A Concise Geologic Time Scale

James G. Ogg (Professor at Purdue University, Indiana, USA; and visiting professor at China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China) served as Secretary General of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (2000-2008) and coordinated the ICS stratigraphy information service (2008-2012). His Mesozoic Stratigraphy Lab group works on aspects of climate cycles, magnetic polarity correlations and integration of stratigraphic information. Their TimeScale Creator array of visualization tools for extensive databases in global and regional Earth history (www.tscreator.org) was used to generate many of the diagrams in this book.

Ogg has published over 100 articles and coordinated 2 books as first or co- author on aspects of stratigraphy in refereed journals since 1986, and has contributed to over 70 chapters in Deep Sea Drilling Project and Ocean Drilling Program volumes. He has also won numerous awards, including the Geological Society of America: Mary B. Ansari Best Reference Work Award for The Geologic Time Scale 2004 and most recently the 2012 PROSE Honorable Mention Award for a multi-volume scientific reference.

Gabi M. Ogg applied micropaleontology to Jurassic-Cretaceous correlations before concentrating on public outreach in geosciences. In addition to co-authoring the Concise Geologic TimeScale (GTS2008) book, she was a coordinator of GTS2012 and produced most of its the extensive array of graphics. She is the webmaster for the Geologic TimeScale Foundation (http://stratigraphy.science.purdue.edu) and for the TimeScale Creator visualization and database suites (www.tscreator.org), and has produced numerous posters and time scale cards for public audiences.

Felix M. Gradstein (Professor at Geology Museum, Oslo University, Norway; and visiting professor at University of Rio Grande do Sul, Sao Leopoldo, Brazil, the University of Nebraska, USA and the University of Portsmouth, UK) and was Chair of the International Commission on Stratigraphy from 2000 to 2008, and under his tenure major progress was made with the formal definition of chronostratigraphic units from Precambrian through Quaternary. For his fundamental work with regards to the Geologic Time Scale and stratigraphy, micropaleontology and geochronology in general, the European Geosciences Union awarded him in 2010 the Jean Baptiste Lamarck Medal. He teaches applied biostratigraphy and paleoenvironment courses and is the current Chair of the Geologic TimeScale Foundation (http://stratigraphy.science.purdue.edu).

Gradstein has authored over 140 scientific publications in the fields of geological time scales, quantitative stratigraphic methods, stratigraphy and sedimentology of petroleum basins, plate tectonics, palaeoceanography, and deep-water micropalaeontology. He has a career that spans the divides between industry, government and academia, with periods working for Esso and Saga Petroleum, the Geological Survey of Canada, and Dalhousie University. Gradstein recently won the 2012 PROSE Honorable Mention Award for a multi-volume scientific reference.