Earth History Basics – Chronology of the Earth
The scenery and rocks introduced in the geopark are more than just beautiful or unique things to look at—through understanding how they were formed, we are able to learn about how the earth and its geographical areas came to be as they are today.
However, understanding how these rocks and landscapes were shaped isn’t easy. Not only is remaining evidence scarce, but the history of earth has been created by series of unbelievable phenomena.
The formation of the Japanese Archipelago is tiny compared to the large-scale volcanic activity (Siberian Traps) that covered over half a continent during the four-hundred-million-year long Wilson Cycle that pushed and pulled land masses together and apart, the period that left earth covered in layers of ice (Snowball Earth), or the mass extinction of the Permian period. Wrapping your head around each of these events individually can be overwhelming, even more so when you realize that they are all connected to one another.
And all of these phenomena are connected to us as well. They occurred in all the places we live too—it’s only a matter of the amount of evidence left behind. Evidence of global scale phenomena can be found anywhere, we just have to know how to identify them.