Timescale and geologic

INTRODUCTION
The theme of this talk has to do directly with the answer to the questions: Wher
e we are and what has been our history? We are in Colombia and our history is ti
ed to the history of the earth! Yes we think of the atoms in our bodies and wher
e they could have been 100 years ago, a million years or 10,000 million years, w
e should consider our galaxy and the universe in general.
In our treatment we briefly consider the Universe, our Galaxy and the Solar Syst
em (widely discussed in the lectures of Dr. Juan Manuel Tejeiro), then try the e
arth and its evolution over geologic time and thus present to you these great pe
riods of time known as geological eras. Among the many important issues that we
cover is one that is recommended for the workshop and could be described as the
rule of the lower atmosphere, the troposphere, at a time and place, this state d
epends on the factors of time machine such as sun, rain, clouds and winds.
Among the expected results is the need for the student, as author of his own edu
cation, is convinced that different Biology Seminar topics I should be taken in
a comprehensive and interdisciplinary different biological events that take plac
e in space , evolve over time and environmental conditions play a role. Highligh
t the sun as an energy source needed for life processes and the need to preserve
the environment.
THE UNIVERSE
The universe is all that exists, is estimated to contain about 100,000 million g
alaxies and each has approximately one billion galaxies of stars, but the size o
f the universe is so large that most of the empty space . One way to think the u
niverse is imagined as constantly expanding sphere so that everything in it rece
des more and more with each other, there is nothing beyond the universe because
the universe contains all the time and space.
How big is the Universe? The Sun, whose diameter is about 109 times the diameter
of the earth, is one of the 200,000 million stars that has our Galaxy: The Milk
y Way, which is so great that the light spends about 100,000 years to go from on
e extreme to another of the same.
What is the age of universe? This is a topic of high controversy and active rese
arch field. The most widely accepted model of the universe suggests that the uni
verse began in a compact and infinitely singular state in an area much smaller t
han the size of an atomic particle. The beginning of our Universe, often referre
d to as the "Big Bang" occurred when the compact ball grew - not in a violent ex
plosion but by a rapid expansion - some 15,000 million years (ma). Initially, th
e universe was very small and had an extremely high temperature, the quarks comb
ined to form particles (protons and
neutrons), three minutes is thought to have formed the nuclei of light atoms, fo
rmed 500,000 years after complex atoms, after 3000 million years, galaxies began
to take shape. The solar system began forming 10,000 years after the Big Bang.
The Milky Way.
The Milky Way disk acquired as with most of its material dispersed on its spiral
arms (where new stars are formed) about 5,000 million years after the Big Bang.
The mass of the Milky Way is about a billion times the mass of the sun and its
radius is about 15 kpc (kiloparsec = 3260 years a light).
In 1962, Olin Eggen, Don Linden-Bell and Allan Sandage presented a model for the
 formation of the Milky Way (model ELS) according to which the galaxy formed fro
m a large cloud protogalática (gas cloud of hydrogen and helium) of about 100 kp
c in radius, the protogalaxy had spherical shape, rotating slowly and the gas wa
s cold (this means that the velocities of the atoms with respect to their neares
t neighbors were small). Under these conditions the gravitational field protogal
axy was irresistible and began to collapse (a collapse on itself) simultaneously
, there was condensation in those
regions where the density was higher and these condensations originated stars an
d globular clusters (spherical spherical clusters containing between one and ten
million stars). One of the effects of the collapse is the increase of temperatu
re and pressure, which compensates the gravitational force holding back the coll
apse itself, the gas, for its part,€becomes too hot to form stars and therefore
the formation of clusters glubulares also stops. Subsequently, the gas continues
to cool, radiating energy into intergalactic space, but in the meantime, the st
arting rotation that the cloud had progaláctica, will have given rise to a thin
disk in which stars form at a sustained pace. Our home is on that disk!
SOLAR SYSTEM
The solar system is located about two thirds of the center of the galaxy, at the
end of a spiral arm in arm known as the Local or Orion Arm. It consists of the
sun, nine planets revolve around it and many other objects that orbit around it,
the system occupies a disk-shaped volume with a diameter of about 12 000 millio
n
miles. The sun, like all stars, is a huge ball of very hot gas revolution is at
its core nuclear reactions that release large amounts of energy that reaches the
surface and propagates through space, the core temperature is around 15 million
degrees Celsius.
The sun began from a cloud of gas and dust in which gravity begins to form a gas
sphere in revolution, the core of the protostar becomes dense and when it reach
es a critical density start nuclear reactions. During the rapid rotation of the
young star, the gas cloud, snow and dust remaining flattened, forming a disc in
the case of the sun became a system of planets in orbit, the dust was compressed
to form the four rocky inner planets, the exterior is formed from a mixture of
gas, snow and dust, the origin of Pluto is unknown.
The sun (the new star, formed 4600 million years ago) now shines steadily conver
ting hydrogen into helium by nuclear fusion at 600 tonnes per second, losing fou
r million tons of its mass every second!
LAND
The Earth is a dense, rocky planet that was formed at the same time as the Sun (
5000 million years ago), the land and the other planets also formed from
coldest area of the cloud of gas and dust in revolution, the radioactivity of th
e earth melted the surface, the heavier minerals such as nickel and iron sank to
form the Earth's core and lighter elements floated to the surface. 4000 million
years ago, blocks of solid rock and melted down before emerging again to the su
rface. Solidified the surface, it took several million years for the volcanic ga
ses form the atmosphere, the water vapor condensed and formed the oceans. Even t
oday the land is changing, the tectonic plates move closer to certain continents
and away to others.
The current land is surrounded by a cloud of gases called the atmosphere to prot
ect it from sunlight and the harsh conditions of outer space and which is air an
d water vapor are partly responsible for the life of time and climate. There are
 five atmospheric layers: exosphere, thin layer prior to outer space, situated 9
00 km Thermosphere, layer between 80 and 450 km, Mesosphere, layer between 50 an
d 80 km and stratospheric layer between 10 and 50 km, the temperature varies -60
º C to almost freezing point of water, contains the ozone layer, which protects
us from radiation ultavioleta; troposphere, up to 10 km above the surface, this
layer clouds form and contains 75% of all gases in the atmosphere and that is w
here humans can breathe normally.
Earth's crust or lithosphere is a thin layer of rocks (from 6-64 km thick), whic
h elevated above sea level gives rise to islands and continents, the crust are f
ragments or plaques in slow but continuous motion. The plates float on a viscous
layer called asthenosphere.
The continents have shifted position and shape through geological time, 250 mill
ion years ago is believed that there was a supercontinent called Pangea, and tha
t 130 million years later was divided into two: Laurasia and Gondwana Land, this
evolution has continued until the situation we have at present.
GEOLOGICAL TIME. What is the age of our planet? The exact answer is unknown, but
recent estimates indicate that approximately 4.5 billion years ago. This interv
al of time between the formation of the earth to this day is known as geologic t
ime. The secret of his age reveals the systematic study of the rocks forming the
earth's crust and its surface, and in them is the events of his life training a
nd relationship of the past. To collect these records and to measure the age of
the earth using two scales: • A relative time scale,€based on the sequence of ro
ck layers and the evolution of life, and
•
Radiometric time scale, based on the natural radioactivity of chemical elements
in some rocks.
The oldest rocks almost certainly have been recycled and destroyed in the proces
s of formation of plate tectonics and if some have not been found, but it has be
en assumed that the earth and other solid bodies in the solar system were formed
in the same time and therefore have the same age. Using techniques of radioacti
ve decay of isotopes of elements that occur naturally in rocks and minerals have
been discovered rocks whose age exceeds 3500 million years in all continents of
the earth, there is experimental evidence showing that the earth is at least 4.
3 billion of years, but that does not reveal the exact age of their formation: •
• The oldest rocks on earth (4.03 billion years) were found in Acasta Gneiss (n
orthwestern Canada). In Western Australia, zircon crystals found in sedimentary
rocks much younger ages than 4300 million years (source rocks of these crystals
have not yet been found).
The oldest moon rocks, brought back by Apollo missions reveal ages between 4400
and 4500 million years, measurements made in meteorites (chunks of asteroids)
recovered from the earth also give results of this order. This indicates that th
e age (time since its formation) of the solar system is between 4530 and 4.58 bi
llion years, a result that is consistent with the calculations of the age of the
Milky Way galaxy where our solar system is located.
In the study of the evolution of the earth and the various events since its form
ation until the present, on geological time or lifetime of our planet is divided
into geologic eras, periods Geological Eras and periods in geological times .
The main eras of geological time are: • Precambrian, between the planet's birth
and the emergence of complex life forms, over 80% of the lifetime of the planet
falls into this era. Roughly one can say that runs from 4500 million years ago u
ntil 544 million years ago. There are two periods: the Archaic Period (3800-2500
Ma) and Proterozoic (2500-544 Ma), prior to the Archaic, there is a time known
as "Hadean" (4500-3800 m) during which the cooling and main land training took p
lace. Corresponding to this was found fossils of eukaryotic cells. • Paleozoic (
since 544 - to 244 ma) was also known as the oldest life. Includes periods: Camb
rian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous. Cambrian, taken from the
Land of Roman
Wales, which were obtained and studied rocks have provided
earliest evidence of complex life forms. Silurian Ordovician and Silurian or cor
respond to the names of the Celtic tribes who lived in Wales during the Roman co
nquest. Devonian, taken from the name "Devonshire," the city where these rocks w
ere studied for the first time. The Carboniferous is for the U.S. states of Penn
sylvania and Mississippi, where rocks were obtained evidence of life of those pe
riods. The Permian corresponds to the Russian province of Perm with the name, fr
om which were removed and studied those rocks. This was the great Cambrian explo
sion occurred, are the first vertebrates, there is evidence of the existence of
Tribolitas, Nautiloides, fish, amphibians, insects with wings and Coelnosauravus
. There were three major mass extinctions (makes 438 m, 367 m and 248 m) • Mesoz
oic (245-65 Ma) also known as the era of medieval life. Periods: Triassic, Juras
sic and Cretaceous. The Triassic taken from the word "trias." Jurassic, called t
he mountains "Swear," located between France and Switzerland and where rocks wer
e removed under this age who were studied for the first time. Cretaceous, taken
from the Latin word for chalk (chalk), related to deposits of this type of mater
ial located along the Canal inglés.Los reptiles were the dominant vertebrates of
this age, the reign of the dinosaurs
appeared in this era. There is evidence that this was, the sea turtles there, Dy
ploulus, Crabs and Mesosaures, in panic, birds and bees Tyrannosaurus. There wer
e two great mass extinctions, one makes another 208 ma and 65 ma ago. • Cenozoic
(65 mya to present), called the recent life was also in mammals was to be the d
ominant animals on Earth's surface. It covers two periods: Tertiary and Quaterna
ry. In the Tertiary are the whales,€primates and Homo habilis.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE. Several authors in Scientific American, October 1994. The
Birth of the Milky Way. A. And A. Aparicio Rosenberg NEWTON, No.27, July 2000. T
HE ORIGIN OF LIFE. A. Oparin. Panamericana Editorial Ltda, April 1994. THE CLOUD
OF LIFE. F. Hoyle and N.C. Wickramasinghe. Grupo Editorial Grijalbo. Barcelona,
Spain 1982. THE EARTH. Great Encyclopedia of pocket. Editorial Molino, Bacelona
(Spain), October 1995. SPACE. . Great Encyclopedia of pocket. Editorial Molino,
Bacelona (Spain), October 1995. WEATHER AND CLIMATE. . Great Encyclopedia of po
cket. Editorial Molino, Bacelona (Spain), October 1995. THE APPEARANCE OF LIFE.
Francois Raulin. (Understanding Science). RBA Editores SA Barcelona, 1994. THE P
LANETS. Bernard Hagene. (Understanding Science). RBA Editores SA Barcelona, 1994
.
GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS.
The following is copied some of the artwork presented at the conference.
Galaxy: The Milky Way
SUPER CONTINENT: PANGEA
"250 million years ago-
Laurasia and Gondwana land
"For 120 million years
Precambrian (4500-544)
Phanerozoic (544presente) Paleozoic (544-245)
Hip replacement
Cambrian Explosion
Archaic
Proterozoic
Cambrian
Ordovician Selúrico
Devonian
Paleozoic or
Mesozoic (24 565) Birds
Tyrannosaurids Coelurosauravus Bees
Cenozoic
Primate winged insects
Reptiles
E Dimetrodant
Mammals
Homo has
Geological
FOSSILS OF MICRO-ORGANISMS-Geological Gunflint Formation (Canada)> 1800 million
years