A Concise Geologic Time Scale: 2016

A Concise Geologic Time Scale: 2016 presents a summary of Earth's history over the past 4.5 billion years, as well as a brief overview of contemporaneous events on the Moon, Mars, and Venus. The authors have been at the forefront of chronostratigraphic research and initiatives to create an international geologic time scale for many years, and the charts in this book present the most up-to-date international standard, as ratified by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and the International Union of Geological Sciences.

This book is an essential reference for all geoscientists, including researchers, students, and petroleum and mining professionals. The presentation is non-technical and illustrated with numerous colour charts, maps and photographs.

• Presents a summary of Earth's history over the past 4.5 billion years
• Includes a brief overview of contemporaneous events on the Moon, Mars, and Venus
• Includes full-color figures including charts, stratigraphic profiles, and photographs to enhance understanding of each geologic period
• Correlates regional geologic stages to the standard definitions approved by the International Commission on Stratigraphy
• Offers an explanation of the methods used to create the time scale
• 2017 PROSE Award Finalist in Earth Science

JAMES OGG (Professor at Purdue University, Indiana, USA) was Secretary General of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (2000-2008), and is currently serving as coordinator of that ICS stratigraphy information service. His Mesozoic Stratigraphy Lab group works on aspects of climate cycles, magnetic polarity correlations and integration of stratigraphic information. Their TimeScale Creator array of visualization tools for extensive databases in global and regional Earth history was used to generate many of the diagrams in this book.

GABI OGG applied micropaleontology to Jurassic-Cretaceous correlations before concentrating on public outreach in geosciences. She coordinated the extensive array of graphics in this book, and is the webmaster for the Geologic TimeScale Foundation (https://timescalefoundation.org) and for the TimeScale Creator visualization and database suites (https://timescalecreator.org). In addition to co-authoring the Concise Geologic TimeScale (GTS2016) and The Geologic Time Scale (GTS2012) books, she has produced numerous posters and time scale cards for public audiences.

Felix Gradstein is Professor Emeritus at Oslo University, Norway and visiting Research Fellow, University of Portsmouth, UK. From 2000 to 2008, he was chair of the International Commission on Stratigraphy. Under his leadership major progress was made with the formal definition of chronostratigraphic units from Precambrian through Quaternary. For his fundamental work concerning the Geologic Time Scale, geochronology in general, quantitative stratigraphy and micropaleontology, the European Geosciences Union awarded him in 2010 the Jean Baptiste Lamarck Medal. He is Chair of the Geologic Time Scale Foundation and teaches courses in quantitative stratigraphy and the geologic time scale.