Nectarian
Geologic period, 3920 to 3850 million years ago
| Nectarian | ||||||
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| I N E C | ||||||
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| Celestial body | Earth's Moon | |||||
| Time scale(s) used | Lunar geologic timescale | |||||
| Definition | ||||||
| Chronological unit | Period | |||||
The Nectarian Period of the lunar geologic timescale was from 3.920 billion years ago to 3.850 billion years ago. It is the period during which the Nectaris Basin and other major basins were formed by large impact events. Ejecta from Nectaris form the upper part of the densely cratered terrain found in lunar highlands. The period ended with the formation of the Imbrium basin, which initiated the Imbrian Period.[1] Magnetic anomalies found in some Nectarian Period basins suggest that the Moon possessed a core dynamo magnetic field at that time.[2]
Millions of years before present
Relationship to Earth's geologic time scale
Since little or no geological evidence on Earth exists from the time spanned by the Nectarian Period of the Moon, the Nectarian has been used by at least one notable scientific work[3] as an unofficial subdivision of the terrestrial Hadean eon.
See also
- Hadean eon-related topics
References
- ^ Liu, J.; Guo, D. (2018). "Lunar geological timescale" (PDF). Encyclopedia of lunar science. pp. 1–3. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
- ^ Hood, Lon L. (February 2011). "Central magnetic anomalies of Nectarian-aged lunar impact basins: Probable evidence for an early core dynamo". Icarus. 211 (2): 1109–1128. Bibcode:2011Icar..211.1109H. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2010.08.012.
- ^ W. Harland; R. Armstrong; A. Cox; L. Craig; A. Smith; D. Smith (1990). A Geologic time scale 1989. Cambridge University Press.
- v
- t
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- Cryptic
- Basin Groups
- Nectarian
- Lower Imbrian
The Hadean does not have any subdivisions recognized by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. These subdivisions represent one proposal that is loosely based on the lunar geologic timescale.
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| Cenozoic Era (present–66.0 Ma) |
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| Mesozoic Era (66.0–252 Ma) |
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| Paleozoic Era (252–539 Ma) |
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| Proterozoic Eon (539 Ma–2.5 Ga) |
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| Archean Eon (2.5–4 Ga) | |||||||||||||
| Hadean Eon (4–4.6 Ga) | |||||||||||||
ka = kiloannum (thousands years ago); Ma = megaannum (millions years ago); Ga = gigaannum (billions years ago). See also: Geologic time scale •  Geology portal •  World portal | |||||||||||||
