Questions:
1. In the earth’s first geologic aeon, the moon was created, in the process also laying the groundwork for an atmosphere rich in hydrogen, water vapour, and carbon dioxide. This period is named for a famous Greek god. Name it.
2. Some 720-630 million years ago, the Cryogenian period immediately followed another billion-year-long period called the ______ _______. The latter was called so because the earth’s crust was quite stable in this time, evolution proceeded at a slow pace, and the climate didn’t change considerably. Fill in the blanks.
3. The shortest period of the Palaeozoic era was called the Silurian. It began right after the first of the earth’s five ____ __________ events, during which the diversity of marine genera plummeted drastically worldwide. Fill in the blanks.
4. In Ancient Greek, the name of this geologic epoch means “new dawn”. It was given this name because life-forms that persist on the earth today began evolving at the start of this epoch. Name this epoch.
5. In 2018, the International Commission on Stratigraphy confirmed the name of our current geologic era. It comes from the name of a state in India, which is home to one of the country’s longest caves and where scientists found stalagmites that recorded evidence of the geological transition leading to the present one. Name the state.
Visual:
Name the geologic period named after the mountains shown in this image. Public Domain
Answers:
1. Hadean aeon
2. Boring Billion
3. Mass extinction
4. Eocene
5. Meghalaya
Visual: Jurassic period
