SMI Earth History Rope Time Line Events
World Events
Beginning of Current Ice Age
3 Mya
Major Extinction Caused by Asteroid – End of Dinosaurs
65 Mya
Formation of Rocky Mountains
70 Mya (95-55 Mya)
First Flowering Plants
150 Mya
Largest Extinction (End of Permian)
245 Mya
All Landmasses Together in 1 Continent (Pangea)
260 Mya
Formation of Appalachian Mountatins
290 Mya (320-270 Mya)
Major (worldwide) Glaciation
300 Mya
First Land Plants
430 Mya
First Fish
470 Mya
Cambrian Explosion – Shelled Marine Organisms (such as Trilobites)
545 Mya
Worldwide Glacial Event (Icehouse Earth) & First Soft-bodied Organisms
570 Mya
First Life on Planet in Fossil Record (Blue-Green Algae)
3,700 Mya
Oldest Rock
4,000 Mya
Oldest Mineral (Zircon)
4,400 Mya
WI Events
Last WI Glaciation
16,000 yrs ago
Formation of Lead-Zinc Deposits in S WI
300 Mya
Formation of WI Dome
310 Mya
Youngest Paleozoic Rocks in WI
330 Mya
Deposition of Coral Reefs (Niagara Fm)
400 Mya
Shallow Seas Cover WI
450 Mya
Oldest Paleozoic Rocks in WI
520 Mya
Formatino of Mid-continent Rift (WI Tries (unsuccessfully) to Split from N MN)
1,100 Mya
Folding & Metamorphism of Baraboo Quartzite
1,650 Mya
Deposition of Baraboo Quartzite as a Sandstone
1,700 Mya
Penokean Mountain Belt Forms in N WI
1,850 Mya
Formation of Banded Iron in N WI
2,000 Mya
Oldest Rocks in WI
2,800 Mya
Oldest Rocks in Upper Midwest (MN River Valley – Morton MN)
3,500 Mya