Today, the wise men of this world have found the answer to this question using radiometric dating and estimate that the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. This figure has long been settled by all of the science disciplines and is based on a variety of sources. The sources include the radiometric age-dating of meteorite material, the oldest-known terrestrial material and lunar samples which all have the same age.

Geochronology is from the Greek words:

Thus geochronology is the study of the dates and order of events in the history of the earth and thus is called Earth age determination. In simple terms, geochronologh is: The Study of Earth Time.

This study tells us that the Earth is more than four and a half billion years old. How can a person wrap their mind around the immense time period this involves? Well, today, we measure our life span in years, but then we divide the years into months, days, hours, minutes and seconds. Likewise, geologist divide the time the earth has been here into first eons, then eras, periods, epochs and ages.

Please Note that the chart directly below is not to scale. Notice the two eons (the top line of the chart) on the top of the chart and the time span below associated with each eon. The Precambian eon is four billion years long while the Phanerozoic eon, which takes up about two thirds of the chart is only one-half billion years long.

The reason for this distortion in the Earth′s actual time line is to allow fore all of the events that occurred. As others have described the Earth′s time line: imagine all of the history of the Earth as one day. Then, in this description, humans would not have arrived on the scene until just a few seconds before midnight when that day was about to end. Thus, a few thousand years of the human species only amounts to only a tiny fraction of the history of this Earth.

One thing is certain, everything that you see in the chart below (except for the Blue Text) has been conceived by the wise men of this world, those who have taken no consideration as to what the Bible tells us about the events during the creation of the earth, the animals and man.

Be assured, the Bible is not a fairy tale, neither is it conjecture or an opinion of some men, rather it is the unadulterated truth from the Creator Himself.

There are two eons in the lifespan of the earth, the first, called Precambian and the second, called Phanerozoic. The first eon began 4.6 billion years ago (bya) and lasted until 541 million years ago (mya).

The second eon has lasted from 541 million years ago to the present (myp), about one half billion years, and is the current eon. It is the second of the two eons that is associated with the appearance of life on the earth.

The Phanerozoic eon is divided into three divisions called eras. The oldest is called the Paleaozic era beginning 541 mya and ending 252 mya. The second, call the Mesozoic era began 252 mya and ended 66 mya. The third and youngest, called the Cenozioc era began 66 myp.

Each of the eras are divided into divisions called periods. The Cenozioc era has three periods, the oldest one is the Paleogene period, 66 mya to 23 mya. Next is the Neogene period, 23 mya to 2.6 mya and the youngest is the Quaternary period from 2.6 myp.

Each of the periods are divided into divisions called epochs. The Quaternary period has two epoch, the Pleistocene epoch, 2.6 mya to .012 mya, and the Holocene epoch .012 myp (or 12 thousand years ago to present). Epochs are divided into Ages of which there are way too many to enumerate and for that matter could even fit on the above chart.

In fact, in researching the time line of the earth, I have found pages and pages on the subject, too many to spend any more time on. So, I have created this chart with representative time periods so that when I do research, I have a chart to view which will help me understand when all these big word fit into the time line.

The natural history of Earth concerns the development of the planet Earth from its formation to the present day. Nearly all branches of natural science have contributed to understanding of the main events of Earth′s past, characterized by constant geological change.

The geological time scale (GTS), as defined by international convention, depicts the large spans of time from the beginning of the Earth to the present, and its divisions chronicle some definitive events of Earth history. It is collectively agreed upon that the Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago, and that that time period is approximately one-third the age of the universe.