Geological Time Scale Quiz

Approx. Start
3800 mil. years ago
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65 mil. years ago
23 mil. years ago
2.5 mil. years ago

Eon

Era

Period

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Geological Time Scale Quiz

by Matt

Created Aug 28, 2008 in Science
Featured Aug 28, 2008
Game Plays 32,026

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	RatedM:	Aug 29th, 2008 at 13:55 GMT	4 points
	I do not believe this scale is accurate.

	Casey Gambuti:	Aug 29th, 2008 at 16:14 GMT	-4 points
	it is wrong vcosdmpptjctq

	Michelle:	Sep 1st, 2008 at 14:10 GMT	4 points
	I agree this scale is inaccurate.

	SporcleAdmin:	Sep 1st, 2008 at 18:56 GMT	3 points
	We have named the source on this page and cross checked this to other sites like Wikipedia and independent scientific web sites. If you have specifics on what you believe is incorrect, please click the feedback link and let us know. Thanks!!

	TheArbiter:	Sep 15th, 2008 at 20:13 GMT	4 points
	Wow this is more confusing than I envisaged. Why is there a quaternerary but no tertiary?

	CottonNero:	Sep 16th, 2008 at 12:43 GMT	3 points
	There's a spelling error: it's "Eoarchean", not "Ecarchean".

	R:	Jan 6th, 2009 at 20:53 GMT	-4 points
	Woohoo, got them all! I can't wait to use this vital knowledge!

	davidr:	Mar 8th, 2009 at 19:37 GMT	0 points
	@The Arbiter (if you're still reading, nearly six months later): The Tertiary Period was from about 65 to 1.8 million years ago but it was found that it only really made sense in its original definition in terms of the Italian Alps, so was later replaced by the periods you see here.

	Jordan117:	Mar 8th, 2009 at 19:40 GMT	3 points
	The divisions on the chart could be clearer. It looks like there are a lot more slots than there actually are.

	Jcdizon:	Apr 9th, 2009 at 02:00 GMT	-3 points
	I got everything right except for the periods for Proterozoic and the first Proterozoic era

	Jack Olivier:	May 10th, 2009 at 10:51 GMT	3 points
	The Era's are a bit confusing...it makes it look like you saying the mesozoic is made of Jurassic Cretaceous and Paleogene. Plus the periods before the Cambrian aren't useful to know...you should put on the epochs of the tertiary instead.

	zifyoip:	May 27th, 2009 at 06:26 GMT	4 points
	The dividing lines definitely need to be above the answers, not below. The lines separate geologic time into blocks, but the labels are in the wrong blocks.

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	quizmakers:	Feb 10th, 2010 at 23:26 GMT	1 point
	I actually checked online and it was the same thing as this

	Mattcookuk:	Feb 17th, 2010 at 18:44 GMT	3 points
	@ azcat...I assume you're on about the 'entirely valid and scientifically accurate' theory of creationism as written by god. Note sarcasm.

	britannicus:	Mar 12th, 2010 at 14:10 GMT	1 point
	Hi there - just tried to do this, and I think the problem here is that there are many different descriptors used fo rthe generally accepted periods - the Carboniferous Ordovician Silurian Epoch sequence is generally accepted in the west, - pre-cambrian is usually not subdivided and if it is then there are multiple systems. likewise the Cenozoic (your spelling) no mention of oligocene pliocene miocene etc which is the more ususal sequence. but hey ! it's just for fun

	TomHop:	Mar 20th, 2010 at 10:54 GMT	1 point
	britannicus the quiz is accurate in the Cenozoic - the periods of the Cenozoic are the Paleogene, Neogene and Quarternary; of which the Paleocene, Eocene, anything ending in -cene, were all epochs of. I dont even know what you were getting at in your first point. The format is horrible though - couldn't the names of some of the longer eons/era be put in the box theyre supposed to be in instead of above it..

	thebantams1903:	May 14th, 2010 at 22:02 GMT	1 point
	@ TheArbiter... the Tertiary is formed of the Palaeogene (consisting of the epochs; Palaeocene, Eocene and Oligocene) and the Neogene (Miocene and Pliocene) which does make it more confusing especially as the Quaternary has the epochs Pleistocene and Holocene.

	jlightle:	Jul 30th, 2010 at 21:12 GMT	2 points
	Just realized it is Quaternary, not Quarternary. Also, when I was a kid I learned that everything before the Cambrian was simply Pre-Cambrian, which made my score pretty low on this quiz.

	andmybirdcansing:	Aug 3rd, 2010 at 04:32 GMT	-1 points
	Mississippian? Pennsylvanian? Tertiary? Really don't believe this is accurate.

	bluejaymaniac:	Aug 14th, 2010 at 01:05 GMT	1 point
	Mississippian and Pennsylvanian are commonly used divisions of the Carboniferous period. I had no idea about everything before Cambrian (could have gotten Ediacaran, though). I should learn those one day...

	StupidBunny:	Sep 26th, 2010 at 07:03 GMT	1 point
	They've reorganized the cenozoic periods since I last learned them. I feel so old... xP

	BPac21:	Oct 10th, 2010 at 02:09 GMT	2 points
	Tertiary, Precambrian, Hadean should be on there...

	davo499:	Nov 20th, 2010 at 03:55 GMT	1 point
	allowing cainozoic and palaezoic would be nice, as they're legitimate alternate spellings

	Sam2000:	Dec 9th, 2010 at 12:01 GMT	0 points
	This is alright...but inconsistent. Firstly, please accept British spellings. I felt strangely dirty spelling all the words without the extra a...! The Hadean isn't properly recognised. It's more of an informal term for anything before the Archaean; we don't have any rocks from that far back. It's confusing. It should go from youngest to oldest (as in a real geological timescale), there are also boxes without anything in them. I spent a long time trying to work out what goes in some of them (i.e. the eon that the Cenozoic etc. where part of before clicking give up). Things like the Phanerozoic and Proterozoic should be centred to make it more clear.

	Sam2000:	Dec 9th, 2010 at 12:08 GMT	0 points
	As for whoever said it is all based on theory... Well, it isn't. Things get a bit shaky the further back you go simply because there are less rocks that have undergone metamorphosis making them exceptionally difficult to date. The ages are relative to one another, so if evidence comes out that we got one age wrong and the boundaries change the rest of them do as well. We stratigraphers define geological boundaries by events, usually extinction events of organisms (e.g. at the K/T boundary the dinosaurs disappear). Some are based on the evolution of new organisms (e.g. the Danian – Selandian stages of the Palaeocene where a whole host of new coccolithophores evolved). Most of the time we can date these pretty accurately. I need to get on with some real geology rather than getting distracted with Sporcle geology...

	beth61:	Dec 15th, 2010 at 07:13 GMT	2 points
	@Sam2000: I think azcat90 was making a kind of joke. As a scientist, you might be familiar with the scientific habit of referring to widely accepted ideas supported by lots of good evidence as theories -- e.g. the theory of evolution? So saying "This is all based on theory" is a way of saying "This is good, solid stuff" while appearing to say the opposite.

	samcash13593:	Dec 24th, 2010 at 21:02 GMT	0 points
	i always liked how the cambrian, silurian and ordovician periods are named after wales. we may not have freedom, or rights, but we own a lot of history. in a kind of way. also i had no idea the time before cambrian was split up so much, i thought it was just precambrian and that was it

	Blimpyboy:	Sep 1st, 2011 at 15:01 GMT	1 point
	Is the Paleolithic Period excluded for being right at the cutoff? I thought it began right about the time you have the Quaternary period beginning.

	azcat90:	Oct 5th, 2011 at 21:01 GMT	1 point
	Sam2000 is narrow-minded. At the present rate of erosion, the continents would have been flattened 170-340 times over in this quiz's time construct. There is little question that there is some difficulty in reconciling present erosion rates with standard geochronology.

	GeologistRob:	Dec 23rd, 2011 at 02:32 GMT	1 point
	hehe, i cant believe anyone got all the precambrian periods right. they must cheat or be a sucker for pointless knowledge. fyi the quiz seems fine, apart from the pointless boundary after the Phanerozoic and i bet the dates arent accurate but who really cares?

	Bangbang:	May 22nd, 2012 at 18:08 GMT	1 point
	It does not work to share results on faceboook via the button. :/ wanted to brag.