REFERENCE POINT OF GEOLOGICAL TIME

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-184
Author(s):  
Gennady Aksenov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Earth Sciences ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Geological History ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Biological Time ◽  
Mineral Complex ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Absolute Age ◽  
The Universe

In the earth sciences, there is a persistent contradiction between modern ideas about the age of the planet and the concept of V.I. Vernadsky about the geological eternity of life. According to Vernadsky, the absolute age of the rock indicates only the time of its last metamorphism, but not the age of the Earth. It is no coincidence that the pregeological substance of a cosmic formation of the planet has not been found. Such substance does not exist because any mineral complex and rock begins to form in the hypergenesis zone. Vernadsky argued that geological history was equal in duration to the existence of the biosphere and its duration was measured by biological time. His concept is confirmed by current biogeochemistry. The history of the biosphere practically coincided with the "canonical" age of the Earth. In a cosmological sense, the picture of the universe cannot be built without the concept of the geological eternity of the biosphere.

scholarly journals On the Devonian age of the World

The Geologist ◽  
1861 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 332-347
Author(s):  
W. Pengelly
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Conditions ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Geological History ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Astronomical Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Devonian Age

The rooks composing the earth's crust contain a history and represent time—a history of changes numerous, varied, and important: changes in the distribution of land and water; in the thermal conditions of the world; and in the character of the organic tribes which have successively peopled it. The time required for these mutations must have been vast beyond human comprehension, requiring, for its expression, units of a higher order than years or centuries. In the existing state of our knowledge it is impossible to convert geological into astronomical time: it is at present, and perhaps always will be, beyond our power to determine how many rotations on its axis, or how many revolutions round the sun the earth made between any two recognised and well-marked events in its geological history. Nevertheless it is possible, and eminently convenient, to break up geological time into great periods: it must not be supposed, however, that such periods are necessarily equal in chronological, organic, or lithological value; or separated from one another by broadly marked lines of demarcation; or that either their commencements or terminations in different and widely separated districts were strictly synchronous.One of the terms in the chronological series of the geologist is known as the Devonian, that which preceeded it the Silurian, and the succeeding one the Carboniferous period; and these, with some others of less importance, belong to the Palæozoic or ancient-life epoch, or group of periods.

The cryosphere and glacial permafrost as its integral component

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Dobiński
Keyword(s):  
Earth Sciences ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Planetary System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ice Caps ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
Rock Glaciers ◽  
The Universe

AbstractSince Earth sciences have undertaken studies of other celestial bodies, its various fields have moved beyond the scope of study assigned to them by name. Interest in space makes it necessary to abandon research geocentrism and reverse relations when comparing the structure of the Earth with other celestial bodies. As an exceptional place in the universe, it should not be the Earth which constitutes a reference point, especially in cryospheric research, but rather the other celestial bodies of our planetary system. This approach, referred to as “Spatial Uniformitarianism,” is the basis for determining the place of ice in the environment and for assigning it to the lithosphere. Ice can be penetrated by frost just as other minerals and rocks, so the occurrence of permafrost may yet be attributed to glaciers and ice-caps. In the article, the occurrence of glacial permafrost has been worked out on the basis of a thermal classification of glaciers with a thorough understanding of the phenomenon. This allows us to specify permafrost’s presence beneath glaciers and ice-caps, a concept which had been needlessly vague. Further, by considering rock glaciers as a mixture of two types of rocks, and by understanding the importance of movement in their evolution, we are now closer to fruitfully determining their role in the environment, their geomorphological significance.

Time Trek: a 13.7 km long nature trail leading through the history of the Universe and the Earth

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsi Lehto ◽  
Harry J. Lehto ◽  
Ari Brozinski ◽  
Esko Gardner ◽  
Olav Eklund ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Holistic View ◽  
Biological Time ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Concrete Experience ◽  
History Of ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Age Of The Universe ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Universe

AbstractWith the aim to visualize the span of time since the formation of our Universe we have set up a nature and hiking trail called ‘Time Trek’. The 13.7 km length of the trail corresponds to the age of the Universe, and portrays its history including events important for Earth and life. One kilometre corresponds to a billion years, and one metre to a million years of time. The trek combines astronomical, physical, geological and biological time lines, and presents a holistic view of the history of time. It helps people to comprehend the causal and temporal connections of different phenomena. To the trekker, it offers a concrete experience of the lengths and proportions of different time periods, which otherwise are very difficult to understand.

Geology and Evolution

2019 ◽  
pp. 75-106
Author(s):  
Bill Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Geological History ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Directional Model ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
Life On Earth

The dominant school of geology in Edinburgh in the early nineteenth century was that of the followers of the German mineralogist Abraham Gottlob Werner. His most important disciple in the English-speaking world was Edinburgh’s professor of natural history, Robert Jameson. The Wernerians believed that the history of the earth was fundamentally directional; they believed the earth started out as a ball of hot fluid from which the different rocks that now form the crust of the planet gradually precipitated out over geological time. It is argued in this chapter that this directional model of the geological history of the earth was peculiarly compatible with a progressive model of the history of life on earth. The changes in the physical condition of the earth over geological time were seen by some Wernerian geologists as driving the evolution of life.

I. On Professor Haughton's estimate of geological time

1878 ◽  
Vol 27 (185-189) ◽  
pp. 179-183 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Principal Axis ◽  
Present Note ◽  
Geological History ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Axis Of Rotation ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Instantaneous Axis

In a paper recently read before the Royal Society, Professor Haughton has endeavoured by an ingenious line of argument to give an estimate of the time which may have elapsed in the geological history of the earth. The results attained by him are, if generally accepted, of the very greatest interest to geologists, and on that account his method merits a rigorous examination. The object, therefore, of the present note is to criticise the applicability of his results to the case of the earth; and I conceive that my principal criticism is either incorrect, and will meet its just fate of refutation, or else is destructive of the estimate of geological time. Professor Haughton’s argument may be summarised as follows:— The impulsive elevation of a continent would produce a sudden displacement of the earth’s principal axis of greatest moment of inertia. Immediately after the earthquake, the axis of rotation being no longer coincident with the principal axis, will, according to dynamical principles, begin describing a cone round the principal axis, and the complete circle of the cone will be described in about 306 days. Now, the ocean not being rigidly connected with the nucleus, a 306-day tide will be established, which by its friction with the ocean bed will tend to diminish the angle of the cone described by the instantaneous axis round the principal axis: in other words, the “wabble” set up by the earthquake will gradually die away.

Problems of Time in Geology

1989 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-115
Author(s):  
E. Milanovsky
Keyword(s):  
Earth Sciences ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Time Factor ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Special Position ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Evolution Of Ideas

Geology occupies a special position among the natural sciences because of the great importance attributed to the time factor in it. A main goal of geology is reconstruction of the most probable detailed and reliable history of the Earth, based on well-grounded geochronology. This paper contains a short historical review of the evolution of ideas on the Earth's duration of existence, on geological time and its measurement from the old myths and thoughts of ancient philosophers to the notions in modern Earth Sciences, and a brief discussion of some aspects of measuring geological time on the basis of study of different natural processes.

Theories of the Earth and Universe: A History of Dogma in the Earth Sciences.

1988 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 311
Author(s):  
Gareth Nelson ◽  
S. Warren Carey ◽  
K. G. McKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Earth Sciences ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document