To help familiarize ourselves with the vast scope of geologic time we will simulate Earth’s complete history here on campus by compressing itinto a 30-meter distance here on campus. In order to accomplish this we will need to do somebrief mathematical calculations first.
Our geologic timeline will be 30 meters (100 feet) long. Thepresent day (0 million years ago) will be located at a distance of 0 m (the start of the tapemeasure). The formation of the Earth 4600 million (4.6 billion) years ago will be at 30 m. Iwant you to calculate the distance from the origin (the present day) to the distance on thetimeline that represents the age in millions of years ago for each of the followingimportant events in Earth’s history:
a. The present day – 0 million years ago (abbreviated Ma bygeologists)?
b. Disappearance of the last Pleistocene ice age glaciers –10,000 years ago.