The Geologic Time Scale 2012
1st Edition
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Description
The Geologic Time Scale 2012, winner of a 2012 PROSE Award Honorable Mention for Best Multi-volume Reference in Science from the Association of American Publishers, is the framework for deciphering the history of our planet Earth. The authors have been at the forefront of chronostratigraphic research and initiatives to create an international geologic time scale for many years, and the charts in this book present the most up-to-date, international standard, as ratified by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and the International Union of Geological Sciences. This 2012 geologic time scale is an enhanced, improved and expanded version of the GTS2004, including chapters on planetary scales, the Cryogenian-Ediacaran periods/systems, a prehistory scale of human development, a survey of sequence stratigraphy, and an extensive compilation of stable-isotope chemostratigraphy.
This book is an essential reference for all geoscientists, including researchers, students, and petroleum and mining professionals. The presentation is non-technical and illustrated with numerous colour charts, maps and photographs. The book also includes a detachable wall chart of the complete time scale for use as a handy reference in the office, laboratory or field.
Key Features
- The most detailed international geologic time scale available that contextualizes information in one single reference for quick desktop access
- Gives insights in the construction, strengths, and limitations of the geological time scale that greatly enhances its function and its utility
- Aids understanding by combining with the mathematical and statistical methods to scaled composites of global succession of events
- Meets the needs of a range of users at various points in the workflow (researchers extracting linear time from rock records, students recognizing the geologic stage by their content)
Readership
Professionals in industry (oil/gas/petrochemical industry), academic libraries, faculty chairs, graduate students/researchers. All geoscientists, more specifically biochronologists, evolutionary biologists, geo-engineers, space geo engineers, astronomers. Geoscience students, university teachers; all stratigraphic and paleontologic, quaternary geoscientists; individuals
Table of Contents
Dedication
Quote
Dedication
Contributors
Editors’ Biographies
Preface
Abbreviations and acronyms
Organizations
Time Scale Publications (see References for Details)
Geoscientific Concepts
Symbols
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1 A Geologic Time Scale
1.2 A Geologic Time Scale GTS2012
1.3 How this Book is Arranged
1.4 Conventions and Standards
1.5 Historical Overview of Geologic Time Scales
1.6 Stratigraphic Charts and Tables
REFERENCES
Chapter 2. The Chronostratigraphic Scale
2.1 History of Geologic Stratigraphic Standardization
2.2 Stage Unit Stratotypes
2.3 Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP)
2.3 Global Standard Stratigraphic Age (GSSA)
2.4 Other Considerations for Choosing a GSSP
2.5 Subdividing Long Stages
2.6 Do GSSP Boundary Stratotypes Simplify Stratigraphic Classification?
REFERENCES
Chapter 3. Biochronology
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Paleontologic Events
3.3 Quantitative Stratigraphy and Biochronology
3.4 Qualitative Biostratigraphy and Biochronology
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 4. Cyclostratigraphy and Astrochronology
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Earth’s Astronomical Parameters
4.3 The 405-kyr Metronome
4.4 Astronomically Forced Insolation
4.5 Cyclostratigraphy through Geologic Time
4.6 Constructing Astrochronologies and the ATS
4.7 Precision and Accuracy of the ATS
4.8 Astrochronology-Geochronology Intercalibration
4.9 A New Astronomical Solution
REFERENCES
Chapter 5. Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale
5.1 Principles
5.2 Late Cretaceous through Cenozoic Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale
5.3 Middle Jurassic through Early Cretaceous Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale
5.4 Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale for Early Jurassic and Older Rocks
5.5 Summary
REFERENCES
Chapter 6. Radiogenic Isotope Geochronology
6.1 Changes in Geochronological Practice Since a Geological Time Scale 2004
6.2 Changes in Geochronological Standards Applied to the Geological Time Scale 2012
REFERENCES
Chapter 7. Strontium Isotope Stratigraphy
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Materials for Strontium Isotope Stratigraphy
7.3 The Databases Used for this Volume
7.4 Numerical Ages
7.5 Fitting the Lowess Database
7.6 The Quality of the Fit
7.7 Rubidium Contamination
7.8 Comments on the Lowess Fit
7.9 Sr-Isotope Stratigraphy for Pre-Ordovician Time
REFERENCES
Chapter 8. Osmium Isotope Stratigraphy
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Historical Overview
8.3 Pleistocene
8.4 Miocene
8.5 Oligocene
8.6 Late Eocene Impacts
8.7 Early Eocene
8.8 Paleocene
8.9 Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) Boundary
8.10 Pre-Cenozoic Records
8.11 Mesozoic
8.12 Paleozoic and Precambrian
REFERENCES
Chapter 9. Sulfur Isotope Stratigraphy
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Mechanisms Driving the Variation in the S Isotope Record
9.3 Isotopic Fractionation of Sulfur
9.4 Measurement and Materials for Sulfur Isotope Stratigraphy
9.5 A Geological Time Scale Database
9.6 A Database of S Isotope Values and Their Ages for the Past 130 Million Years Using Lowess Regression
9.7 Use of S Isotopes for Correlation
REFERENCES
Chapter 10. Oxygen Isotope Stratigraphy
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Terminology and Standardization
10.3 Fractionation Relations and Paleotemperature Scales
10.4 Application Principles and Considerations
10.5 Sample Materials
10.6 Oxygen Isotope Stratigraphy
10.7 Summary
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 11. Carbon Isotope Stratigraphy
11.1 Principles of Carbon Isotope Stratigraphy
11.2 Spatial Heterogeneity of δ13C of Dissolved Inorganic Carbon
11.3 Materials and Methods
11.4 Correlation Potential and Excursions
11.5 Causes of Carbon Isotope Excursions
11.6 Conclusion
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 12. A Brief History of Plants on Earth
1 Introduction
2 Paleozoic
3 Mesozoic
4 Cenozoic
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 13. Sequence Stratigraphy and Sea-Level Change
13.1 Historical Links between Sea-Level Change, Sequence Stratigraphy and the Geological Time scale
13.2 The Development of Eustatic and Sequence Stratigraphic Concepts
13.3 Issues of Terminology
13.4 Uses of Sequence Stratigraphy
13.5 The Synchronicity of Global Sea-Level Changes
13.6 Causality
13.7 Conclusions
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 14. Statistical Procedures
14.1 History
14.2 Spline Fitting in GTS2004
14.3 Modifications in GTS2012
REFERENCES
Chapter 15. The Planetary Time Scale
15.1 Introduction and Methodologies
15.2 Time Scales
REFERENCES
Chapter 16. A Chronostratigraphic Division of the Precambrian: Possibilities and Challenges
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Historical Review
16.3 Precambrian Earth History – A Progress Report
16.4 A Linked, Causative Series of Events in Precambrian Earth Evolution
16.5 A Revised Precambrian Time scale
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 17. The Cryogenian Period
17.1 Historical Background
17.2 Geochronological Constraints on the Cryogenian Climate Record
17.3 The Biostratigraphic Basis for a Cryogenian Period
17.4 An Integrated Approach to Global Stratigraphic Correlation
17.5 Potential Subdivision of the Cryogenian Period
REFERENCES
Chapter 18. The Ediacaran Period
18.1 Historical Background
18.2 Cap Carbonates and the Base of the Ediacaran System
18.3 The Biostratigraphic Basis for the Ediacaran Period
18.4 Towards an Ediacaran Chronostratigraphy
18.5 Ediacaran – Last Period of the Proterozoic or First Period of the Phanerozoic?
REFERENCES
Chapter 19. The Cambrian Period
19.1 History and Subdivisions
19.2 Cambrian Stratigraphy
19.3 Cambrian Time Scale
REFERENCES
Chapter 20. The Ordovician Period
20.1 History and Subdivisions
20.2 Previous Standard Divisions
20.3 Ordovician Stratigraphy
20.4 Ordovician Time Scale
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 21. The Silurian Period
21.1 History and Subdivisions
21.2 Silurian Series and Stages
21.3 Silurian Stratigraphy
21.4 Silurian Time Scale
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 22. The Devonian Period
22.1 History and Subdivisions
22.2 Devonian Stratigraphy
22.3 Devonian Time Scale
REFERENCES
Chapter 23. The Carboniferous Period
23.1 History and Subdivisions
23.2 Carboniferous Stratigraphy
23.3 Carboniferous Time scale
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 24. The Permian Period
24.1 History and Subdivisions
24.2 Regional Correlations
24.3 Permian Stratigraphy
24.4 Permian Time Scale
REFERENCES
Chapter 25. Triassic
25.1 History and Subdivisions
25.2 Triassic Stratigraphy
25.3 Triassic Time scale
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 26. Jurassic
26.1 History and Subdivisions
26.2 Jurassic Stratigraphy
26.3 Jurassic Time scale
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 27. Cretaceous
27.1 History and Subdivisions
27.2 Cretaceous Stratigraphy
27.3 Cretaceous Time Scale
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 28. The Paleogene Period
28.1 History and Subdivisions
28.2 Paleogene Biostratigraphy
28.3 Physical Stratigraphy
28.4 Paleogene Time Scale
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 29. The Neogene Period
29.1 Chronostratigraphy
29.2 Stages
29.3 Biostratigraphy
29.4 Event Stratigraphy
29.5 Radio-Isotopic Ages
29.6 Climate Change and Milankovitch Cycles
29.7 Astronomically Tuned Neogene Time Scale – ATNTS2012
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
Chapter 30. The Quaternary Period
30.1 Evolution of Terminology
30.2 The Plio–Pleistocene Boundary and Definition of the Quaternary
30.3 Subdivision of the Pleistocene
30.4 Terrestrial Sequences
30.5 Ocean-Sediment Sequences
30.6 Land–Sea Correlation
30.7 Pleistocene–Holocene Boundary
30.8 Holocene Series
30.9 “Anthropocene Series”
30.10 Quaternary Dating Methods
REFERENCES
Chapter 31. The Prehistoric Human Time Scale
31.1 Introduction
31.2 Hominin Phylogeny and Migration Episodes
31.3 The Paleoenvironmental Context of Early Hominin Evolution
31.4 Hominin Industries and the Terminology of Prehistoric Periods
31.5 Early and Mid Pleistocene Technologies
31.6 The earliest technologies of Homo sapiens – The Upper Paleolithic
31.7 Holocene Technologies – Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age
31.8 Conclusions
Acknowledgment
REFERENCES
Chapter 32. The Anthropocene
32.1 The Anthropocene
32.2 Stratigraphic Signature
32.3 Beginning of the Anthropocene?
32.4 Future Duration of the Anthropocene?
32.5 Formal Consideration of the Anthropocene
32.6 Definition
32.7 Hierarchical Level
Acknowledgments
REFERENCES
APPENDIX 1: Color Codes for Geological Timescales
APPENDIX 2: Radiometric ages used in GTS2012
References Cited
APPENDIX 3: Cenozoic and Cretaceous Biochronology of Planktonic Foraminifera and Calcareous Nannofossils
References
Index
Details
- No. of pages:
- 1176
- Language:
- English
- Copyright:
- © Elsevier 2012
- Published:
- 31st July 2012
- Imprint:
- Elsevier
- Paperback ISBN:
- 9780444594259
- eBook ISBN:
- 9780444594488
About the Editors
F.M. Gradstein
FELIX GRADSTEIN is Professor Emeritus at Oslo University, Norway and visiting Research Fellow, University of Portsmouth, UK. From 2000 to 2008, he was chair of the International Commission on Stratigraphy. Under his leadership major progress was made with the formal definition of chronostratigraphic units from Precambrian through Quaternary. For his fundamental work concerning the Geologic Time Scale, geochronology in general, quantitative stratigraphy and micropaleontology, the European Geosciences Union awarded him in 2010 the Jean Baptiste Lamarck Medal. He is Chair of the Geologic Time Scale Foundation and teaches courses in quantitative stratigraphy and the geologic time scale. Now that he has free time again, after completing this book with his outstanding co-editors and co-authors, he studies the early evolution of planktonic foraminifera.
Affiliations and Expertise
University of Oslo, Norway; Chronostratigraphy, paleontology
J G Ogg
JAMES OGG (Professor at Purdue University, Indiana, USA) was Secretary General of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (2000-2008), and is currently serving as coordinator of that ICS stratigraphy information service. 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 was used to generate many of the diagrams in this book.
Affiliations and Expertise
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Mark Schmitz
MARK SCHMITZ is Professor of Geochemistry at Boise State University, Idaho, USA, and has extensive research interests in the development and application of radiogenic isotope geochemistry and high-precision U-Pb geochronology to problems of Earth systems evolution. He has been an active member of the Earth Time community and was co-editor and author for the Geologic Time Scale 2012. He seeks to enrich the radioisotopic calibration of the time scale through targeted dating of stratigraphically important volcanic event beds and the construction of robust chronostratigraphic models through geologic time. His extensive database with over 300 standardized radiogenic isotope ages (mainly U/Pb and Ar/Ar) is vital to this book.
Affiliations and Expertise
Boise State University, Idaho, USA; Geochronology
Gabi Ogg
GABI OGG applied micropaleontology to Jurassic-Cretaceous correlations before concentrating on public outreach in geosciences. She coordinated the extensive array of graphics in this book, and is the webmaster for the Geologic TimeScale Foundation (https://timescalefoundation.org) and for the TimeScale Creator visualization and database suites (https://timescalecreator.org). In addition to co-authoring the Concise Geologic TimeScale (GTS2016) and The Geologic Time Scale (GTS2012) books, she has produced numerous posters and time scale cards for public audiences.
Affiliations and Expertise
Geologic TimeScale Foundation, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Paleontology, geo-graphics
Awards
PROSE Award 2012, Reference Work: Honorable Mention for Multivolume Reference/Science, American Association of Publishers
Reviews
"…one of the main distinctions of the new version is the more detailed subdivision of the preceding Precambrian interval. As before, the earlier chapters of the book summarize the approaches used; they review the main methods of obtaining chronometric dates and calibrating them with geomagnetic polarity and orbital fluctuations, as well as the use of various stable isotopes in chronological and paleoenvironmental analysis…Required for specialist libraries and a valuable acquisition for other libraries lacking the 2004 edition." --CHOICE, April 2013
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