Historical Geology With Lab Template printable pdf download

Historical Geology with Lab

Lab 1: Geologic Time Scale

Name: ______________________________ Date: ___________

Background

How old is the Earth? Well, if the Earth celebrated its birthday every million years, there would be 4,600

candles on its birthday cake! Humans have been around only long enough to light the last candle on the

cake. Because the Earth is 4.6 billion years old, geologists have created a geologic time scale to make

their job of studying Earth’s history easier. The geologic time scale is a standard method used to divide

the Earth’s long history into smaller parts. Just as your life’s history is broken up into sections, the history

of the Earth is broken up into smaller sections called Time. Your life history can be broken up into

sections and labeled as decades, like, the 90’s (1990‐1999), the teens (2010‐2019). Time can be broken

down even further, they call these eras. Just think how decades can be broken down into years, 1991,

1992, 1993, etc. Eras can be further broken down to periods. Just think about how years can be broken

down into months, January, February, March, etc.

Objective

In this activity you will construct a scale model of geologic time that will show the relative amount of time

of the events in Earth’s history.

Materials

5 meters of adding machine tape, ruler, colored pencils/crayons, computer (for research)

Directions

1. Measure out 5 meters of adding‐machine tape and cut.

2. Stretch out the adding‐machine tape on the floor. Tape each end of the adding‐ machine

tape onto the floor or a stable surface.

3. Use a meter stick to draw a continuous horizontal line (i.e., lengthwise) 2 cm from the top

of the 5 m strip of adding‐machine tape. Use a scale of 1 meter equals 1 billion years. Each

millimeter then represents 1 million years.

4. At one end of the tape, draw a vertical line across the entire tape and label it “TODAY” using a

black marker.

5. Measure off the distance starting from the “TODAY” line that represents 4.6 billion years (b.y.)

ago. Draw a vertical line across the entire tape at that point and label it “Earth’s Beginning” using

a black marker. Then fill out the data table on page 2.

6. Between the top of the paper and the line marked at 2cm, write down the time using a

blue marker that applies. For example, PreCambrian or Phanerozoic (see data table on page

2).

7. Using the Geologic Time Scale chart:

a. Mark with a vertical line each era and period in Phanerozoic Time. Write the name of

each era below the line marking 2cm with a red marker. Write each period at the bottom of

the paper with a purple marker.

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Historical Geology With Lab Template