Welcome to the only website dedicated
to making the geological history of New Hampshire easy to understand
for the students, teachers and general public of the Granite State.
Before you start to navigate this
site, it is important to tell you about the Geologic Timeline that will
appear on each page in this site from here on out. Getting a basic
understanding of this tool of geologists will make searching for
information easier.
What is the Geologic Timeline?
The Geologic Timeline was
developed by geologists (scientists who study the materials and
processes that make up the Earth) as a way of showing the Earth’s
geologic history, from the time the planet formed to the present day.
It does this by illustrating geologic time by breaking it up into
sections. These sections of time are not equal in length because they
are determined by major geological and/or biological changes, which do
not tend to happen at regular intervals.
The Geologic Timeline is on the
left-hand side of all of the pages at this site. Just put your cursor
over the Geoligic Timeline tab, and the timeline will slide open. The
bottom of the Line is where Earth’s history began, about 4.6 billion
years ago. The top of the Line shows the most recent events, including
right now. In between the top and the bottom are the events that have
happened AND they are shown in the order that they happened.
There are lots of big, strange words
on the Line. Not to worry! These words – like Jurassic
(jur-A-sick) – are names that geologists have given to time periods
where certain events happened. Although these names are confusing at
first, they are actually helpful. Instead of saying “back 150 million
years ago when the dinosaurs roamed” we can just say “during the
Jurassic period...” These names tell us what was going on at the time
AND how long ago they happened. (It’s the same as saying that a house
dates from the Revolutionary Period. It tells us that the house was in
existence during the time period of 1775 and 1783, when our nation was
at war fighting for its independence.)
How to use the Geologic Timeline
To find out what was happening in New
Hampshire at a given time, just click on an item on the timeline. This
will take you to a page that gives some specific details about that
event. Each page will also have links for student and teacher
activities and suggested other resources to get even more information
on that particular topic.
This site brought to you by:
Daniel E. Reidy, 2003/2004 New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Christa
McAuliffe Sabbatical Fellow,Sixth Grade Teacher, Moultonborough Central
School, Moultonborough, NH
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