Show GEOLOGIC AGE AND HUMAN TIME p f c I wonder how long man has been on the I earth Man consulted and I Many text books book have been their contents applied to that question G Whatever that time may be go back beyond the recent and here on oh the big flat we live on was wasa 41 a large water fresh-water lake Well how long ago was L that It is recent geologic time 1 Let us go back ack another step this time more vast vast vast- vastus let us project the time back to when the extinct extinct extinct ex ex- dinosaur fed in the sluggish waters on the rank almost tropical semi-tropical grasses grasse trees or fed on its own kin That will be a worth worthy step to the time life of an eye compelling creature Whatever that time may be and text books book s vary though limits are put for guidance in a measure measure meas meas- ir ure are ure- whatever the time is it is only about half way to the trilobites c Here in our area time is both recent and vast r ii In n human terms we go back to the pioneers say of r J 1851 then step back to 1776 when an earlier person pass passed d through our expanse We have only touched touched touch touch- ed d the most recent of the recent geologic age Let us step back farther farther- to the time when plutonic forces raised the rhyolite mass called Topaz t Mountain yet et that is not back as far as we can g go o. o A A hundred mile trip puts us back to early fishes fish fish- es es es- what is called the Ordovician period It seems 1 back far far far- enormously far fr We will come back on that trip via Antelope I Springs Springs- at a time when in bays and lagoons shallow shallow y k ft v r low water of the Pacific Ocean lay over that af area arsa a in those waters fed a small relatively creature undeveloped undeveloped undeveloped un un- developed crude no eyes hadn't even learned to curl as a protection from foes 1 Now we are back in time time time- the earl early morning morning morn morn- k ing of historical geology No creature that l left ft remains remains re re- r mains in fossil form breathed air How far back in M years Years give us years T Multiply the time from now back to the dinoI dinosaur dinosaur dino dino- t I sour by several times and roughly you get the time of the living trilobite It is enormous in years years- it is 1 in incomprehensible but in the time scale of geologic I periods that time was the earliest of which forms of 4 life come down to us preserved reserved in fossil form and is F I called Mid-Cambrian Mid Lower Cambrian and f i- i Upper I 1 f Cambrian and w we have specimens in the rocks for each of those eras The time is so hugely beyond k h tartan presence or the scale of human events as astO asto I to o be applicable le with certainty only in in terms of the immense time scale of geology 4 |