Comments on: 43. A sense of time – Earth history and the London Marathon http://roadsofstone.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time-earth-history-and-the-london-marathon/ rocks, running and the world Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:45:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Roads http://roadsofstone.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time-earth-history-and-the-london-marathon/#comment-10560 Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:16:53 +0000 https://roadsofstone.wordpress.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time/#comment-10560 Thank you, Linda. How welcome are the patient smiles of those chip-snippers at the finish of the London Marathon. Maybe you might even have snipped my own chip in 2001, 2004 or 2006? If so, many thanks.

The scale of geological time is simply staggering. And put in those terms, the pace of continental drift is more than breathtaking. The Atlantic Ocean has grown ten centimetres (that’s fully four inches) wider in the five years since I wrote this post.

Best not tell that to British Airways, though — a plate tectonics surcharge is one supplement they haven’t so far considered in their pricing schedules…

]]> By: Linda http://roadsofstone.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time-earth-history-and-the-london-marathon/#comment-10551 Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:02:34 +0000 https://roadsofstone.wordpress.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time/#comment-10551 What an understandable, pulse-racing metaphor. I’ve been a chip-snipper at the London Marathon finish and as I looked up the Mall I had no idea I was looking back through all civilisation, ice ages and plate tectonics.

]]> By: Roads http://roadsofstone.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time-earth-history-and-the-london-marathon/#comment-9496 Tue, 06 May 2008 16:20:54 +0000 https://roadsofstone.wordpress.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time/#comment-9496 Hi Jasmin
Thanks for your contribution. Scientific research can be frustrating although dogged patience generally pays off. In the meantime your punctuation might be a little repetitive for some tastes.

To answer your query, here’s the best reference, which shows that although phytoplankton first evolved at least 1.5 billion years ago, many of the forms we see today did not evolve until Mesozoic times, from 250 million years to 60 million years ago.

Paul G. Falkowski,1,2* Miriam E. Katz,2 Andrew H. Knoll,3 Antonietta Quigg,1 John A. Raven,4 Oscar Schofield,1 F. J. R. Taylor5 (2004): The Evolution of Modern Eukaryotic Phytoplankton – Science 16 July 2004: Vol. 305. no. 5682, pp. 354 – 360.

Click on this link to read the abstract: Falkowski et al., 2004.

Best of luck with your research, and all best wishes to you from London.

]]> By: jasmin http://roadsofstone.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time-earth-history-and-the-london-marathon/#comment-9488 Tue, 06 May 2008 02:20:29 +0000 https://roadsofstone.wordpress.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time/#comment-9488 i need 2 no when PLANKTON was found on earth and i have looked at more then 169,000 websites and yours was just the same it STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

]]> By: Roads http://roadsofstone.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time-earth-history-and-the-london-marathon/#comment-9241 Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:23:15 +0000 https://roadsofstone.wordpress.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time/#comment-9241 Welcome, Silver Fox. The sheer scale of time recorded in the Earth beneath our feet is almost unimaginable. And yet this time has so much to tell us about the past, and the future of our planet as well.

It is surely a geologist’s place to feel humble in the face of so much wonder. And to marvel, every single day.

]]> By: Silver Fox http://roadsofstone.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time-earth-history-and-the-london-marathon/#comment-9238 Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:57:20 +0000 https://roadsofstone.wordpress.com/2004/03/12/43-a-sense-of-time/#comment-9238 Wow! This is a great post about time. I might have to link to this when I write about “Deep Time,” a phrase coined by John McPhee in his book “Basin and Range” for the immensity of geologic time.

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