Category 1: Discovering Earth's Ancient Age
In 1788, this Scottish farmer and "father of modern geology" discovered rock layers at Siccar Point that proved the Earth was much older than 6,000 years.
Who is James Hutton?
4 billion years ago, after the Earth cooled, 90% of the planet's surface was covered by this.
What are the oceans?
Formed about 1 billion years ago, this was Earth's first recognizable supercontinent.
What is Rodinia?
About 250 million years ago, the most famous supercontinent formed, known by this name.
What is Pangea?
After the dinosaurs went extinct, this class of animals rose to dominate the land.
What are Mammals?
This is the official scientific age of the Earth, determined through the radioactive dating of meteorites.
What is 4.5 billion years?
These "space rocks" are believed to have carried water to Earth in the form of ice during a billion-year bombardment.
What are meteors (or asteroids/comets)?
This catastrophic climate event occurred 700 million years ago, covering the entire planet in ice nearly a mile thick.
What is "Snowball Earth"?
The Permian Extinction, the largest in history, was triggered by a massive volcanic eruption in this modern-day region.
What is Siberia (the Siberian Traps)?
The human species has walked the Earth for this many million years, according to the transcript.
What is over two million years?
During the first stage of Earth's formation, the planet's surface was a boiling ocean of this molten material.
What is magma (or lava)?
In the early "Waterworld," the sky was not blue, but this color, due to high Carbon Dioxide.
What is red?
The breakup of Rodinia was caused by this internal process, which trapped heat beneath the continent and tore it apart.
What are mantle plumes (or volcanic activity)?
High levels of oxygen and a lush, tropical climate allowed dinosaurs to grow to this, much larger than modern land animals.
What is "colossal size" (or "giantism")?
Humans only began to "master" the planet during the last 10,000 years, a period marked by this development.
What is civilization (or farming/technology)?
Lord Kelvin mistakenly believed the Earth was only 20 million years old because he didn't know about this heat-producing process inside the core.
What is radioactivity (radioactive decay)?
These pillow-shaped rock structures were formed by the very first organisms to produce oxygen.
What are Stromatolites?
The most recent "Ice Age" was triggered by the formation of this land bridge, which changed the flow of ocean currents.
What is the Isthmus of Panama?
The era of the dinosaurs was brought to an end 65 million years ago by a massive impact in this modern-day country.
What is Mexico (the Yucatan Peninsula)?
This massive landmark in Arizona was carved over 6 million years, a time during which early human ancestors were evolving.
What is the Grand Canyon?
Earth's core is composed primarily of these two heavy metals that sank to the center during the planet's molten phase.
What are Iron and Nickel?
This lightweight, light-colored rock eventually rose above the denser basalt of the ocean floor to form the first continents.
What is Granite?
Large boulders moved across North America and Europe were transported by these massive, slow-moving ice sheets.
What are Glaciers?
This element, rare on Earth but common in space, was found in a layer of clay worldwide, proving an asteroid hit Earth.
What is Iridium?
The future of the human species may be endangered because of this, as the environment continues to transform.
What is extinction (or environmental change)?