This image was selected as picture of the day on Wikimedia Commons for 11 June 2009. It was captioned as follows: English: A diagram of the geological time scale Other languages: Bahasa Indonesia: Diagram skala waktu geologi yang berbentuk spiral Čeština: Schématické znázornění geologické časové škály Dansk: Diagram over Jordens geologiske tidsperioder Deutsch: Visuelle Darstellung der Erdzeitalter als Zeitspirale mit englischer Beschriftung (eine deutsche Version der Grafik ist derzeit nicht vorhanden) English: A diagram of the geological time scale Español: Diagrama de la escala de tiempo geológica Français : Diagramme de l'échelle des temps géologiques. Italiano: Diagramma della scala dei tempi geologici. Magyar: A geológiai időskála szemléltetése Nederlands: Engelstalige visuele presentatie van de geologische tijdschaal in de vorm van een spiraal Polski: Diagram przedstawiający skalę czasu geologicznego. Português: Um diagrama (em inglês) da escala de tempo geológico. Română: Diagramă a istoriei geologice a Pământului Slovenščina: Diagram geoloških dob (napisi v angleščini) Македонски: Приказ на геолошките периоди Русский: Геохронологическая шкала, изображённая в виде спирали Українська: Геохронологічна шкала, зображена у вигляді спіралі मराठी: विविध भूशास्त्रीय काळ दाखवणारे चित्र 한국어: 지질학적 연대표. 日本語： ら旋状の地質学年表 中文： 地质学时标图 中文（繁體）： 地質學時標圖 עברית : דיאגרמה של סקאלת זמן גיאולוגי

This image was selected as picture of the day on Vietnamese Wikipedia.

該圖片為維基共享資源的特色圖片(Featured pictures)。它被認定為最佳圖像之一。      由於本圖像的長寬比為4:3或5:4，因而適合作為一幅電腦桌布（參見畫廊）。  該圖片為克羅埃西亞文維基百科的特色圖片(Slika tjedna)。它被認定為最佳圖像之一。 如果您還有可以在合適授權條款下發表的相似品質的圖像，歡迎您上傳、標註授權條款並提名之。

摘要

Caption

Original source: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2008/58/geotimespiral_text.pdf

The Earth is very old—4.5 billion years or more according to scientific estimates. Most of the evidence for an ancient Earth is contained in the rocks that form the Earth's crust. The rock layers themselves—like pages in a long and complicated history—record the events of the past, and buried within them are the remains of life—the plants and animals that evolved from organic structures that existed 3 billion years ago.

Also contained in rocks once molten are radioactive elements whose isotopes provide Earth with an atomic clock. Within these rocks, "parent" isotopes decay at a predictable rate to form "daughter" isotopes. By determining the relative amounts of parent and daughter isotopes, the age of these rocks can be calculated. Thus, the scientific evidence from rock layers, from fossils, and from the ages of rocks as measured by atomic clocks attests to a very old Earth.

See USGS Fact Sheet 2007-3015 at http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2007/3015/ for ages of geologic time periods. Ages in the spiral have been rounded from the age estimates in the Fact Sheet. B.Y., billion years; M.Y., million years. For more information, see the booklet on Geologic Time at http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/.

授權條款

此圖像屬於公有領域，因為其包含的內容最初來自美國內政部下屬的美國地質調查局。進一步資訊請參見USGS的版權方針。 Bahasa Indonesia ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ Deutsch ∙ eesti ∙ English ∙ español ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ italiano ∙ Nederlands ∙ português ∙ polski ∙ sicilianu ∙ suomi ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ Türkçe ∙ български ∙ македонски ∙ русский ∙ മലയാളം ∙ 한국어 ∙ 日本語 ∙ 中文 ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ العربية ∙ فارسی ∙ +/−