Developing the New Zealand geological timescale
Many of us are familiar with some names for parts of Earth’s distant past. There’s the Jurassic, made famous in the movie Jurassic Park, and the Cretaceous, when dinosaurs roamed New Zealand, but these are just two examples of Earth’s 4.6 billion year history.
Geological timescale
This diagram shows the three largest divisions in the global geochronological scale. This timescale was developed using relative and absolute dating methods.
Geologists have built a timescale for Earth’s vast history, dividing it up into eons, periods, epochs and ages – each eon is divided up into a few periods, each period is divided up into shorter epochs and each epoch is divided into shorter ages.
These divisions do not have set lengths, so they are not like precisely defined scientific units such as length or mass. Instead, the beginning and end points of geological divisions are marked mainly by events such as the appearance or disappearance of certain fossils. For example, the boundary between the end of the Cretaceous period and the start of the Paleogene is marked by a mass extinction, including that of the dinosaurs, and evidence for a meteorite impact.
Global timescale
Early geological timescales were based on relative dating. Geologists studied fossils and worked out the order in which they and the rocks they were found in appeared. Since the early 1900s, absolute methods methods have been used to give actual dates for the boundaries between timescale divisions. This has confirmed that the larger divisions (eons, periods, epochs and ages) occurred at similar times around the world.
Using this information, a timescale (called the global geochronological scale) was developed over many years, finally being agreed to internationally in 2004. The timescale uses standard names that can be understood by scientists everywhere.
New Zealand timescale
The larger units of the global geochronological scale can be recognised in the rocks of New Zealand. However, the country has been geologically isolated for about 80 million years, so some fossils are not found anywhere else.
Therefore a New Zealand geological timescale has been developed over many years, most recently led by scientists at GNS Science. Alongside international names for divisions, it organises New Zealand rocks into series and stages. This timescale is the result of a huge amount of research, and work continues to refine the dates of boundaries between units.
Using fossils
There is no one place that contains a complete record of all the rock layers in New Zealand. At many places around the country, geologists can put a number of rock layers into order, from oldest at the bottom to youngest at the top, but they need a way of linking the different places. That is where fossils come in.
Matching fossils in rocks
Rocks in different places can be put into separate time sequences. Fossils in some of the rocks can be correlated to help combine these sequences into longer ones.
As life evolved, new species appeared and disappeared over time. One result of this succession has been that particular fossil species are restricted to rocks of the same age around the world. The presence of these key species helps place rocks in the relative timescale. If the fossils in a rock layer at one place correlate with those in a layer at another place, even if it is in another part of the country, both layers can be said to be the same age.
Gradually, over many years, fossil correlation has enabled a timescale to be developed that can be applied to the whole of New Zealand. Part of the work of GNS geologists is to find out more and more details about fossils, especially when individual species appeared and disappeared through time. Dr James Crampton is just one example of this team of scientists. One of his research interests is the use of microscopic fossils, called dinoflagellates, to help refine details of the New Zealand geological timescale.
New Zealand geological timescale
Dr James Crampton explains that all geologists need to know the age of the rocks they work with. At GNS Science, important research continues to make the New Zealand geological timescale more precise. This includes working out the detailed evolutionary sequences of fossils and the use of radiometric dating. Deep-sea rock cores provide information not available on land.
Point of interest: In this clip, you can see James ‘preparing out’ some fossil molluscs with a small drill and an optical microscope. He is revealing the fossils within the rock so they might be better identified and studied
Providing dates
Accurate dates are needed to tie down the divisions between relative time segments and to link the New Zealand timescale to the global one. Scientists at GNS use a wide range of absolute methods to do this. These are mostly radiometric methods, such as measuring radioactive isotopes and fission track dating. They also make use of paleomagnetic reversals recorded in sea-floor sediments. These have been accurately correlated with sequences of sedimentary rock on land.
New Zealand geological timescale
This diagram shows the Jurassic period expanded to show international divisions (epochs and ages) and New Zealand series and stages.
Nature of Science
The global geochronological scale uses names that are recognised by scientists around the world, so scientists can easily compare rocks around the world and communicate their ideas internationally. This is similar to the practice of giving animals and plants unique scientific names that are recognised internationally.
Related content
Explore the Age of the earth – timeline to find out more about developments in how geologists discover the ages of rocks and fossils.
Activity ideas
Help your students understand more about fossils, timescales, big numbers and/or dating methods with one of these activities below:
Fossil correlation – students date fossils from one site by matching them to fossils already dated somewhere else, using real data from Mangahouanga, made famous by paleontologist Joan Wiffen.
Build a timescale – develop a timescale for a person’s life. The techniques of relative and absolute dating are similar to those used in the construction of a geological timescale.
Big numbers in science – investigate the use of big numbers, such as millions and billions, and they encounter ways to understand what these big numbers mean.
Which dating method? – learn to recognise some of the different relative and absolute dating methods.
Rock layers and relative dating – observe rocks layers located near Whanganui, watch an animation about how they were formed and use relative dating to work out the order in which the rocks were created in the interactive Relative rock layers.
Using absolute dating methods uses the interactive Absolute dating methods and Absolute dating rock layers – quiz. Students learn about and then choose the best absolute dating method for each layer of rock in a cliff, based on material present in each rock.
Useful link
Copies of a poster of the New Zealand geological timescale can be obtained from GNS Science publications store.
