The Archeon Period: 4.0-2.

5 bya
The Proterozoic Period: 2.5 bya - 502 mya
 Immanuel Kant, 1755
when the Earth accreted materials from gas,
dust and meteorites.
The Solar Nebular Hypothesis explains the
creation of our solar system
 Hosts billions of GALXIES
Our MILKYWAY:
Billions of STARS (The Sun)
8 Planets
Pluto
Neptune
Large, less
Uranus
dense,
Saturn
Jupiter mostly H and
Mercury He
Venus Small, dense,
Earth rocky & rich
Mars in minerals

1,000s of Asteroids
1,000,000s of Comets
Infinite amount of Debris
THE SOLAR SYSTEM:
All 8 planets revolve
around the Sun
The whole Solar System
resembles a slowly
rotating disk.
Planets rotating in the
same direction
All planets have tilted
axes
Each moon mimics the
orbit and rotation of its
planet.
5 BILLION YEARS AGO
Nova explosions (death of a star) scattered H,
He, O2, Si, and C.
The Solar Nebula
Rotation & contraction shaped it into a disk.
90% of mass concentrated in the centre
Gravity caused bits of matter to accumulate
into clumps that swept up finer particles
within its orbital path, to form protoplanets
Accretion
Protoplanets revolved around the central
mass (formation took 10 million years)
eventually began to condense, shrink and
heated to several million degrees
Hydrogen fusion , from the Sun, released
great energy as H He
Solar winds created by the the streams of
radiation from the caused lighter elements and
frozen gas to be driven outward
4.0 2.5 billion years ago
 How did our Earth evolve to its
modern form: core, mantle and
crust?
Differentiation
What was the Archeon
lithosphere and atmosphere
like?
Magma ocean & Komatites
0% oxygen & volcanic gasses
Outgassing formed earliest
acidic oceans
What life forms existed in the
Archean?
Cyanobacteria & Stromatolites
Microbially induced
sedimentary structures
Molecular fossils
EARTH 5.0 BILLION EARTH 4.0 BILLION
YEARS AGO YEARS AGO
Random mixture of Differentiated with 3 distinct
layers: core, mantle and crust
space debris Molten Earth allowed
gravity to sort materials by
density.
Fe & Ni moved to the centre
to form a dense Core
Remaining Fe & other metals
combined with Si to form the
less dense Mantle.
Even lighter elements
separated from the mantle to
form the outermost crustal
layer
SOURCES OF HEAT:
Meteorite bombardment as the
planet grew - Kinetic energy
absorbed by rocks.
Subsequent showers of material
provide insulating blanket and
generated more heat by
gravitational compression.
Decay of radioactive isotopes
deep within the Earth. Many
isotopes present in early history
with short half lives Earths
molten Fe Core
Fe Core created the Earths
magnetic field: as liquid metal
circulates it generates an electric
current, which produces a
magnetic field.
 Extensive magma ocean
covered the Earths
surface
Komatites (koh-MAT-
ee-ites) are rocks found
in South Africa from the
cooling magma ocean
Formed at temperatures
> 110 C
4.36-billion-year-old
zircon (in Australia)
patches of continental
crust existed.
 Komatites denser than partly
molten upper mantle.
Slabs of primordial komatitic
oceanic crust conveyed
laterally by convection
currents in the magma ocean
and would have sunk
(denser).
Today: denser oceanic crust,
less-dense continental crust.
Granitic magma produced
above a Subduction Zone by
partial melting of a
descending plate would rise
to form small islands of
continental crust.
4 BILLION YEARS AGO TODAY

0% oxygen, before 3.8 bya 78% Nitogen

Any oxygen discharged
would have immediatley 21% Oxygen
combined with metals (like 1% other gas
Fe).

Water Vapor
Carbon Dioxide Gases released by modern
volcanoes = composition of
Nitrogen Archean atmosphere.
Lesser amounts of other
gas
OUTGASSING

Condensed water vapor

Formed Earths earliest
Ocean 3.8 bya
CO2 atm = acidic seas
Rapid chemical
weathering = Ca, Mg
and other ions to
seawater.
The origins of Life
 Rich deposits of iron
and other metals.
Unfossiliferous no
fossil evidence for the
progression from
nonliving molecules
to living organisms
Trace fossils were
found in Proerozoic
rocks
4.5 TO 3.8 BILLION YEARS
AGO
Heavy meteor and
asteroid bombardment.
Delivered huge
amounts of
extraterrestrial organic
materials: amino acids
building blocks of
protein
 Small molecules of nitrogen, sugar
and phosphorous compounds
Large molecules of DNA
Organelles, bodies capable of
performing specific functions.
Larger entities that grew, metabolized,
reproduced and mutated.
Essential Elements:
C, H, O2, N, Ph, S
Methane, amonia,
hydrogen and water
vapor
Essential Comonents:
1. Protein (amino acids)
2. Nucleic acids (RNA & DNA)
3. Organic Phosphorous
compunds (use light energy)
4. Container (cell membrane)
Stanley Miller, 1953
 Archea & Bacteria
DNA not packaged in a
nucleus
Reproduce asexually by
cell division
Show little evolutionary
change
First appear in late
Archean
Stromatolites found in:
3.49 by old rocks of
Western Australia
3.0 by old rocks of
southern Africa
 Photosynthetic cyanobacteria
Form mats on seafloor to
maximize exposure to
sunlight
Mats get buried by sediment
and cyanobacteria migrate to
the new surface and form a
fresh mat.
Characteristically layered
structure of cyanobacteria
and sediment builds up.
Stromatolites layered
rocks.
Cyanobacteria, itself (or
filaments), are not
persevered.
MICROBIALLY INDUCED STRUCTURES PRODUCED
SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURES BY SHRINKAGE OF THE
MATS DURING DRY
Structures in the CONDITIONS:
sediments that form as a
result of cyanobacterial
mats living on and in the Polygonal surface
sediments patterns
2.9 by old Pongola Randomly chaotic
sedimentary rocks of
South Africa pattern of ripple marks
Microbial mats, filaments
and adhesive films,
protect and bind
sedimentary grains
EUKARYOTE:
Definite nucleus &
chromosomes
Organelles bodies that
perform specialized
functions (eg.
Chloroplasts)
Evolved from prokaryotes
2.2 bya, or possibly 2.7
bya
Reproduce sexually
Dramatic increase in the
rate of evolution
MOLECULAR FOSSILS
Preserved organic molecules
that only eukaryotes can
synthesize
1999, found in black shales,
Archean age (2.7 bya) of
northwestern Australia
Previously thought to have
appeared 1.9 bya ???
Eukaryotes probably did not
diversify till 1.2 bya, in the
Proterozoic.
 http://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=MKn0xW
M7qh0&feature=related
2.5 billion years ago - 502 million years
ago
 What plate tectonics existed?
Early Proterozoic Laurentia
Wilson Cycle: Sea floor
spreading, epicontinental
seas and formation of
oceans
Late Proterozoic Rodinia
What atmospheric
conditions and climate
existed?
Earth's first glaciation and
causes
What life evolved and
diversified in the Proterozic?
Metazoans and the
Ediacarin biota
 LAURENTIA: EARTHS
FIRST BIG CONTINENT
Early Proterozoic
Ancient core of the North
American continent,
including Greenland and
northwestern part of
Scotland
Separate Precambrien
provinces came together.
Sutured along orogens as
they collided.

Orogens are linear tracts of deformed rocks created by compressional forces

and metamorphism that accompany mountain building
 1. Opening of an ocean The Wopmay orogen
basin. in Canadas
2. Sedimentation along Northwest Territory
the margins of
separating continents.
3. Closing of the ocean
basin through plate
tectonics.

The rifting, plate tectonics and deposition of sediment that occur in the Wilson
Cycle are a Proterozoic example of modern geological processes that occurred
during the Proterozoic Eon.
 EARTHS 1ST
MESO-PROTEROZOIC SUPERCONTINENT
~ 1.0 bya
East coast of Laurentia
(north America) joined
to a block of western
South America
Amazonia
The west coast of
Laurentia lay next to
Antarctica and
Australia.
LATE PROTEROZOIC (1.0
BYA TO 542 MYA)
Rocks on all Earths
landmasses (except
Antarctica) show glacial
striations produced by
huge ice sheets.
Tillites
Dropstones
Varved clays from glacial
lakes
 Lasted 230 million years
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#1 HYPOTHESIS: LANDMASSES #2 HYPOTHESIS: CO2ATM DECLINED,
REFLECTED SUNS ENERGY & LOWERED TEMPERATURES

Continents positioned at Diversification of

low and middle latitudes
photosynthetic
Equator crossed an
extensive land surface organisms extracted
No heat absorbing ocean; CO2 from the
the suns rays were atmosphere
reflected and loss
Ice caps at poles formed Decreasing CO2 in the
and reflected the suns atmosphere lead to
rays causing further global cooling
cooling The Albedo
Effect
NEO-PROTEROZOIC

~ 750 MYA
Rifting caused land
masses to separate and
ocean water filled rift
valleys forming
epicontinental seas
Proto-Pacific Ocean
formed
Panthalassa
 Photosynthestic Modern and ancient Eoentophysalis
colony of cyanobacteria
cyanobacteria
proliferated in marine
margins
Stromatolites were
abundant in Early
and Middle
Proterozoic but
declined by the end
of the era
Myriad of planktonic
prokaryotes floated in
surface waters of seas
and lakes.
 THERMOPHILES
Anearobic prokaryotes
multiplied in O2
deficient environments
Thermophiles of deep-sea
hydrothermal springs.
SEXUAL REPRODUCTION =
GREATER EVOLUTIONARY
CHANGE
Fossils are rare, microscopic
cells - bigger than
prokaryotes:
Eukaryotes >60 microns Dia.
Prokaryotes <20 microns Dia
Examples: Stromatolites,
Animeka, Kakabekia,
Eosphaera, and Acritarchs
Although they appear in the
Archean, diversification
occurred only 1.2 1.0 bya,
when oceanic O2 reached a
suitable level.
FO = 1.6 BYA;
MAX. DIVERSITY @ 850 MYA; PHYTOPLANKTON THAT GREW
THICK COVERINGS DURING A
DECLINE DURING VARANGIAN ICEAGE
RESTING STAGE IN THEIR LIVES
of uncertain origin
The group includes any small (~
20-150 microns across), organic-
walled microfossil which cannot
be assigned to a natural group.
Varied sculpture: some being
spiny and others smooth.
Algal affinities: probably the cysts
of planktonic eukaryotic algae.
Valuable Proterozoic and
Palaeozoic biostratigraphic and
palaeoenvironmental tools.

Much like dinoflagellates

LATE PROTEROZOIC
(~570 MYA)
Earths first multicelluar
animals
South China &
Australia
Examples:
Cyclomedusa,
Tribrachidium,
Cloudina, and
Charniodiscus.
1. Discoidal (flat and circular) Kimberella
resemble jelly fish
Cyclomedusa,
Tribrachidium
2. Frondlike resemble corals
called sea pens
Charniodiscus a jellyfish like Proterozoic
metazoan more
3. Elongate resemble large
mollusk-like
flat worms and annelid
worms first organism to contain a
1. Dickinsonia, Spriggina coelum - body cavity in
which the digestive tract
and internal organs were
suspended
 Burst of evolutionary variation (remarkable
range of body types) quickly fizzled out
Why?
Lived with symbiotic algae in their tissues (like
modern corals)
Broad thin shapes of many suggest diffusion
respiration.
Snowball earth: oceans covered by ice.
CO2 atm and O2atm was not absorbed into the ocean
PRINCIPAL GROUPS
AFFECTED: CAUSES:

The stromatolites Stromatolites : Excessive

The Acritarchs grazing by early
Experienced extinction ediacarans
and turnover Environmental change
The ediacarans by glaciations (Snowball
A few ichnogenera Earth)
OXYGEN
O2 released became bonded to Fe
and other elements known as
oxygen sinks
BIFs
~2.0 bya oxygen sinks became
saturated (cyanobacteria aided)
O2atm increased with O2sea
combining with N to form Nitrate
An important nutrient for eukaryotic
algae
Extensive accumulation of ferric
iron oxide
Red beds
O2atm only reached 10% of present
day levels during the Cambrian
Period
 Reef-like algal colonies
along the equator
Warm tropical
conditions
Evaporite deposits
Arid warm climates
Tillites & glacially
striated basement rocks
Ice covered poles and
then the entire globe in
the neoproterozoic