Postby Technomancer » Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:48 pm
First Ice Age
First Ocean
I only have a little bit of time right now, so I'll just give a brief run down on these two. Both of them occured sometime during the Pre-cambrian. It's an open question of exactly
when the first ocean appeared, although it would have been quite early in the Earth's history. Essentially, it's thought that when the Earth initially formed most of the volatile compunds such as water would have escaped into space owing tto the extreme heat of the Earth. What water we have now, is probabaly the result of the so-called 'Hadean bombardment', in which the early Earth was bombarded with comets and the like.
The earliest evidence for glaciation that we have comes from the later Pre-Cambrian, starting around 2 billion years ago. Another period seems to have occured later and ended around 600 million years ago.
http://gemini.oscs.montana.edu/~geol445/hyperglac/time2/
http://www.geo.msu.edu/geo333/Precambrian.html
I'll try to get a little more later. You might want to try reading Knoll's "Life on a Young Planet", so check out your library. You might also want to look for books on historical geology.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691009783/104-2902108-2945565?v=glance&n=283155
I have to go, but I'll try to post a few more resources later. It sounds like a fascinating project. You should relish the opportunity.
Also see:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
Neil Postman
(The End of Education)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge
Isaac Aasimov
). I must create a timeline of the age of the Earth, obviously something I wouldn't like to do, at least in the secular sense. I am asking for help because I cannot find resources for some of the topics that I need to put on it.
)
