Major events in Earth’s geologic history



Major Events in the Geologic and Cultural History of Vermont

For use with Landscape Change Project Lesson 2

Compiled by Jens Hilke

7/03

|EON |ERA |Period |Epoch |YEARS AGO |WHAT WAS HAPPENING ON EARTH |

|Precambrian 4.6 | | | |3.5 billion years ago |Cyanobacteria found in fossil record |

|billion – 570 | | | | | |

|million years ago | | | | | |

|(mya) | | | | | |

| | | | | |Invertebrates found in fossil record end of Precambrian |

| | | | |1.5 billion ya |Grenville supercontinent existed |

| | | | |700mya |Grenville supercontinent begins to breakup |

|Phanerozoic |Paleozoic 570 |Cambrian 570 – 505 mya | | |First fish appear in record (Trilobites, Brachiopods, Crinoids) |

|570 mya – |million y.a. – | | | | |

|present |245 mya | | | | |

| | | | |550mya |Iapetus Ocean has formed (VT underwater) |

| | | | | |Champlain Valley Sediments (Dunham dolomite, Monkton quartzite are being deposited underwater on |

| | | | | |continental shelf ) |

| | |Ordovician 505 – 438 | | |First Land animals (millipedes) |

| | |mya | | | |

| | | | |500mya |Taconic Orogeny -Green Mountains are forming under Iapetus as plates have reversed themselves. |

| | | | | |Proto America collides with Iapetus plate |

| | | | |450 mya |Green Mountains pushed up out of water as collision continues |

| | |Devonian 408 – 360 mya | | |First amphibians |

| | | | |400 mya |Acadian Orogeny begins as Proto European plate collides with chain of island arcs from Taconic |

| | | | | |orogeny. White Mountains begin formation |

| | |Carboniferous 360 – 286|Mississippian 360 -320 | |Lush forests covered the Earth (later compressed by weight of rock over top to form |

| | |mya |mya | |present-day coal deposits |

| | | | |320 mya |Alleghanian Orogeny as Proto European plate collides with Proto American plate. 320 mya Pangea is|

| | | | | |formed |

| | | | | |Amphibians were dominant life form |

| | | | | |First reptiles appear |

| | | |Pennsylvanian 320 -286 | |First Coniferous plants |

| | | |mya | | |

| | |Permian 286 – 245 mya | | |Extinction of trilobites |

| |Mesozoic 245 – |Triassic 245 -208 mya | | |Breakup of Pangea |

| |66.4 mya | | | | |

| | | | | |Champlain Valley is formed (a partial rift valley) as plates split up |

| | | | | |First Mammals |

| | | | | |Conifers and cycads are common |

| | | | | |Atlantic Ocean begins to form |

| | |Jurassic 208 – 144mya | | |Dinosaurs dominant |

| | | | | |First birds |

| | | | |200 mya |Pangea splits up as plates again reverse themselves |

| | |Cretaceous 144 – 66.4 | | |Flowering plants found in fossil record |

| | |mya | | | |

| |Cenozoic 66.4 mya|Tertiary 66.4 – 1.6 mya| | | |

| |- present | | | | |

| | |Quartenary 1.6 mya - | |1 million ya |-New and sudden uplift of ancient Adirondacks |

| | |present | | | |

| | | | |20,000 years ago |-Wisconsin Glaciation at its maximum. Ice covered Canada and U.S. down to Long Island, NY. |

| | | | |15,000 ya |- Massachusetts was Ice free as glacier retreated |

| | | | |13,000 ya | |

| | | | | |-When Ice is partially covering Vermont, Glacial lake Vermont and Glacial Lake Hitchcock are |

| | | | | |formed behind receding glacier |

| | | | |12,000 ya |-Vermont Ice free by 12,000 ya |

| | | | | |-Champlain Sea is formed as water rushes in from St. Lawrence (11,000 ya Champlain Sea at its |

| | | | | |maximum) |

| | | | | |-Isostatic rebound closes the connection with the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain drains to the |

| | | | | |south |

| | | | |11,000 ya |-Tree species (spruce and fir) begin to invade post-glacial landscape |

| | | | |10,000 ya |-Massive extinction of wooly mammoth, mastadon, American Lion, giant ground sloth, sabertooth, |

| | | | | |dire wolf, giant beaver. (Overkill or Overchill?) |

| | | | |10,000 ya |Paleoindians (in Vermont as early |

| | | | | |as 10,000 years ago) |

| | | | | |hunted tundra and open woodland/fished in Champlain Sea/may have helped cause extinction of large|

| | | | | |mammals from N. |

| | | | | |America/lived in small groups and moved constantly |

| | | | |4,500 ya |-Forests begin to look like they did when colonists arrived |

| | | | |pre-4000 |Archaic (inhabited Vermont pre-4000 |

| | | | |ya |years ago) |

| | | | | |hunted, fished, and gathered from the new forested landscape/liked to live around rivers/larger |

| | | | | |groups than |

| | | | | |Paleoindians/moved with the seasons |

| | | | |post-4000 ya |Woodland (inhabited Vermont |

| | | | | |post-4000 years ago) |

| | | | | |hunted, fished, and gathered and eventually agriculture/pottery and bows & arrows/large |

| | | | | |villages/agriculture led to |

| | | | | |permanent villages |

| | | | |900 ya |earliest agriculture in Connecticut River Valley |

| | | | |600 ya |earliest agriculture in Champlain Valley |

| | | | |403 ya |Abenaki (in Vermont by 1600 |

| | | | | |when European explores visited) |

| | | | | |hunting, gathering and agriculture/moved with the seasons/stored large amounts of food for the |

| | | | | |winter/several different |

| | | | | |bands of Abenaki in Vermont |

| | | | |403 ya |1600 French explorer Samuel de Champlain visits Vermont |

| | | | |387-370 ya |1616-1633 European diseases kill 90% of Abenaki population in New England |

| | | | |361 – 240 ya |1642-1763 French and British come to Vermont/Abenaki tribes trade furs with them |

| | | | |240 ya |1763 large numbers of British moved to Vermont after the British-French signed Treaty of Paris to|

| | | | | |end war |

| | | | |243-212 ya |1760-1791 New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusettes fight over Vermont territory until it |

| | | | | |becomes a state in 1791 |

| | | | |203 ya |1800 over 150,000 colonists in Vermont |

NOTE: Geologic dates are from Klyza and Trombulak The Story of Vermont (Citation below) These dates change a bit depending on who you read.

Check these books for more information:

Albers, Jan, 2000, Hands on the Land, a History of the Vermont Landscape, The MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 351 p.

Klyza, C.M. and Trombulak, S., 1999, The Story of Vermont: A Natural and Cultural History, University Press of New England: Hanover and London, 240 p.

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