Using Models to

Understand Deep Time

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Deep Time

What is Deep Time?

Deep Time is the idea that the geologic time scale is vast because the Earth is very old.

What is the Geologic Time Scale?

The geologic time scale is a scale used by geologists and other scientists to map the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of the Earth.

Once all members of your tribe understand the two terms, click your mouse once to continue.

Understanding Deep Time

• There are two ways to understand deep time.– Absolute Time– Relative Time

Group Task #1:Use the following link to find out more about both types of

“time.” As a tribe, come up with a definition of each. Write those definitions on a piece of loose leaf paper. Present the definitions to your teacher. Once given approval, you may move on with this Power Point presentation.

http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/01010/relativeAbsolute.html

Have you been given approval to go on? Click your mouse once, to continue.

Question…

Look at the next slide and decide if the deep time represented by this clock model is relative time or absolute time.

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Stay on this slide for as long as your tribe needs. Make sure you have an answer before you click once to continue.

Deep Time “Clock Model” Worksheet

Write the answers to these questions on a separate sheet of paper. You need only one paper per tribe. It might be easier if you have the clock model showing on an adjacent computer.

Hand the paper in to your teacher for correction before you continue with viewing this presentation.

1. On the clock model, is relative or absolute time shown? _______________

2. Where on the clock (what time) does first life (prokaryotes) appear? _______

3. Where on the clock do the dinosaurs appear? _________

4. Did the Cambrian explosion come before or after the first land vertebrates? __________

5. When did most of the development on Earth take place? (choose one)

Between: 1:00 and 3:00, 6:00 and 8:00, or 10:00 and 12:00?

After you have received approval to continue, click once.

Let’s take a road trip!

• Let’s take a road trip that also models “Deep Time” as relative time.

• You will begin your trip in Los Angeles, California.

• Your trip will end at the door by the cafeteria at Memorial Middle School.

• Use your US map to record your trip. Although you can work as a tribe, each person in your tribe will complete his/her own map.

When you understand what we are doing, click the mouse once to continue.

Distance = Time

• The trip you have mapped out across the US is about 4600 kilometers.

• We know the Earth is 4.6 billion years old.

• If we make distance equal time in our model, every kilometer equals one million years.

• We will use this information to plot different events in our Earth’s history.

Take the time to ensure everyone in your tribe understands this information!!! Then click once to continue.

What to do?

• Follow the PPT slides to the end of the presentation.

• Write down events on your map, as they are uncovered in the slides.

• It might be wise to number the events on the trip route and make a key on the top or sides of the map. Your choice as a tribe.

• Enjoy the trip through Deep Time!!!!! Once your tribe is ready to continue, buckle up and click once!

By the light of the moon?

•Our journey begins in Los Angeles, California at night.

•It is dark.

•There is no atmosphere.

•There is no Pacific Ocean.

•THERE IS NO MOON!!!

Click twice to continue…

Oh Man in the Moon, where are you?

The Moon doesn’t form until we’ve driven for an hour and reached the eastern city limits of Riverside, CA.

Mark your map with this event and then click once to continue.

Yee Haw! An atmosphere!

• We’ve been traveling for almost five hours since we left LA and we’re almost to Phoenix, Arizona.

• We now have an atmosphere, though there’s not enough oxygen for us to breathe.

• Oceans are forming, but they’re reddish-brown, filled with iron, hot and violent.

• Somewhere, life is beginning to form, but it’s too small to see!

Wait! Don’t take a breath just yet!!

Mark your map with these events and then click once to continue.

Oh no!! It’s raining meteoroids!

• We’ve been traveling for hours (seven, to be exact).

• We’re not even out of Arizona. • All of a sudden, we are being bombarded by

meteoroids. • All life on Earth has been destroyed ! • Unless…

– There are extremophiles that survived deep under the ocean.

– New life was just brought from outer space.

Mark your map and then click to continue.

How long have we been traveling?I’ve got to pee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• In total, we’ve been in the car for 16 hours. • We’re somewhere in the Texas panhandle.• The nearest town is Lubbock, TX.• Finally, there’s oxygen in the atmosphere. We

can open the windows a bit. • But, the moon is too close to the Earth. Tides

are over 300 meters high!• And, there are constant hurricane force winds.• Life may be out there, but we can’t see it!

Mark your map and then click to continue.

Hey, turn up the heat!!!

• What? Another 21.5 hours in the car. • There’s nothing to see outside the window.• We’re headed to Dallas, then on to Atlanta, and

finally Myrtle Beach.• It will be nice to see the ocean.• Whoa! Does anyone else feel cold? • Look…is that snow and ice?• Oh, you’re kidding me.• Here we are at Myrtle Beach and we are in the

middle of an ice age. It’s global glaciation!

Mark your map and then click to continue.

Can we get out of the car? Can we…can we…pleeeaaaase!

• We’re headed north now. • Ice and snow are melting.• Something else is happening, too!• The ozone layer is forming.• Let’s stop north of Greenville, NC.• Can it be? • Yes, we can finally get out and stretch our legs. • Still pass around the sunscreen. Even though

the ozone layer has formed, we still need to protect against harmful UV rays.

Mark your map and then get up to stretch your legs. Go see your teacher!