Prehistory
Pongola Glaciation: Earth's Earliest Known Ice Age
The oldest known evidence of glaciers on Earth, showing that ice could form even under the faint young Sun of the Archean.
Era · Before c. 3000 BC
Prehistory
From the formation of Earth and the age of dinosaurs to the first cave art and monuments, before writing was invented.
Prehistory
Kenorland: One of Earth's Earliest Supercontinents
A proposed Neoarchean supercontinent whose existence is still debated; its suggested breakup after about 2.5 billion years ago is marked by large swarms of volcanic dykes.
Prehistory
Banded Iron Formations: Ancient Rocks That Record Rising Oxygen
Iron-rich sediments deposited in oxygen-poor oceans that now record the rise of oxygen and supply most of the world's iron ore.
Prehistory
Proterozoic Eon: Oxygen, Supercontinents and Complex Cells
Earth gained an oxygenated atmosphere, complex eukaryotic cells and multicellular life, ending with the first animals just before the Cambrian.
Prehistory
Huronian Glaciation: The Long Ice Age 2.4 Billion Years Ago
Repeated glaciations left tillites on several continents and coincided with the first lasting rise of atmospheric oxygen.
Prehistory
Great Oxidation Event: How Oxygen First Filled Earth's Air
Free oxygen became a lasting part of Earth's atmosphere, transforming the chemistry of rocks, oceans and life.
Prehistory
Columbia (Nuna) Supercontinent: Assembly and Breakup
Most of Earth's continental blocks joined into one landmass, which fragmented gradually between about 1.5 and 1.3 billion years ago.
Prehistory
Francevillian Biota: Gabon's 2.1-Billion-Year-Old Fossils
Hundreds of centimetre-scale pyritised structures were found, sparking a continuing debate over whether they are early multicellular life.
Prehistory
Vredefort Crater: The Largest Known Impact Structure on Earth
An asteroid impact left a structure originally an estimated 250-300 km wide, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Prehistory
Origin of Eukaryotes: The Rise of Complex Cells on Earth
A partnership between an archaeal host and a bacterium produced the complex cell, ancestor of all animals, plants, fungi and protists.
Prehistory
Gunflint Chert: Microfossils That Proved Precambrian Life
The first widely accepted Precambrian microfossils were described, opening the modern study of early life.
Prehistory
Sudbury Basin: Ancient Impact Crater and Nickel Mining Region
A giant impact created one of Earth's largest known impact structures and, indirectly, one of the world's richest nickel and copper ore districts.