The Geologic Time Scale 2012

The Geologic Time Scale 2012

Volume 1 & 2

Editors

Felix M. Gradstein

James G. Ogg

Mark D. Schmitz

Gabi M. Ogg

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright of Volume 1

Copyright of Volume 2

Dedication

Contributors

Editors' Biographies

Preface

Abbreviations and acronyms

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

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?

Chapter 3. Biochronology

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Paleontologic Events

3.3. Quantitative Stratigraphy and Biochronology

3.4. Qualitative Biostratigraphy and Biochronology

Acknowledgments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 12. A Brief History of Plants on Earth

1. Introduction

2. Paleozoic

3. Mesozoic

4. Cenozoic

Acknowledgments

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

Chapter 14. Statistical Procedures

14.1. History

14.2. Spline Fitting in GTS2004

14.3. Modifications in GTS2012

Chapter 15. The Planetary Time Scale

15.1. Introduction and Methodologies

15.2. Time Scales

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

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

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?

Chapter 19. The Cambrian Period

19.1. History and Subdivisions

19.2. Cambrian Stratigraphy

19.3. Cambrian Time Scale

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

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

Chapter 22. The Devonian Period

22.1. History and Subdivisions

22.2. Devonian Stratigraphy

22.3. Devonian Time Scale

Chapter 23. The Carboniferous Period

23.1. History and Subdivisions

23.2. Carboniferous Stratigraphy

23.3. Carboniferous Time scale

Acknowledgments

Chapter 24. The Permian Period

24.1. History and Subdivisions

24.2. Regional Correlations

24.3. Permian Stratigraphy

24.4. Permian Time Scale

Chapter 25. Triassic

25.1. History and Subdivisions

25.2. Triassic Stratigraphy

25.3. Triassic Time scale

Acknowledgments

Chapter 26. Jurassic

26.1. History and Subdivisions

26.2. Jurassic Stratigraphy

26.3. Jurassic Time scale

Acknowledgments

Chapter 27. Cretaceous

27.1. History and Subdivisions

27.2. Cretaceous Stratigraphy

27.3. Cretaceous Time Scale

Acknowledgments

Chapter 28. The Paleogene Period

28.1. History and Subdivisions

28.2. Paleogene Biostratigraphy

28.3. Physical Stratigraphy

28.4. Paleogene Time Scale

Acknowledgments

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

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

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

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

Appendix 1. Color Codes for Geological Timescales

Appendix 2. Radiometric ages used in GTS2012

Appendix 3. Cenozoic and Cretaceous Biochronology of Planktonic Foraminifera and Calcareous Nannofossils

Index

Copyright

The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, UK

Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, The Netherlands

225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451, USA

First edition 2012

Copyright © 2012, Felix M. Gradstein, James G. Ogg, Mark D. Schmitz and Gabi M. Ogg. Published by Elsevier BV. All rights reserved

The right of Felix M. Gradstein, James G. Ogg, Mark D. Schmitz and Gabi M. Ogg to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher

Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier's Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone (+44) (0) 1865 843830; fax (+44) (0) 1865 853333; email: permissions@elsevier.com. Alternatively you can submit your request online by visiting the Elsevier web site at http://elsevier.com/locate/permissions, and selecting Obtaining permission to use Elsevier material

Notice

No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent verification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is availabe from the Library of Congress

This Volume (1) ISBN: 978-0-44-459390-0,

Volume 2 ISBN: 978-0-44-459434-1,

Set ISBN: 978-0-44-459425-9

For information on all Elsevier publications visit our web site at books.elsevier.com

Printed and bound in China

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Copyright

The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, UK

Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, The Netherlands

225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451, USA

First edition 2012

Copyright © 2012, Felix M. Gradstein, James G. Ogg, Mark D. Schmitz and Gabi M. Ogg. Published by Elsevier BV. All rights reserved

The right of Felix M. Gradstein, James G. Ogg, Mark D. Schmitz and Gabi M. Ogg to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher

Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier's Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone (+44) (0) 1865 843830; fax (+44) (0) 1865 853333; email: permissions@elsevier.com. Alternatively you can submit your request online by visiting the Elsevier web site at http://elsevier.com/locate/permissions, and selecting Obtaining permission to use Elsevier material

Notice

No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent verification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is availabe from the Library of Congress

Volume 1 ISBN: 978-0-44-459390-0,

This Volume (2) ISBN: 978-0-44-459434-1,

Set ISBN: 978-0-44-459425-9

For information on all Elsevier publications visit our web site at books.elsevier.com

Printed and bound in China

12 13 14 15 16 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedication

Quote

‘To place all the scattered pages of Earth history in their proper chronological order is by no means an easy task’

(Arthur Holmes)

Dedication

We dedicate this edition of the Geologic Time Scale book to the many participants in the CHRONOS Project, Geological Time Scale Next (GTSNext), the Earth Time Projects and the International Commission of Stratigraphy (ICS).

These programs and others have championed the compilation, standardization, enhancement, numerical age-dating, and international public distribution of our progressive unraveling of Earth's fascinating history.

Contributors

Senior authors

Felix M. Gradstein,     Geological Museum, University of Oslo P.O.Box 1172 Blindern, N-0318 Oslo, Norway

E-mail address: felix.gradstein@nhm.uio.no

James G. Ogg,     Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Civil Engineering Building, Purdue University, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2051, USA

E-mail address: jogg@purdue.edu

Mark D. Schmitz,     Department of Geosciences, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho, 83725-1535, USA

E-mail address: markschmitz@boisestate.edu

Gabi M. Ogg,     

1224  

E-mail address: gabiogg@hotmail.comN. Salisbury St., West Lafayette, Indiana, 47906, USA

Frits P. Agterberg,     Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A OE8, Canada

E-mail address: Frits.Agterberg@NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca

D. Erik Anthonissen,     Chevron Corporation, Chevron Energy Technology Company, 1500 Louisiana St., Rm 27-108, Houston, Texas, 77002, USA

E-mail address: erik.anthonissen@chevron.com

Thomas R. Becker,     Geologisch-Paläontogisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelm-Universität, Correnstrasse 24, D-48149 Münster, Germany

E-mail address: rbecker@uni-muenster.de

John A. Catt,     Geography Department, University College London, Pearson Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom

E-mail address: j.catt@ucl.ac.uk

Roger A. Cooper,     GNS Science P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt, 5040, New Zealand

E-mail address: r.cooper@gns.cri.nz

Vladimir I. Davydov,     Permian Research Institute, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho, 83725-1535, USA

E-mail address: vdavydov@boisestate.edu

Stephan R. Gradstein,     Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Dept. Systématique et Evolution, 57 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris cedex 05, France

E-mail address: gradstein@mnhn.fr

Ethan L. Grossman,     Department of Geology & Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 77843-3115, USA

E-mail address: e-grossman@tamu.edu

Charles M. Henderson,     Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada

E-mail address: cmhender@ucalgary.ca

Frederik J. Hilgen,     Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, The Netherlands

E-mail address: F.J.Hilgen@uu.nl

Linda A. Hinnov,     Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 21218, USA

E-mail address: hinnov@jhu.edu

John M. McArthur,     Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom

E-mail address: j.mcarthur@ucl.ac.uk

Michael J. Melchin,     Department of Earth Sciences, St. Francis Xavier University, P.O. Box 5000, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, B2G 2W5, Canada

E-mail address: mmelchin@stfx.ca

Guy M. Narbonne,     Department of Geological Sciences & Geological Engineering, Miller Hall, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada

E-mail address: narbonne@geol.queensu.ca

Adina Paytan,     Institute of Marine Sciences, Earth & Marine Sciences Build., University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA

E-mail address: apaytan@ucsc.edu

Shanchi Peng,     State Key Laboratory of Paleobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing, 210008, China

E-mail address: scpeng@nigpas.ac.cn

Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink,     Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 360 Woods Hole Road, MS25, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 02543-1541, USA

E-mail address: behrenbrink@whoi.edu

Bradley Pillans,     Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

E-mail address: Brad.Pillans@anu.edu.au

Matthew R. Saltzman,     School of Earth Sciences, 275 Mendenhall Laboratory, Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio, 43210-1398, USA

E-mail address: saltzman.11@osu.edu

Michael D. Simmons,     Neftex Petroleum Consultants Ltd, 97 Milton Park, Abingdon, OX14 4RY, United Kingdom

E-mail address: mike.simmons@neftex.com

Graham A. Shields,     Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Str., London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom

E-mail address: g.shields@ucl.ac.uk

Kenneth L. Tanaka,     Astrogeology Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 2255  

E-mail address: ktanaka@usgs.govN. Gemini Dr., Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA

Noël Vandenberghe,     Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, K.U. Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

E-mail address: Noel.Vandenberghe@ees.kuleuven.be

Martin J. Van Kranendonk,     School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW 2052, Australia

E-mail address: martin.vankranendonk@unsw.edu.au

Jan Zalasiewicz,     Department of Geology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, United Kingdom

E-mail address: jaz1@leicester.ac.uk

Junior authors and contributors

Wladyslaw Altermann,     Department of Geology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, Republic of South Africa

E-mail address: wlady.altermann@up.ac.za

Loren E. Babcock,     School of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, 125 South Oval Mall, Columbus Ohio, 43210, USA

E-mail address: babcock.5@osu.edu

Brian L. Beard,     Department of Geoscience, NASA Astrobiology Institute, 1215  

E-mail address: beardb@geology.wisc.eduW. Dayton St., University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA

Alan G. Beu,     Paleontology Department, GNS Science, PO Box 30368, Lower Hutt, 5040, New Zealand

E-mail address: a.beu@gns.cri.nz

Andrew F. Boyes,     Paleontology Department, GNS Science, PO Box 30368, Lower Hutt, 5040, New Zealand

E-mail address: afboyes@gmail.com

Bradley D. Cramer,     Kansas Geological Survey  

E-mail address: cramerbd@gmail.com- Department of Geology, University of Kansas, 1930 Constant Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66047, USA

Paul J. Crutzen,     Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Department of Atmospheric Chemistry, PO Box 3060, D-55020 Mainz, Germany

E-mail address: paul.crutzen@mpic.de

Jan A. van Dam,     Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP), Campus de la UAB, Mòdul ICP, E-08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

E-mail address: jan.vandam@icp.cat

James G. Gehling,     South Australian Museum, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia

E-mail address: jim.gehling@samuseum.sa.gov.au

Philip L. Gibbard,     Cambridge Quaternary, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, United Kingdom

E-mail address: plg1@cam.ac.uk

Ellen T. Gray,     Earth and Planetary Science, University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA

E-mail address: eltgray@gmail.com

Øyvind Hammer,     Geological Museum, University of Oslo P.O. Box 1172 Blindern, N-0318 Oslo, Norway

E-mail address: oyvind.hammer@nhm.uio.no

William K. Hartmann,     Planetary Science Institute, 1700 E Ft. Lowell, #106, Tucson, Arizona 85719, USA

E-mail address: hartmann@psi.edu

Andrew C. Hill,     Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC), Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Ctra de Ajalvir, km 4, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

E-mail address: andrew.hill@cliffsnr.com

Paul F. Hoffman,     1216 Montrose Avenue, Victoria, British Columbia, V8T2K4, Canada

E-mail address: paulfhoffman@gmail.com

Christopher J. Hollis,     GNS Science, PO Box 30368, Lower Hutt, 5040, New Zealand

E-mail address: c.hollis@gns.cri.nz

Jerry J. Hooker,     Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom

E-mail address: j.hooker@nhm.ac.uk

Richard J. Howarth,     Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom

E-mail address: r.howarth@ucl.ac.uk

Chunju Huang,     The Faculty of Earth Resources, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan, Hubei, P.R. China 430074

E-mail address: cathycjhuang2010@gmail.com

Clark M. Johnson,     Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1215  

E-mail address: clarkj@geology.wisc.eduW Dayton St., Madison, WI 53706, USA

James F. Kasting,     Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, 443 Deike Bldg., University Park, PA 16802, USA

E-mail address: kasting@essc.psu.edu

Hans Kerp,     Forschungsstelle für Paläobotanik, Am Institut für Geologie und Paläontologie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Hindenburgplatz 57, D-48143 Münster, Germany

E-mail address: kerp@uni-muenster.de

Dieter Korn,     Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity, Humboldt University Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany

E-mail address: dieter.korn@mfn-berlin.de

Wout Krijgsman,     Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 17, 3584 CD Utrecht, The Netherlands

E-mail address: W.Krijgsman@uu.nl

Lucas J. Lourens,     Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands

E-mail address: L.J.Lourens@uu.nl

Breandán A. MacGabhann,     Earth and Ocean Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway University Road, Galway, Ireland

E-mail address: b.macgabhann1@nuigalway.ie

Mark A. Maslin,     Geography Department, University College London, Pearson Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom

E-mail address: m.maslin@ucl.ac.uk

Victor A. Melezhik,     Geological Survey of Norway, Postboks 6315 Sluppen, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway

E-mail address: victor.melezhik@ngu.no

Allen P. Nutman,     School of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia

E-mail address: allen.nutman@gmail.com

Dominic Papineau,     Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Boston College, 213 Devlin Hall, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA

E-mail address: dominic.papineau@bc.edu

Werner E. Piller,     Institut für Erdwissenschaften, Bereich Geologie und Paläontologie Universität Graz, Heinrichstrasse 26, A-8010 Graz, Austria

E-mail address: werner.piller@uni-graz.at

Franco Pirajno,     Geological Survey of Western Australia, 100 Plain St., East Perth, WA 6004, Australia

E-mail address: franco.pirajno@dmp.wa.gov.au

Gregory E. Ravizza,     Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1680 East-West Rd., Honolulu, HI 96822, USA

E-mail address: ravizza@hawaii.edu

Peter M. Sadler,     Department of Earth Sciences, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA

E-mail address: peter.sadler@ucr.edu

Robert P. Speijer,     Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, K.U. Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

E-mail address: Robert.Speijer@ees.kuleuven.be

Will Steffen,     Climate Change Institute, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

E-mail address: will.steffen@anu.edu.au

Ellen Thomas,     Department of Geology & Geophysics, Yale University, P. O. Box 208109, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA

E-mail address: ellen.thomas@yale.edu

Bruce R. Wardlaw,     U.S. Geological Survey, 926A National Centre, Reston, VA 20192-0001, USA

E-mail address: bwardlaw@usgs.gov

Douglas S. Wilson,     Department of Earth Science, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9630, USA

E-mail address: dwilson@geol.ucsb.edu

Shuhai Xiao,     Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 4044 Derring Hall, Blacksburg, Virginia, 24061-0420, USA

E-mail address: xiao@vt.edu

Editors' Biographies

Felix M. Gradstein (Professor at Oslo University, Norway) 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.

James G. Ogg (Professor at Purdue University, Indiana, USA) was 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 was used to generate many of the diagrams in this book.

Mark D. Schmitz is Associate 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.

Gabi M. Ogg applied micropaleontology to Jurassic-Cretaceous correlations before concentrating on public outreach in geosciences. She coordinated the extensive array of graphics in this GTS2012 book, and 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). In addition to co-authoring the Concise Geologic TimeScale (GTS2008) book, she has produced numerous posters and time scale cards for public audiences.

Preface

This study presents the science community and schools with a new geologic timescale for circa four billion years of Earth history. A chapter is also devoted to time scales for our moon and neighboring planets. This book details many recent advances in stratigraphy, the science of the layering of strata and its content, in radiogenic and stable isotopes chronology, and in age and duration calculations using orbital tuning models. The new scale closely links radiometrically and orbitally tuned age dates, and tries to provide comprehensive error analysis on the ages of a majority of boundaries for the geologic divisions of time. Much benefit is derived from the steady increase in formal definition of stage boundaries such that we have more stability in geologic unit definition than in 2004. This book thus presents Geologic Time Scale 2012 (GTS2012, as the successor of GTS2004).

It was in the year 2004 that two of us (FMG and JGO) with a team of 39 (geo)scientists completed ‘A Geologic Time Scale 2004’, quickly coined GTS2004, seven years after Geologic Time Scale 1989 (GTS89) by Harland et al. saw the light. GTS2004 originated from an original invitation by Alan Smith of the five persons GTS89 team to undertake its update, and publish it under the banner again of Cambridge University Press.. Our optimistic aim was to not only present a standard international Geologic Time Scale with a comprehensive set of chapters on each Period of the Phanerozoic and on Precambrian, but also provide a ‘teaching’ tool of key disciplines that are the foundation of time scales.

As it turned out, GTS2004 and its rather hefty green book were well received by the geoscience community. A great many colourful time scales in laminated card-, page size-, and wall chart formats also found its way to professional and academic geoscientists, students, schools and geology amateurs. Internet websites with the new scale, like http://www.nhm2.uio.no/stratlex/ or https://engineering.purdue.edu/Stratigraphy/ also are a great help to disseminate the new GTS information in an efficient and essentially cost free manner.

Besides being utilized as a scholarly and convenient standard, GTS2004 also provided fruit and gave impetus to a large body of new research in the fields of radiometrics, chronostratigraphy, orbital tuning and other Earth science specialties. One of the most rewarding aspects of science is always to see results becoming the springboard for exciting new developments, and unexpected new answers.

As a fruit of these intense developments we now proudly present ‘The Geologic Time Scale 2012’. We say proudly, because this even more hefty and full color GTS2012 tome, builds on a tremendous amount of new information, much of it generously assembled and contributed by a more than twice as large team of specialists than the one that ‘stitched the GTS2004 carpet’.

The fascination in creating a new geologic time scale is that it evokes images of creating a beautiful carpet, using many skilled hands. All stitches must conform to a pre-determined pattern, in this case the pattern of physical, chemical and biological events on Earth aligned along the arrow of time. It is thus that this new scale is a tribute to the truly close cooperation achieved by this new slate of outstanding co-authors. We also consider the new time scale a tribute to the scientific competence harbored and fostered by the global geosciences community.

We are deeply grateful to all co-authors and contributors, who, without reservation, accepted the challenge to be part of this dedicated team, slowly (!) stitching and weaving this carpet of time and its events that are Earth's unique and splendid history.

The Norwegian Arctic explorer, scientist and statesman Fridtjof Nansen is quoted as once saying ‘The difficult is what takes a little time, the impossible is what takes a little longer’. To be frank, there were times when we encountered seemingly impossible obstacles in what otherwise seemed to be a fairly smooth, long distance sailing from one specialty island to the next one, and staying in touch through a dense network of emails. To say it simply: The challenge with the construction of a detailed geologic time scale spanning almost 4 billion years of Earth history is that it should not have glaring gaps in time coverage.

During the gestation of GTS2012 it took ‘a little longer’ to cover some gaps that we were frankly told would be impossible to bridge without (much) more field work, more ocean floor coring, more laboratory research, and more research money. An ‘impossible’ example is the fully orbitally tuned Mesozoic and Cenozoic time scale. Our team did not try to achieve this goal. Here we propose a fancy hybrid, using an intricate construction of deterministic orbital tuning plus cyclic rubber-banding of stages, direct dating, stratigraphic reasoning and magnetostratigraphic interpolation.

Another, and unexpected impossibility turned out to be the Upper Triassic gap in our time scale knowledge. A glaring lack of age dates, tenuous correlations and competing but startling different stage models, created a ‘quicksand’ of information. Our solution surely is a temporary one, and we consider our results to be a springboard to fill the ‘Triassic gap’, that stretches for almost 30 million years.

Looking back at the eight years it took to complete GTS2012, it is almost funny to consider that the book chapters covering the oldest rocks and ‘some time before’, i.e. Precambrian and Planetary were completed first, followed by Late Proterozoic and Precambrian, whereas Mesozoic and particularly Paleogene and Neogene book chapters were last. We might consider that the younger record on Earth is more complete, more easily accessible and more easily decipherable, but is also creates high-resolution data swamping. Whatever the timing and delays in bringing some chapters to market, we are grateful that all authors, without exception, have strived to keep the chapters update and to the deadlines initially posted us by Elsevier Publishing. To achieve clarity and uniformity in scientific and artistic presentation, Gabi Ogg drafted all of 300+ figures (as she accomplished also for GTS2004 and GTS2008, including an up to date set of concise figures with over sixty Global boundary Stratotype Sections and Points (GSSPs). Christoper Scotese kindly provided paleogeographic map reconstructions with the chapters.

We are pleased to acknowledge the excellent editorial assistance of Julie Rousseau at the Geology Museum, Oslo. Katy Morissey, with Elsevier, Boston, and Pauline Wilkinson, with Elsevier, Oxford, who patiently awaited the fruits of our labor, and we are obliged to them and Linda Versteeeg- Buschman with Elsevier, Amsterdam, for their editorial advice and assistance.

Felix M. Gradstein, James G. Ogg, Mark D. Schmitz, and Gabi M. Ogg,     Oslo, Norway, W.Lafayette, IN, USA, and Boise, ID, USA

Abbreviations and acronyms

Organizations

Time Scale Publications (see References for Details)

Geoscientific Concepts

Symbols

Chapter 1

Introduction

F.M. Gradstein

Chapter Outline

1.1. A Geologic Time Scale

1.2. A Geologic Time Scale GTS2012

1.2.1. Recent Developments

1.2.2. Physical, Chemical and Paleontological Components of GTS2012

1.2.3. Calibration Methods to Linear Time Used in GTS2012

1.3. How this Book is Arranged

1.4. Conventions and Standards

1.4.1. Universal Time

1.4.2. Ephemeris Time

1.5. Historical Overview of Geologic Time Scales

1.5.1. Arthur Holmes and Age-Thickness Interpolations

1.5.2. Past Phanerozoic Radiogenic Isotope Databases and Time Scales

1.5.3. Paleozoic Scales

1.5.4. Mesozoic Scales

1.5.5. Cenozoic Scales

1.6. Stratigraphic Charts and Tables

References

Abstract

The Geologic Time Scale is the framework for deciphering and understanding the history of our planet. The development of better methods and procedures for age dating or cyclic tuning of sediments, and a refined relative scale with more defined stages are stimulating the need for a comprehensive review of the Geologic Time Scale (GTS). The construction of geologic time scales evolved as a result of applying new ideas, new methods, and new data, now resulting in GTS2012. Relative to GTS2004, dating, resolution and accuracy are improved, and its scope expanded as detailed in this new time scale book with 32 chapters and 3 appendices.

1.1. A Geologic Time Scale

The Geologic Time Scale (GTS) is the framework for deciphering and understanding the long and complex history of our planet, Earth, the third planet in the constellation around the Sun, and the fifth largest in the solar system after Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. As Arthur Holmes, the father of the Geologic Time Scale, once wrote (Holmes, 1965, p. 148): To place all the scattered pages of earth history in their proper chronological order is by no means an easy task. Ordering these scattered and torn pages, and understanding the physical, chemical and biological processes that acted on them since Earth appeared and solidified, requires a detailed and accurate time scale. The time scale is the tool par excellence of the geological trade, and insight into its construction, strengths, and limitations greatly enhances its function and its utility. All earth scientists should understand how the evolving time scales are constructed and how their myriad of physical and abstract data are calibrated rather than merely using the numbers in them, plucked from a convenient wall chart or laminated wallet card. This calibration to linear time of the succession of events recorded in the rocks on Earth has three components:

1. The international stratigraphic divisions and their correlation in the global rock record,

2. The means of measuring linear time or elapsed durations from the rock record, and

3. The methods of joining the two scales, the stratigraphic one and the linear one.

For clarity and precision in international communication, the rock record of Earth’s history is subdivided into a chronostratigraphic scale of standardized global stratigraphic units, such as Devonian, Miocene, "Zigzagiceras zigzag ammonite zone, or polarity Chron C25r. Unlike the continuous ticking clock of the chronometric scale (measured in years before the year AD 2000), the chronostratigraphic scale is based on relative time units in which global reference points at boundary stratotypes define the limits of the main formalized units, such as Permian". The chronostratigraphic scale is an agreed convention, whereas its calibration to linear time is a matter for discovery or estimation (Figure 1.1).

In contrast to the Phanerozoic that has an agreed upon chronostratigraphic scale with formal stage boundary stratotypes, Precambrian stratigraphy is formally classified chronometrically, i.e. the base of each Precambrian eon, era, and period is assigned a numerical age (Table 1.1). In Chapter 16, this GTS proposes a more realistic Precambrian time scale using criteria derived from observable geological phenomena in the rock record, including first continental red beds, assembly of the first supercontinent, and appearance and development of unicellular life in water.

FIGURE 1.1  The construction of a geologic time scale is the merger of a chronometric scale (measured in years) and a chronostratigraphic scale (formalized definitions of geologic stages, biostratigraphic zonation units, magnetic polarity zones, and other subdivisions of the rock record).

The Moon, Earth’s only satellite, the Sun and the universe surrounding the solar system play crucially important roles in geology (think of tidal movements, global climatic change and Milankovitch cyclicity, and meteorite impacts). Earth GTS is a component of a much broader and longer scale, the Astronomic Geologic Scale. Hence, this book for the first time devotes an important chapter to geologic time scales for our satellite Moon and our neighboring planets, Venus and Mars. Geology and astronomy are interdependent. Milankovitch cycles of Earth's orbit govern our long-term climate, and impacts of bolides have caused catastrophes and threaten our continued existence on Earth.

A bias in chronostratigraphy is that the formal terminology leans on the evolution of the animal kingdom, using terms like Phanerozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic. In the 1970s P. Cloud advocated terms like Proterophytic and Paleophytic, respectively, for his Periods III and IV in the Precambrian. Instead, Paleoproterozoic, Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic have prevailed, based on a written suggestion in 1988 by H. Hofmann to the Subcommission on Precambrian Stratigraphy. Far from proposing dual chronostratigraphic terminology with Protopaleophytic, Paleophytic, Mesophytic, etc., Chapter 12 of this book focuses on the implications of the evolving plant kingdom through time, as a means of subdividing the rock record.

1.2. A Geologic Time Scale GTS2012

1.2.1. Recent Developments

During the last few years, there have been several major developments that directly affect, and have considerable impact on, the international geologic time scale.

A. Stratigraphic standardization through the work of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) is steadily refining the international chronostratigraphic scale. Of the 100 stage or series units in the Phanerozoic Eonothem, a majority now have ratified boundary definitions, compared to fewer than 45 in 2004, and just over 30 in 2000. Details on the new and existing stage boundary definitions are presented in Chapter 2.

TABLE 1.1

Current Framework for Subdividing Earth Stratigraphy

B. In many cases, traditional European-based geological stages have been replaced with new subdivisions that allow global correlation. The Cryogenian and Ediacaran Periods are filling up with stratigraphic information and the latter is now a ratified period. New stages have been introduced in Cambrian and Ordovician that allow global correlations, in contrast to British, American, Chinese, Russian or Australian regional stages. Long ratified stage definitions in Silurian and Devonian are undergoing long overdue revision to better reflect the actually observed fossil and rock record. The Jurassic, for a long time the only period in the Phanerozoic without a formal definition for base and top, now has a formal base in the Kuhjoch section in Austria. Only base Cretaceous is still undefined, although realistic and practical solutions exist (see Chapter 27). Curiously, the largest stratigraphic knowledge gap pertains to Callovian through Albian where no global stratotype section and point (GSSPs) have yet been defined.

All Paleocene (Danian, Selandian, Thanetian), two Eocene (Ypresian, Lutetian) and one Oligocene (Rupelian) stage are now defined in the Cenozoic, and all but two Neogene stages (Langhian and Burdigalian) have been defined and ratified. The Pleistocene is formally divided into three units, and Holocene has a new and formal definition. Quaternary, after 150 years of confusion, now has a formal definition also, although it remains to be seen how practical that definition is for the marine geosciences. The latter defines and places the Gelasian Stage in the Neogene (see Chapter 29). When Quaternary was redefined, Tertiary was not considered – which is a bad mistake, since the latter is widely used, particularly in applied geosciences, and by amateur geologists and in schools.

C. New or enhanced methods of extracting linear time from the rock record have enabled age assignments with a precision of 0.1% or better, leading to improved age assignments of key geologic stage boundaries, and intra-stage levels. A good protocol now exists to assign uncertainty to age dates (see Chapter 6), and intercalibrate the two principal radiogenic isotope techniques using potassium-argon and uranium-lead isotopes. Improved analytical procedures for obtaining uranium-lead ages from single zircons have shifted published ages for some stratigraphic levels to older ages by more than 1 myr (for example at the Permian/Triassic boundary). Similarly, an astronomically assigned age for the neutron irradiation monitor for the ⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar dating method makes earlier reported ages older by 0.64%. Also, the rhenium-osmium (¹⁸⁷Re-¹⁸⁷Os) shale geochronometer has a role to play for organic-rich strata where there is limited or no potential for ash bed dating with the uranium-led isotopes. For example, Selby (2007) obtained an age of 154.1  ±  2.2 Ma on the base Kimmeridgian in the Flodigarry section on Isle of Skye, NW Scotland. Details on the improved radiogenic isotope methods are given in Chapter 6.

D. A welcome practice is that, instead of micro-and macrofossil events, global geochemical excursions are also becoming defining criteria for chronostratigraphic boundaries, like the Corg positive anomaly at the Paleocene/Eocene boundary. Carbon isotope excursions are close proxies for base Cambrian, base Triassic and base Jurassic. The famous iridium anomaly is at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary. More GSSPs should use global geochemical events.

E. Milankovitch-type orbital climate cyclicity has tuned the Neogene geologic time scale (see Chapter 29), and for the first time the classical seafloor spreading and magnetochron method to construct the Paleogene time scale has been closely matched with the orbitally tuned scale (see Chapter 28). Hence, magneto- and biochronology are refined and stage boundary ages strengthened. Parts of Jurassic and Cretaceous also benefit from sedimentary cycle scaling, providing detailed estimates of stage durations, e.g., for Lower and Upper Jurassic and mid-Cretaceous stages.

F. As outlined in Chapters 3 and 20 through 23, improved scaling of stages is feasible with composite standard techniques on fossil zones as a means of estimating relative zone durations. Although radiometric ages can be more precise than zonal or fossil event assignments, the uneven spacing and fluctuating accuracy and precision of both radiometric ages and zonal composite scales demand special statistical and mathematical techniques to calculate the geologic time scale. This is outlined in Chapter 14, and in Chapters 20 through 28.

G. The assignment of error bars to ages of stage boundaries, first advocated by Gradstein et al. (1994), attempts to combine the most up-to-date estimate of uncertainty in radiogenic isotope dating and in stratigraphic scaling into one number. Although stratigraphic reasoning has a role to play in arriving at uncertainties, the geosciences are no less rigorous than physics and chemistry when it comes to assigning realistic error bars to its vital numbers. The statistical methods employed to construct GTS2012 are outlined in Chapter 14.

Continual improvements in data coverage, methodology and the standardization of chronostratigraphic units imply that no geologic time scale can be final. The new Geologic Time Scale 2012 provides detailed insight into the most up-to-date geologic time scale, and is the successor to Geologic Time Scale 2004 (GTS2004 by Gradstein et al., 2004), and GTS1989 (Harland et al., 1990). Despite detailed and widespread documentation of new time scales, it is no surprise, as Ruban (2011) points out, that subjective deviations from the standard time scale in geology text books are not uncommon. Authors may prefer different geologic time scales because of deficiencies in distribution of standards among the international geological community, changes in the standards themselves, or problems with applying standard stratigraphy to regional geology. This leads to the obvious point that authoritative communication of updates to the standard time scale must be at a deliberate and slow pace to be effective. Minor, quick updates need to be avoided. Having a new and formal definition for a stage does not mean that the standard time scale should be updated. Firstly, redefinition of stages and correlations take many years to take effect in the scientific domain, and secondly acceptance of a new age without updating existing correlation schemes leads to correlation errors. Particularly in the mineral and petroleum industries, the introduction of a new time scale demands extensive investments in internal standardization and communication, and is not a trivial undertaking. The only thing that is gained by the publication and introduction of minimal geologic time scale changes is resentment in the user, not eager to recalibrate data for minor reasons.

The new Geologic Time Scale (GTS2012) Project, which commenced in 2004, has involved over 65 geoscientists and other specialists. The project includes contributions by past and present chairs and other officers of different subcommissions of the ICS, geochemists and physicists working with radiogenic and stable isotopes, stratigraphers using diverse tools from traditional animal and plant fossils to sequence stratigraphy to astronomical cycles to database programming, and geomathematicians. GTS2012 is the first Geoscience Time Scale handbook that is also presented digitally, and made available via the internet by its publisher.

1.2.2. Physical, Chemical and Paleontological Components of GTS2012

GTS2012 started by compiling scales of selected components of Earth history including:

1. Formal international subdivisions of the Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic rock-time scale as ratified, or under review for definition and ratification by the ICS. The review of these 100+ subdivisions in Chapters 17 through 32 shows the considerable progress in the last decade toward the goal of a full international standard for chronostratigraphy, the backbone of the linear time scale.

2. A proposal to subdivide Precambrian time into eons, eras and periods that reflect natural stages in planetary evolution rather than a subdivision in arbitrary numerical ages (see Chapters 15 through 18).

3. Major biostratigraphic zonations and datums for each geologic period in the latest Precambrian and the Phanerozoic. Next, composite biozonations, derived from the constrained optimization and other scaling methods, were assembled for several Paleozoic periods to compute a relative scale for its zones and stages (Chapters 20–23).

4. Magnetic reversal patterns throughout the Phanerozoic (Chapter 5), a key method in geologic correlation.

5. Major geochemical trends of strontium, carbon and oxygen isotopes in seawater, furnishing insight into stage duration and geologic correlation (Chapters 7–11).

6. Other significant events (ice ages, organic carbon peaks, large igneous provinces, impacts, etc.) which are important for global correlation.

7. High-resolution cyclic climatic and oceanographic changes, that are physically and chemically recorded in the sedimentary record (the ‘Milankovitch’ cyclicity), astronomically tune the cycles in linear time (Chapters 4, 23, and 26–30).

This massive array of information was melded together to produce a framework for Earth geologic history scaled to linear time, using both quantitative and semi-quantitative estimation and interpolation methods. The set of chronostratigraphic units (stages, eras) and their computed ages that constitute the main framework for GTS2012 is shown in Figure 1.2, with detailed descriptions and stratigraphic scales in appropriate chapters. The Neogene and Oligocene portion is calibrated by astronomical cycles to within an orbital-precession oscillation (~20 kyr). Parts of Paleogene, Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic are also scaled using Milankovitch cycle durations, with the 405-kyr eccentricity oscillation being a stable tuner.

1.2.3. Calibration Methods to Linear Time Used in GTS2012

GTS2012 time scale construction can be summarized in 4 steps:

Step 1. Construct an updated global chronostratigraphic scale for the Earth’s rock record.

Step 2. Identify key linear-age calibration levels for the chronostratigraphic scale using radiogenic isotope age dates, and/or apply astronomical tuning to cyclic sediment, or scale and interpolate (near) linear segments of stable isotope sequences.

Step 3. Interpolate the combined chronostratigraphic and chronometric scale, for example with a cubic spline, where direct information in specific stratigraphic intervals is wanting.

Step 4. Calculate or estimate error bars on the combined chronostratigraphic and chronometric information to obtain a geologic time scale with estimates of uncertainty on boundary ages and on unit durations.

The first step, integrating multiple types of stratigraphic information in order to construct the chronostratigraphic scale, is the most time-consuming; it summarizes and synthesizes centuries of detailed geological research, while reconciling it with the most up-to-date information. The second step, identifying which radiogenic isotope and cyclo-stratigraphic studies would be used as the primary constraints for assigning linear ages, is the one that has evolved most rapidly since the last decade. Historically, time scale building went from an exercise with very few, relatively inaccurate radiogenic isotope dates, as used by Holmes (1947, 1960), to one with many dates with greatly varying analytical precision (like GTS1989).

FIGURE 1.2  The new Geologic Time Scale.

The new philosophy, started in GTS2004 and expanded in this study, is to select stratigraphically meaningful radiogenic isotope dates with high analytical precision. More than 260 radiogenic isotope dates were thus selected for their reliability and stratigraphic importance to calibrate the geologic record in linear time. All age dates are detailed in Appendix 2 of this book.

In addition to selecting radiogenic isotope ages based upon their stratigraphic control and analytical precision, we also applied the following criteria or corrections (Chapter 6):

1. Stratigraphically constrained radiogenic isotope ages with the U-Pb method on zircons were accepted from the isotope dilution mass spectrometry (TIMS) method, but not from the high-resolution ion microprobe (HR-SIMS, also known as SHRIMP) that uses the Sri Lanka (SL)13 or other standards. Because of a dearth of data, an exception was made for a few selected ion microprobe ages in Devonian, although their large uncertainty limits their usefulness.

2. ⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar radiogenic isotope ages were re-computed to be in accord with the revised ages for laboratory monitor standards: 527.0  ±  2.6 Ma for MMhb-1 (Montana hornblende), 28.51  ±  0.06 Ma for TCR (Taylor Creek sanidine), and 28.201  ±  0.046 Ma for FCT (Fish Canyon sanidine). Systematic (external) errors and uncertainties in decay constants are partially incorporated (see Chapter 6). As in GTS2004, no glauconite dates are used.

3. Uncertainty estimates for radiogenic isotopic dates now take into account (a) if ages are based on multiple, overlapping, concordant U-Pb fractions, (b) if they show increasing evidence of non-reproducibility and discordance, and finally (c) those brought about by methodological limitations. Although not as precise as U-Pb dates, the accurate use of ⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar dates where no usable U-Pb dates exist is now feasible with much more precise knowledge of the apparent monitor age and ⁴⁰K decay constant.

The bases of Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic are bracketed by analytically precise ages at their GSSP or primary correlation markers, respectively 541  ±  0.63 Ma, 252.16  ±  0.5 Ma, and 66.04  ±  0.05 Ma, and there also are direct age dates on base-Carboniferous, base-Permian, base-Jurassic, base-Cenomanian, and base-Eocene; but most other period or stage boundaries prior to the Neogene lack direct age control. No dates were available to GTS2012 for Barremian, Bathonian, Norian, Kungurian through Wordian, Givetian, Pragian, Pridoli, Gorstian, Aeronian, Floian and large parts of Cambrian. The Callovian through Hauterivian and Upper Triassic are particularly low in stratigraphically meaningful radiometric dates. Therefore, the third step, linear interpolation, still plays a key role for most of GTS2012, as it did in GTS2004. This detailed and high-resolution interpolation process incorporates several techniques, depending upon the available information (Figure 1.3):

1. A composite standard of graptolite zones spanning the uppermost Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian interval was derived from hundreds of sections in oceanic and slope environment basins using the Constrained Optimization (CONOP) method (see Chapters 3, 20 and 21). With average zone thickness from many sections taken to be directly proportional to zone duration, the detailed composite sequence was scaled using high-precision zircon and sanidine age dates.

2. High-precision ID-TIMS U-Pb zircon ages of a great many interstratified tuffs and tonsteins were used to calibrate the detailed litho-, cyclo- and biostratigraphic framework of Carboniferous basins of Eastern Europe. Age resolution of < 0.05%, or c. 100 kyr was obtained for these Carboniferous volcanics. This precision allows the resolution of time in the Milankovitch frequency band, and confirms the long-standing hypothesis that individual high-frequency Pennsylvanian cyclothems and bundles of cyclothems into fourth order sequences are the eustatic response to orbital eccentricity (c. 100 and 400 kyr) forcing. Combining the new datings with orbital tuning of fourth order sequences in the basins scales Carboniferous stages with a new level of precision.

FIGURE 1.3  Methods used to construct Geologic Time Scale GTS2012 integrate different techniques depending on the quality of data available within different intervals.

3. Only three Cretaceous stages have ratified GSSPs, but reasonable stable consensus definitions exist for the other nine (Chapter 27). The age model for the Berriasian through Barremian ammonite zones is mainly derived from correlations to the M-sequence of marine magnetic anomalies plus intervals with Cyclostratigraphy and/or linearization of strontium-isotope trends. The new datings virtually agree with those derived using seafloor spreading interpolation in GTS2004. The Aptian–Albian ammonite zones are scaled according to their correlation to microfossil and nannofossil datums, which, in turn, are scaled by Cyclostratigraphy. Base Cenomanian has a direct age date, obtained using the Japanese sediment record. A spline-fit of numerous radio-isotopic dates from volcanic ash horizons interbedded with Western Interior ammonites with adjustments for Cyclostratigraphy of some intervals provides a high-resolution numerical scale for the Cenomanian through early Maastrichtian. The late Maastrichtian correlations rely on microfossil datums calibrated to a spline- and cycle-fit of C-sequence marine magnetic anomalies.

4. Astronomical tuning of cyclic sediments was used for Neogene, Oligocene, Paleocene and most of Eocene, portions of the Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic. The Oligocene through Neogene astronomical scale is directly tied to the Present; the older astronomical scale provides linear-duration constraints on polarity chrons, biostratigraphic zones and entire stages.

5. Proportional scaling was undertaken relative to component biozones or subzones. This procedure was necessary in portions of the Triassic and Jurassic. Devonian stages were scaled from approximate equal duration of a set of high-resolution subzones of ammonoids and conodonts and tentative estimates of sedimentary cycles’ duration, fitted to an array of dates.

The actual geomathematics employed for data sets in Ordovician–Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous–Permian, part of Jurassic–Cretaceous and part of Eocene involved cubic spline curve fitting to relate the observed ages to their stratigraphic position. During this process the ages were weighted according to their variances based on the lengths of their error bars. A chi-square test was used for identifying and reducing the weights of relatively few outliers with error bars that are much narrower than could be expected on the basis of most ages in the data set.

Stratigraphic uncertainty was incorporated in the weights assigned to the observed ages during the spline-curve fitting. In GTS2004, error bars were estimated using an MLFR regression of the rectified spline. GTS2012 uses a more direct approach by picking datings, spline fittings and interpolating repeatedly to estimate how much a stage boundary age would have varied. This is simulated by a Monte Carlo procedure, picking random stratigraphic positions and dates with distributions as given (normal or rectangular) and then running the spline fitting anew with cross-validation. This is repeated say 10 000 times, producing a histogram of interpolated values from which a 95% confidence interval can be derived.

The uncertainties on older stage boundaries systematically increase, owing to potential systematic errors in the different radiogenic isotope methods, rather than to the analytical precision of the laboratory measurements (Figure 1.4). In this connection, we mention that biostratigraphic error is fossil event and fossil zone dependent, rather than age dependent.

Ages and durations of Neogene stages derived from orbital tuning are considered to be accurate to within a precession cycle (~20 kyr) assuming that all cycles are correctly identified, and that the theoretical astronomical tuning for progressively older deposits is precise (Chapter 4). Paleogene dating combines tuning, radiometrics and C-sequence splining; hence, stage ages uncertainty is larger and varies between 0.2 and 0.5 myr.

Table 1.2 lists the modified ages of stage boundaries in GTS2012 relative to A Geologic Time 2004 (GTS2004). No ages shown for stages in the GTS2004 column means there is no change in age in GTS2012, with ‘NA’ in the Cambrian reflecting absence of those stages when GTS2004 was conceived. Fifteen Phanerozoic stages have been formally defined since 2004, about half with new definitions. A majority of age changes in GTS2012 involve a combination of improved radiometric methodology, higher resolution interpolation methods, and better correlations between key sections. Stages or series that changed by 2 myr or more in GTS2012 are shown in red, with Bashkirian, Artinskian, Carnian, Norian and Rhaetian showing the largest numerical age differences. The latter three stages also were problematic in GTS2004, due to lack of age dates and uncertainty in correlations. Interestingly, Silurian stages all become (much) older and Ordovician stages younger than in GTS2004. Where the 95% uncertainty estimate of a GTS2012 stage age exceeds the actual numerical age change, this is also marked in red.

Figure 1.5 shows the actual number of dates per group of stages and the contribution of U-Pb, Ar-Ar and other dating techniques. A deficiency of age dates in Triassic and part of Paleozoic increases the uncertainty in chronology. The fact that very few Phanerozoic stage boundaries have direct dates means that interpolation techniques are a vital part of time scale construction.

A majority of radiogenic isotope age dates in GTS2004 was not available to GTS1989, as shown in Figure 1.6, and for GTS2012 many new dates became available in 2011. Good age dates are virtually all post 1990; many have a precision of 0.5% or better, although external errors are calculated more conservatively in GTS2012. The first years of the new millennium were not particularly productive in publishing new age dates for chronostratigraphy, but the trend to higher laboratory precision is clear and most welcome, clearly challenging conventional biostratigraphy in potential resolution at specific strata levels.

FIGURE 1.4  Uncertainties (95% confidence) on radio-isotopic dates and interpolated numerical ages of stage boundaries.

These uncertainties incorporate systematic errors in radio-isotopic methods, but not biostratigraphic uncertainties on their calibrations (which may add an additional 1 myr or more in some cases). The uncertainties in scaling of stage boundaries incorporate other factors, such as orbital tuning and seafloor spreading models (e.g., Cenozoic through Middle Jurassic) that may reduce uncertainties derived only from radio-isotopic dates. For example, orbital tuning relative to the Present yields negligible uncertainties in the estimates of Neogene stage boundaries. Uncertainties indicated for some stage boundaries only apply to the working definitions in GTS2012. See also Table 1.2.

FIGURE 1.5  Number of radio-isotopic dates used in GTS2012 for each stage.

Stage labels are given for every second stage. No dates were available for Barremian, Bathonian, Norian, Kungurian through Wordian, Givetian, Pragian, Pridoli, Gorstian, Aeronian, Floian and large parts of Cambrian. The Bathonian through Barremian, the Late Triassic and the middle Permian are particularly low in stratigraphically meaningful radio-isotopic dates.

FIGURE 1.6  Date of publication of radio-isotopic dates used to calibrate GTS2012.

TABLE 1.2

Modified Ages of Stage Boundaries in this Book Relative to ‘A Geologic Time 2004’ (GTS2004)