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Welcome to the Geology Wing

Exploring this series of exhibits will take you on a journey through the history of the Earth, with stops at particular points in time to examine the fossil record and stratigraphy.

The Geology Wing is organized according to the geologic time scale. If you wish to begin browsing now, click on any division of the time scale below.

You might wish to start in the Cenozoic Era (65 million years ago to the present) and work back through time, or start with Hadean time (4.5 to 3.8 billion years ago) and journey forward to the present day. No matter "when" you start, don't forget to stop along the way to learn about the stratigraphy, ancient life, fossil localities, and tectonics of the various time periods.

Here are three links that can help to speed your journey:

1) Get helpful hints on navigating the Geology Wing.

2) Read about the history of the geologic time scale, and find out more about how it is organized.

3) Jump to a specific time period using the UCMP Geological Time Machine.

Tectonics animation Last but not least, don't forget to visit our exhibit on Plate tectonics, an important geological concept in any time period!


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Cenozoic Mesozoic Paleozoic Proterozoic Archaean Hadean Precambrian Phanerozoic