supercontinents / cratons

There is a fourth theme, astronomical, but it seems to come up rarely and could probably be added as an additional data point when laying out the three main themes.

Biology: three life forms:
bacteria
eukaryotes
archaeans

Geologic eons:
Hadean
Archean
Proterozoic
Phanerzoic

Proposal:
Chaotian
starts with formation of CAIs
ends with Theia
Hadean
begins when earth starts to evolve into "present" state
ends when earth is present size and present mass
Archean
Proterzoic
Phanerzoic

Crustal rocks / land masses

Dates:

• Acasta gneiss: major milestone in Earth's life; oldest rock found in crust; marks the age of the earth; 4.030 billion years

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Solar System Forms

Milestones:

• age: 4.571 billion years old
• moon age: 4.51 bya
• oldest rocks returned from the moon: 4.46 billion years; Theia impact: 4.51 bya (see below)

Earth Forms

Milestones:

• age, Acasta gneiss: 4.03 billion years old
• Super Event: 3.0 - 2.7 bya

Three mysteries:

• initially a water-planet: first mystery -- from where did the water come?

• from the "water-planet" land eventually appears -- it's called the Super Event; second mystery -- what was the Super Event?

• the third mystery: the origin of the Moon
• the oldest surface of the Moon solidified from a molten state 4.51 bya; this is the time of the Theia impact, p. 13.

Other:
end of Cambrian, Rodinia; earth unbalanced; polar wandering; rotates 60°; 485.4 million years ago

 

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The Supercontinents and Gondwana

Reminder:

• the Super Event: 2.7 bya
• Colombia: 1.8 bya
• the Boring Billion: 2.1 bya - 1.1 bya
• maybe only one organism during this period: Grypania, at 2.1 bya; evolving life came to an end;
• from 2.1 bya into the Ediararan period 
• so when you say, "the Boring Billion," one organism: Grypania.
  
• Rodinia: 1.1 bya
• [Gondwana: 0.6 bya]
• Pangea: 0.3 bya

 

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Evolution Of Life -- The Big Picture

Until recently, it was generally accepted that no life prior to the Cambrian.

Now, we know;
black shale, pre-Cambrian: Aspidella terranovica
Ediacaran period: follows the "Boring Billion" and immediately precedes the Cambrian explosion
prior to that, at the beginning of the Boring Billion: