KS1 (Age 5-7)KS2 (Age 7-11)11 Plus (Age 7-11)KS3 (Age 11-14)GCSE (Age 14-17)PSHE A.I.ESL Spanish Specialist Games

Need help with Geological Time? Ask our AI Tutor!

AI Tutor - Lucy

Connecting with Tutor...

Please wait while we establish connection

Hi! I'm Lucy, your AI tutor. How can I help you with Geological Time today?

now

Can you imagine millions of years ago?

Geological Time

Geological time covers Earth’s entire history, from its fiery beginnings to today. This quiz helps you explore how geographers and geologists organise deep time.

Explore the Topic →

(quiz starts below)

Fascinating Fact:

Because this timespan is so huge, geologists divide it into eons, eras, periods, and epochs to make it easier to study.

In GCSE Geography, geological time explains how Earth has changed over millions of years. Rock layers, fossils, and dated events help students link ancient environments to modern landscapes and hazards.

Key Terms

Geological time scale: A timeline that shows Earth’s history from its formation to today, organised into large and smaller units of time.
Eon: The largest division of geological time, lasting hundreds of millions of years and made up of several eras.
Fossil record: All preserved remains and traces of past life, used to discover when organisms lived and how conditions on Earth have changed.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

What is geological time in GCSE Geography?

In GCSE Geography, geological time means the huge span of Earth’s history, from its formation to the present day. It helps students understand how long-term processes shape the planet.

How do scientists measure geological time?

Scientists measure geological time using relative dating, which compares rock layers, and absolute dating, which uses radiometric methods to calculate the age of rocks and fossils in years.

Why is the geological time scale important to geographers?

The geological time scale helps geographers explain how landforms, resources, and past climates developed. It links ancient events to modern issues such as hazards, climate change, and landscape evolution.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

What is the estimated age of the Earth?

4,500 years

45,000 years

4.5 million years

4.5 billion years

Billion here is used in the American sense - one billion is one thousand million. We will stick to that for the rest of the quiz

2 .

The oldest rocks that seem to contain fossils of microbes have been found in Australia. How long after the formation of the Earth were they thought to have been formed?

One billion years

One million years

One thousand years

They were formed at the same time as the Earth

The rocks have been dated as being about 3,500 million years old

3 .

The South Downs are made from chalk formed during the ...

quaternary period

cambrian period

carboniferous period

cretaceous period

The end of the cretaceous period is marked by the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs

4 .

The Cotswolds are partly formed from a type of limestone that formed during the ...

cambrian period

jurassic period

carboniferous period

neogene period

Limestone is formed in shallow warm seas

5 .

Another type of limestone is found in Britain, for example, in the Pennines. When was this formed?

Triassic period

Jurassic period

Carboniferous period

Palaeogene period

The carboniferous period lasted 60 million years (359-299 million years ago)

6 .

The last great ice age is said to have started about 120,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago. This puts it in which era and period?

Cenozoic, cretaceous

Palaeozoic, devonian

Cenozoic, quaternary

Mesozoic, cambrian

When answering multiple choice questions, look at the alternatives closely. Two of these (the first and last) are completely wrong, they match up the era with a period from a different era, so that narrows down your choice to two, giving you a 50% chance if you have to take a guess

7 .

Granite is a very hard rock that is found in several places in Britain. There are significant outcrops in Scotland (formed about 400 million years ago) and the SW peninsula (formed about 280 million years ago). Which of the following combinations of periods is correct (Scottish granite first)?

Devonian and permian

Jurassic and triassic

Cambrian and permian

Ordovician and quaternary

Granite is an intrusive igneous rock that creates the landforms known as tors on the uplands of Devon and Cornwall

8 .

If you were able to travel back in time, to which of the following periods would you go to see a dinosaur?

Jurassic

Cretaceous

Triassic

Any of the above

Dinosaurs appeared in the triassic and became extinct at the end of the cretaceous

9 .

Imagine that you are a farmer and your farm is in an area where the main rock is carboniferous limestone. What would you be most likely to be farming?

Sheep and cows

Wheat

Sweetcorn

Vegetables

Soils in carboniferous limestone areas are generally too poor to grow crops commercially

10 .

One analogy to help you visualise the scale of geological time is to compare it to London's tallest building, the Shard. If the height of the Shard represents all of geological time, which one of the following would represent human history?

The thickness of a triple decker cheese sandwich

Half of the height of the Shard

The thickness of a postage stamp

About the height of a double decker bus

We are newcomers to the planet but already have changed it more than any other species before us

Author: Kev Woodward (PGCE, Science & Chemistry Teacher, Quiz Writer)