The standardized division of geologic time into eons, eras, periods and epochs, combining chronostratigraphy, the study of rock sequences, with geochronology, the dating techniques that anchor them to real years. It is the chart this atlas's own era entities are drawn from, arranging the planet's 4.54 billion year history into categories a reader can hold in mind. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Origin YearThe relative scale was assembled across the nineteenth century; 1913 is Arthur Holmes' The Age of the Earth, the first geologic time scale anchored to radiometric dates. Connections
Anticipated By
The relative ordering superposition provides is what the geologic time scale grew from.
Source Law of Superposition (Wikipedia)
Associated With
Radiometric ages are what give the geologic time scale its absolute dates.
Source Radiometric Dating (Wikipedia)
In Discipline
Source Geologic Time Scale (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Geologic Time Scale (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
The geologic time scale or geological time scale describes how geologic time is divided into standardised intervals.
Lead paragraph, second sentence describing chronostratigraphy and geochronology
It uses the rock record together with the principles of chronostratigraphy to place rock sequences into their relative age positions, and geochronology techniques, such as radiometric dating, to precisely date the boundaries between them.
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