history:h_world
a brief history of the World
Contents
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pre-Cambrian (600-6000 million yrs ago) - formation of earth through to evolution of algae life forms
Hadean eon: 4,600-3,900 mya
Archeozoic eon: 3,900-2,500 mya
the Late Heavy Bombardment of meteors ends c3800 mya
deposition of ferric oxide in the Banded Iron Formations begins c 3,800 mya
oceans rich in ferrous sulphate and carbon dioxide
atmosphere rich in methane, carbon dioxide but poor in free oxygen
Proterozoic eon (2500 - 540 mya)
Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) 2400 mya with evolution of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria
2 billion yrs ago - mass extinction event of cyanobacteria perhaps due to lack of nutrients such as phosphorus
multi-celled organisms, soft-bodied invertebrates further oxygenate atmosphere
Paleozoic (230-600 million yrs ago)
Cambrian (500-600 million yrs ago) - marine invertebrates
Ordovician (425-500 million yrs ago) - marine vertebrates
Silurian (405-425 million yrs ago) - land plants
Devonian (345-405 million yrs ago) - land animals (tetrapod amphibians)
360mya - extinction event appears to be due to a temporary loss of the ozone layer
5)
Carboniferous (280-345 million yrs ago) - basal amniotes evolve 315mya ⇒ reptiles
Permian (230-280 million yrs ago) - ice age - ice sheets cover much of Victoria
Mesozoic (65-230 million yrs ago)
Cenozoic (65million yrs ago to today)
Tertiary period:
Paleocene epoch:
small mammals
rising sea levels as ice caps melt
Eucalypts evolve somewhere in the Weddellian Biogeographic Province (which includes southern South America, western Antarctica and south-eastern Australia), in an area with high natural fire frequency
Victoria:
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more than 5–8 °C global average temperature rise across the event
period of massive carbon release into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted from 20,000 to 50,000 years, with onset linked to volcanism and uplift associated with the North Atlantic Igneous Province which is thought to have cut off the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean disturbing heat distribution and the acidity of the deeper ocean
Eocene epoch - horse, rhinoceros, camel, rodent, monkey, modern birds, aquatic mammals
Oligocene epoch:
first true carnivore mammals, first anthropoid apes
complete disappearance of polar ice caps causes sea levels to rise world wide
Victoria: last of the older volcanoes (~57m - 20m yrs); maximum extension of sea into Murray, Gippsland & Otway basins;
Miocene epoch:
mastodon, grasses
Victoria:
Pliocene epoch:
higher mammals
Victoria:
in late Pliocene & early Pleistocene times, renewed earth movements result in the final uplifting of Mt Kosciusko, Dundas Tablelands, Western & Eastern Highlands as well as accentuating the Otway Ranges & South Gippsland Uplands resulting in formation of the Port Phillip & Western Port Sunklands & their faulting within them.
Quaternary period:
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3000-2000BC:
2000-1500BC:
1500-1000BC:
Israel: Moses - David
Greece: Trojan war
Dorian invasion
Assyrian empire
Teutonic tribes settle
1000-500BC:
Greece: 1st Olympiad; Homer, Aesop, Thales
Italy: Latin tribes settle, Etruscans, Rome founded, Roman Republic founded
Phoenicians dominate the seas
Middle East: fall of Nineveh and Babylon; Persian empire - Cyrus; Israel: Solomon - Ezra
500BC-0AD:
the iron age
Greece: Plato, Spartan wars, Archimedes
Italy: Punic wars, Roman Empire founded, Julius Caesar
Egypt: Alexander the Great, Cleopatra
Middle East: Herod the Great
0AD-500AD:
Jesus, Christianity
Roman empire, Eastern Germans converted to Christianity, Goths sack Rome
Western Germans pagan religion
Middle East: Neo-Persian empire
India: Gupta empire
America: Teotihuacan then Mayan civilisations
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500-1000AD:
1000-1500AD:
high middle ages:
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Britain: Norman conquest of Britain - Erik the Red; Macbeth;
Europe: Holy Roman Empire - crusades, Inquisition
America: Vikings in Nth America
Asia: Jenghiz Khan rules Nth Asia
late middle ages:
Europe: Hapsburg dynasty, Marco Polo, Dante; Ottoman empire
Britain: Chaucer, 100yr war with France, War of the Roses,
Joan of Arc,
Middle East:
Incas' and Aztec empires in Americas
The ages of discovery:
Modern history:
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Western romanticism - Dickens, French impressionist painters,
Napoleon, 1812 war, Crimean war, Q. Victoria, Marx, Mexican war, American civil war, slavery abolished in USA, Abraham Lincoln, Opium wars, Boer war
telegraph, railways
anaesthetics, bacteria
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world war I & II; Bolshevik revolution, Stalin, Hitler, nuclear weapons, perpetual Middle East turmoil, the rise of anti-Western sentiment amongst many Islam followers.
automobile, film photography for consumers, radio, television, rise of rampant consumerism driven by mass marketing, space exploration
fragmentation of the family unit in Western societies, global recreational travel.
antibiotics, viruses, vaccines, X-rays, aseptic surgery, blood transfusions, modern medicine, rise of the pharmaceutical and oil industries
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electronics, computers, internet
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digital photography and smartphones radically change the way we commmunicate and document our world
the end of the world as we know it
the human plague continues to exhaust natural resources whilst throwing the ecosystems into disarray
the end of oil reserves - will it finally destroy industrial growth and cause global super-inflation?
global climate change - we have perhaps only a decade to turn around drivers for global warming.
prolonged droughts
sea level rise flooding coastal communities
more extreme weather
perhaps a new ice age in Europe due to effects on the Gulf Stream
history shows us that rapid warming over a period of 70yrs caused ice berg break up in Canada which migrated east to France and these were then followed by decades of intense cold with soil deep frozen as far south as southern France.
the Gulf Stream is driven by the stream's fall to the bottom of the sea in the Baltic as it gets colder and more concentrated (thermohaline circulation) but this can be disrupted by excessive ice berg or glacier melting which dilutes the waters.
turning off the Gulf Stream means warm tropical waters from the Mexican Gulf will no longer moderate temperatures in the Norwegian Sea with resultant cold climate for northern Europe.
sea levels would rise by 1m in northern hemisphere and drop in the south.
2007 showed evidence of decreased salinity, increased ice berg and glacier break up while Arctic seas are open to shipping for longer periods each year due to less sea ice.
probability of this occurring: perhaps 2% in next decade and 50% in next century.
loss of flora and fauna - not to mention deforestation by man directly.
will the internet further marginalise people or will it provide opportunity to improve humanity.
how will we feed the Western world (let alone the Third World) when prolonged droughts or weather extremes impact the major food growing regions while soaring oil prices with depletion of reserves will make food too expensive to transport long distances, not to mention ecosystem disasters such as the massive loss of honey bees in 2007 impacting fruit pollination.
its time to stop taking the world for granted like everything else in our lives.
will technology be enough to solve the problems:
electrical power generation from:
geo-thermal power
new higher efficiency solar cells based on quantum crystals
“clean” coal power stations
methane hydrate ice on ocean floors but this will only add to carbon dioxide production and be expensive.
expansion of nuclear fission stations
nuclear fusion converting hydrogen to helium like on the sun (at least 50 years away)
carbon nano tubes 50x stronger than steel that could build space elevators and replace rockets
but how will we create products currently based on oil such as plastics
history/h_world.txt · Last modified: 2022/01/08 22:31 by gary1