Time field
How much time?
Measure it. Do not decorate it.
this year
Holocene
Ten thousand years
An analogy. Not a replacement
If Earth history were one year
Right now that analogy places this moment at 0.0 seconds before midnight. The real date is still this year. Analogies help. They must never replace years.
Do. Drag the year. Now sits on the right.Notice. Writing is still a blink.
The last two minutes
On that year, farming, writing, and industry all happen after 23:58 on 31 December. The rest of the year is not empty. It is everything else.
True width
Most of the bar is not us
If Earth is one year, writing is 36.1 seconds before midnight. That is a measured ratio, not a mood.
Earth4.54 billion years
Life with a fossil record we trustabout 3.5 billion years
Homo sapiensabout 300,000 years
Too thin to see on Earth's bar. That is the lesson.
Writingabout 5,200 years
Too thin to see on Earth's bar. That is the lesson.
A life as the ruler
How many of you fit in Earth?
A life of 10 years. Earth is about 454 million of those lives, stacked. The number is arithmetic. It is not a judgement of a life.
Do. Slide a life.Notice. Earth is still millions of those lives.
Deep zoom
Where did history go?
It did not disappear. The scale changed. Drag a zoom. Rewind that time. When this zoom runs out, keep going.
Do. Open a zoom. Rewind that time.Notice. Human history stays a hair on the larger bars.
Log position 0.197 of full Earth history. Written history is a hairline at the now edge of the full scale.
Whole story · linear
Where this zoom sits
This zoom is a hairline at the now edge. It did not disappear. The scale changed.
Era anchors · true width
A reading of the chart
The slider is stretched so recent time can be touched. These bands keep honest duration. You are in the Holocene, Cenozoic, Phanerozoic.
Now first. Older down.
Eon
Era
Muted ICS-family colors. Not a photograph of rock. A scientific visualization of the current International Chronostratigraphic Chart.
Older than this story
Earth is not the beginning of everything
The universe is about 13.8 billion years old on the current cosmological model. Earth is about 4.54 billion. This house tells Earth's rock record. It does not own the sky.
This is the only world we have this story for, so far. That is a fact about evidence, not a slogan about destiny.
A text of time
A picture of a timeline is not the only version. Screen readers can walk the same sequence.
Phanerozoic
about 539 million years ago to now. Visible life.
Proterozoic
about 2.50 billion years ago to about 539 million years ago. Earlier life.
Archean
about 4.03 billion years ago to about 2.50 billion years ago. Ancient.
Hadean
about 4.54 billion years ago to about 4.03 billion years ago. The beginning.
The named chapters, if you want them
Holocene
about 12 thousand years ago to now
Pleistocene
about 2.6 million years ago to about 12 thousand years ago
Neogene
about 23 million years ago to about 2.6 million years ago
Paleogene
about 66 million years ago to about 23 million years ago
Cretaceous
about 145 million years ago to about 66 million years ago
Jurassic
about 201 million years ago to about 145 million years ago
Triassic
about 252 million years ago to about 201 million years ago
Permian
about 299 million years ago to about 252 million years ago
Carboniferous
about 359 million years ago to about 299 million years ago
Devonian
about 419 million years ago to about 359 million years ago
Silurian
about 444 million years ago to about 419 million years ago
Ordovician
about 487 million years ago to about 444 million years ago
Cambrian
about 539 million years ago to about 487 million years ago
Ediacaran
about 635 million years ago to about 539 million years ago
Cryogenian
about 720 million years ago to about 635 million years ago
Tonian
about 1.00 billion years ago to about 720 million years ago