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Timeline of Environmental Events Information

The timeline lists geological, astronomical, and climatological events in relation to events in human history which they influenced. For the history of humanity's perspective on these events, see timeline of the history of environmentalism. See List of periods and events in climate history for a timeline list focused on climate.

Contents

Key

Prolog

Prior to the arrival of Homo Sapiens the Universe and Earth and Evolution went through tremendous change. Time and events are emphasized and period naming ignored. This timeline is in outline form prior to the tables. Feel free to assist by converting the outline into a table.

Big Bang

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14,000,000,000 ya + 1 Second

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180 s

1200 s

13.8 Ga

13.6 Ga

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12.7 Ga

4,560,000,000 ya

4.56 Ga

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3.6 Ga

3.0 Ga

2.7 Ga

2.4 Ga

2.1 Ga

2,000,000,000 ya

2 Ga

1.8 Ga

1.5 Ga

1,000,000,000 ya

1 Ga

1.1 Ga

800 Ma

750 Ma

635 Ma

600,000,000 ya

600 Ma

540 Ma

590 Ma

530 Ma

505 Ma

500 Ma

475 Ma

450 Ma

420 Ma

418 Ma

360 Ma

300,000,000 ya

300 Ma

260 Ma

250 000 000 ya

220 Ma

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125 Ma

100 Ma

75,000,000 ya

75 Ma

65 Ma

56 Ma

40 Ma

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28 Ma

15,000,000 ya

15 Ma

8.0 Ma

5.8 Ma

5.0 Ma

3.0 Ma

2,500,000 ya

2.5 Ma

1.650 Ma

Pre-Holocene (1.5 Mya)

The time from roughly 15,000 BC to 5,000 BC was a time of transition, and swift and extensive environmental change, as the planet was moving from an Ice age, towards an interstadial (warm period). Sea levels rose dramatically (and are continuing to do so), land that was depressed by glaciers began lifting up again, forests and deserts expanded, and the climate gradually became more modern. In the process of warming up, the planet saw several "cold snaps" and "warm snaps", such as the Older Dryas and the Holocene climatic optimum, as well as heavier precipitation. In addition, the Pleistocene megafauna became extinct due to environmental and evolutionary pressures from the changing climate. This marked the end of the Quaternary extinction event, which was continued into the modern era by humans. The time around 11,700 years ago (9700 BC) is widely considered to be the end of the old age (Pleistocene, Paleolithic, Stone age, Wisconsin Ice Age), and the beginning of the modern world as we know it.

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 2,588,000 BC c. 12,000 BC Pleistocene era
c. 21,000 BC Recent evidence indicates that humans processed (gathered) and consumed wild cereal grains as far back as 23,000 years ago.[1]
c. 19,000 BC Last Glacial Maximum/sea-level minimum
c. 20,000 BC c. 12,150 BC Mesolithic 1 period
c. 17,000 BC c. 13,000 BC Oldest Dryas stadial (cool period) during the last Ice age/glaciation in Europe.
c. 13,000 BC Beginning of the Holocene extinction. Earliest evidence of warfare.

Meltwater pulse 1A rises sea level 20 meters.
c. 12,670 BC c. 12,000 BC Bølling oscillation interstadial (warm and moist period) between the Oldest Dryas and Older Dryas stadials (cool periods) at the end of the Last glacial period. In places where the Older Dryas was not seen, it is known as the Bølling-Allerød.
c. 12,340 BC c. 11,140 BC Cemetery 117: site of the world's first battle/war.
c. 12,500 BC c. 10,800 BC Natufian culture begins minor agriculture
c. 12,150 BC c. 11,140 BC Mesolithic 2 (Natufian culture), some sources have Mesolithic 2 ending at 9500 BC
c. 12,000 BC c. 11,700 BC Older Dryas stadial (cool period)
c. 11,700 BC c. 10,800 BC Allerød oscillation
c. 13,000 BC c. 11,000 BC Lake Agassiz forms from glacial meltwater floods through the Mackenzie River into the Arctic Ocean at 11,000 BC, possibly causing the Younger Dryas cold period
c. 12,000 BC c. 8,000 BC Göbekli Tepe, world's first temple-like structure, is created.
c. 10,900 BC (calibrated) or c. 8900 BC (non-calibrated) Younger Dryas impact event suspected at either of these dates.
c. 10,800 BC Younger Dryas cold period begins.
c. 10,000 BC

10th millennium BC

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 9700 BC
c. 9660 to c. 9600 BC Younger Dryas cold period ends. Pleistocene ends and Holocene begins. Large amounts of previously glaciated land become habitable again. Some sources place the Younger Dryas as stretching from 10,800 BC to 9500 BC. This cool period was possibly caused by a shutdown of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (Gulf Stream/Jet Stream), due to flooding from Lake Agassiz as it reformed.
c. 9500 BC
c. 9000 BC First stone structures at Jericho built.

9th millennium BC

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 8500 BC to 7370 Jericho is established as one of the oldest cities in the world sometime between 8500 BC and 7370 BC
c. 8000 BC

8th millennium BC

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 7900 BC c. 7700 BC Lake Agassiz refills from glacial melt-water around 7900 BC as Glaciers retreat north
c. 7640 BC Date theorized for impact of Tollmann's hypothetical bolide with Earth and associated global cataclysm.
c. 7500 BC
7500-7000 BC 3500-3000 BC Neolithic Subpluvial begins in northern Africa, Mesolithic period ends. Until about 5000 BC, the Sahara desert is substantially wetter than today, comparable to a savannah.

7th millennium BC

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 6600 BC Jiahu symbols, carved on tortoise shells in Jiahu, Northern China
c. 6500 BC
c.6440±25 BC Kurile volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula has VEI 7 eruption. It is one of the largest of the Holocene epoch
c. 6400 BC Lake Agassiz drains into oceans for the final time, leaving Lakes Manitoba, Winnipeg, Winnipegosis, and Lake of the Woods, among others in the region, as its remnants. The draining may have caused the 8.2 kiloyear event, 200 years later
c. 6200 BC 8.2 kiloyear event, a sudden significant cooling episode
c. 6100 BC The Storegga Slide, causing a megatsunami in the Norwegian Sea
c. 6000 BC
  • Climatic or Thermal Maximum, the warmest period in the past 125,000 years, with minimal glaciation and highest sea levels. (McEvedy)
  • Rising sea levels form the Torres Strait, separate Australia from New Guinea.
  • Increasing desiccation of the Sahara. End of the Saharan Pluvial period.
  • Associated with Pollen Zone VI Atlantic, oak-elm woodlands, warmer and maritime climate. Modern wild fauna plus, increasingly, human introductions, associated with the spread of the Neolithic farming technologies.
  • Rising sea levels from glacial retreat flood what will become the Irish Sea, separating the island of Ireland from the British Isles and Continental Europe.

6th millennium BC

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 5600 BC According to the Black Sea deluge theory, the Black Sea floods with salt water. Some 3000 cubic miles (12,500 km³) of salt water is added, significantly expanding it and transforming it from a fresh-water landlocked lake into a salt water sea.
c. 5500 BC Beginning of the desertification of north Africa, which ultimately lead to the creation of the Sahara desert from land that was previously savannah, though is still wetter than today. It's possible this process pushed people in the area into migrating to the region of the Nile in the east, thereby laying the groundwork for the rise of Egyptian civilization.
c. 5300 BC
c. 5000 BC

5th millennium BC

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 4570 BC c. 4250 BC Merimde culture on the Nile River
4400 BC Predynastic Egypt and Uruk period begins in Mesopotamia

4th millennium BC

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
3900 BC
3600 BC 2800 BC
  • Climatic deterioration in Western Europe and the Sahara.
  • In Europe Pollen zone VII Sub Boreal, oak and beech.
  • Glacial advances of the Piora oscillation, with lower economic prosperity in areas not able to irrigate in the Middle East.
3500 BC to 3000 BC end of the Neolithic Subpluvial era, return of extremely hot and dry conditions in the Sahara Desert, hastened by the 5.9 kiloyear event.
3100 BC 2686 BC Early Dynastic Period of Egypt. The hallmarks of Ancient Egypt (art, architecture, religion) all formed during this period. This is widely assumed to be the time and place of the first writing system, the Egyptian hieroglyphs (date is disputed, some claim they were used as far back as 3200 BC, while others believe they weren't invented until the 28th century BC).
3200 BC 3000 BC Protodynastic Period of Egypt
between 3000 BC and 2800 BC 30 km/19 mi-wide Burckle Crater is formed in Indian Ocean from a possible meteor or comet impact, possibly inspiring most flood myths.

3rd millennium BC

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
ca. 30th century BC
  • c. 3000 BC: Stonehenge begins to be built. In its first version, it consists of a circular ditch and bank, with 56 wooden posts. (National Geographic, June 2008).
  • Sumerian Cuneiform script, considered among the oldest alphabets, is created
2900 BC Floods at Shuruppak from horizon to horizon, with sediments in Southern Iraq, stretching as far north as Kish, and as far south as Uruk, associated with the return of heavy rains in Nineveh and a potential damming of the Karun River to run into the Tigris River. This ends the Jemdet Nasr period and ushers in the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia cultures of the area. Possible association of this event with the Biblical deluge.
ca. 2880 BC Germination of Prometheus (a bristlecone pine of the species Pinus longaeva), formerly the world's oldest known non-clonal orgasnism
ca. 2832 BC Germination of Methuselah (a bristlecone pine of the species Pinus longaeva), currently the world's oldest known non-clonal orgasnism
2807 BC Suggested date for an asteroid or comet impact occurring between Africa and Antarctica, around the time of a solar eclipse on May 10, based on an analysis of flood stories. Possibly causing the Burckle crater and Fenambosy Chevron.[5][6]
2650 BC
  • Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh describes vast tracts of cedar forests in what is now southern Iraq. Gilgamesh defies the gods and cuts down the forest, and in return the gods say they will curse Sumer with fire (or possibly drought). By 2100 BC, soil erosion and salt buildup have devastated agriculture. One Sumerian wrote that the "earth turned white." Civilization moved north to Babylonia and Assyria. Again, deforestation becomes a factor in the rise and subsequent fall of these civilizations.
  • Some of the first laws protecting the remaining forests decreed in Ur.
c. 2630 BC 1815 BC Construction of the Egyptian pyramids
2500 BC Sahara becomes fully desiccated, and conditions become largely identical to those of today. Desiccation had been proceeding from 7500-6000 BCE, as a result of the shift in the West African tropical monsoon belt southwards from the Sahel, and intensified by the 5.9 kiloyear event. Subsequent rates of evaporation in the region led to a drying of the Sahara, as shown by the drop in water levels in Lake Chad. Tehenu of the Sahara attempt to enter into Egypt, and there is evidence of a Nile drought in the pyramid of Unas.
2300 BC Neolithic period ends in China
2200 BC Beginning of a severe centennial-scale drought in northern Africa, southwestern Asia and midcontinental North America, which very likely caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt as well as the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia. This coincides with the transition from the Subboreal period to the subatlantic period.
21st century BC construction of the Ziggurat of Ur

2nd millennium BC

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
1900 BC The Atra-Hasis Epic describes Babylonian flood, with warnings of the consequences of human overpopulation.
1600 BC Minoan eruption destroys much of Santorini island, and decimates the Minoan civilization on Crete. This may have inspired the legend of Atlantis.
1450 BC Minoan civilization in the Mediterranean declines, but scholars are divided on the cause. Possibly a volcanic eruption was the source of the catastrophe (see Minoan eruption). On the other hand, gradual deforestation may have led to materials shortages in manufacturing and shipping. Loss of timber and subsequent deterioration of its land was probably a factor in the decline of Minoan power in the late Bronze Age, according to John Perlin in A Forest Journey.
1206 BC 1187 BC Evidence of major droughts in the Eastern Mediterranean. Hittite and Ugarit records show requests for grain were sent to Egypt, probably during the reign of Pharaoh Merenptah. Carpenter has suggested that droughts of equal severity to those of the 1950s in Greece, would have been sufficient to cause the Late Bronze Age collapse. The cause may have been a temporary diversion of winter storms north of the Pyrenees and Alps. Central Europe experienced generally wetter conditions, while those in the Eastern Mediterranean were substantially drier. There seems to have been a general abandonment of peasant subsistence agriculture in favour of nomadic pastoralism in Central Anatolia, Syria and northern Mesopotamia, Palestine, the Sinai and NW Arabia.
c. 2000 BC c. 1000 BC

1st millennium BC

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
800 BC 500 BC
  • Sub-Atlantic period in Western Europe.
  • Pollen Zone VIII, sub-Atlantic. End of last Sea Level rise.
  • Spread of "Celtic fields", Iron Age A, and Haalstadt Celts.
  • Increased prosperity in Europe and the Middle East.
200 BC Axial age, a revolution in thinking that we know as Philosophy, begins in China, India, and Europe, with people such as Socrates, Plato, Homer, Lao Tzu, Confucius, among others, alive at this time.
753 BC Ancient Rome begins, with the founding of Rome. This marks the beginning of Classical antiquity.
508 BC Democracy created in Athens, Ancient Greece
356 BC 323 BC Alexander the Great
c. 225 BC The Sub-Atlantic period began about 225 BCE (estimated on the basis of radiocarbon dating) and has been characterized by increased rainfall, cooler and more humid climates, and the dominance of beech forests. The fauna of the Sub-Atlantic is essentially modern although severely depleted by human activities. The Sub-Atlantic is correlated with pollen zone IX; sea levels have been generally regressive during this time interval, though North America is an exception.
c. 200 BC Sri Lanka first country in the world to have a nature reserve, King Devanampiyatissa established a wildlife sanctuary

1st millennium AD

1st century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
79 AD Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum

2nd century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
114 117 Rome reaches its greatest expanse in terms of territory, stretching from the Sahara desert, to England and Belgium, along the Danube River and Black Sea to Mesopotamia and modern-day Kuwait.
186 Hatepe eruption in New Zealand turns the skies red over Rome and China.[7]

3rd century

4th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 300 Migration period begins. This leads in a couple of centuries to the fall of Rome.
301 San Marino founded, claims to be the world's oldest republic

5th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 450 Malaria epidemic in Italy.[8]
476 Fall of Rome, end of the Western Roman Empire

6th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
535 536 535-536: global climate abnormalities affecting several civilizations.

7th century

8th century

9th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 850 Severe drought exacerbated by soil erosion causes collapse of Central American city states and the end of the Classic Maya civilization.
874 According to Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland begins.

10th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
930 Althing, oldest parliamentary institution in the world that is still in existence, is founded
980s Greenland settled by Viking colonists from Iceland

2nd millennium

11th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
985 1080 Norse Colony at L'Anse aux Meadows
1006 SN 1006 supernova, brightest apparent magnitude stellar event in recorded history (-7.5 visual magnitude)
1054 SN 1054 supernova, created the Crab Nebula
1099 The Hodh Ech Chargui and Hodh El Gharbi Regions of southern Mauritania become desert.[9]

12th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
1104 Venice Arsenal in Venice, Italy is founded, employed 16,000 at its peak for the mass production of sailing ships in large assembly lines, hundreds of years before the industrial revolution
1150 Renaissance of the 12th century in Europe, blast furnace for the smelting of cast iron is imported from China
1185 First record of windmills in Europe

13th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 1250 c. 1850 Start of the Little Ice Age, a stadial period within our interglacial warm period
end of the 13th century beginning of the Renaissance era in Italy, gradually spreads throughout Europe.

14th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
1315 1317 Great Famine of 1315–1317 (Europe)
1347 1350s Bubonic plague decimates Europe, creating the first attempts to enforce public health and quarantine laws.
1350 Western Settlement in Greenland abandoned, possibly due to the deteriorating climate caused by the onset of the Little Ice Age

15th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
1408 last known recording (a wedding) of Norse settlers in Greenland
1453 Eruption of Kuwae in Pacific contributes to fall of Constantinople. Environmental Science is developed.
1492 Christopher Columbus lands in Caribbean islands, starting the Columbian Exchange, causing the Aztec Empire and Inca Empire to fall to the Spanish in the next century, as well as bringing various species of animals and plants across the Atlantic Ocean.

16th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
1585 1587 Roanoke Colony, now in North Carolina
End of the 16th century End of the Renaissance era, gradual transition towards the Baroque, Romantic, Enlightenment, and Modern eras.

17th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
1600 Huaynaputina erupts in South America. The explosion had effects on climate around the Northern Hemisphere (Southern hemispheric records are less complete), where 1601 was the coldest year in six centuries, leading to a famine in Russia; see Russian famine of 1601–1603.[10]

18th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
c. 1750 Beginning of Industrial Revolution, which eventually turns to use of coal and other fossil fuels to drive steam engines and other devices. Anthropogenic carbon pollution presumably increases.
1783 the volcano Laki erupts, emitting sufficient sulfur dioxide gas and sulphate particles to kill a majority of Iceland's livestock and cause an unusually cold winter in Europe and Western Asia.
1789 1793 a recent study of El Niño patterns suggests that the French Revolution was caused in part by the poor crop yields of 1788-89 in Europe, resulting from an unusually strong El-Niño effect between 1789-93.[11]
1796
  • Night of June 6, 1796 - Ragundasjön was dried out in four hours when indalsälven took a new course, at least partially as a result of canal digging activities.
  • Smallpox vaccine invented. This and other medical discoveries over the next two centuries help to increase life expectancy and decrease infant mortality, leading to a worldwide population boom.
1798 Thomas Robert Malthus publishes An Essay on the Principle of Population, thus beginning Malthusian economics.

19th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
1815
  • Eruption of Mt. Tambora in what is now Indonesia, largest in the 2nd millennium AD. Leads to the-
1816
1845 1857 European Potato Famines cause crop failures in both Ireland (the Great Famine) and Scotland (the Highland Potato Famine).
1872 Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park, opens on March 1.
1883 Eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia. The sound of the explosion is heard as far as Australia and China, the altered air waves causes strange colours on the sky and the volcanic gases reduce global temperatures during the following years. A disputed but vivid sunset was captured in Edward Munch's The Scream.

20th century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
1900 The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 hits Galveston, Texas and reverses the city's previously rapid growth.
1906 San Francisco earthquake causes collapse of insurance markets and the Panic of 1907.[12]
1908 Tunguska Explosion decimates a remote part of Siberia
1914 1918 World War I, which involves heavy bombardment, explosions, and poison gas warfare.
1918 Spanish Flu kills between 50 to 100 million people worldwide shortly after World War I.
1932 1937 Exceptional precipitation absence in northern hemisphere exacerbated by human activities causes the Dust Bowl drought of the US plains and the Soviet famine of 1932-1933 (harsh economic damage in US and widespread death in USSR)
1937 1945 Pacific War and World War II, with heavy bombardment, genocide, and explosions. Towards the end of the war, nuclear warfare occurs for the first time when Hiroshima and Nagasaki are bombed.
post-1945 Nuclear tests are performed by the United States, Soviet Union, India, Pakistan, China, North Korea, the United Kingdom, and France. Above-ground detonations continue until the Partial Test Ban Treaty is signed in 1963, causing fallout and spreading radiation around the explosion sites.
1957 Sputnik is launched, becomes first man-made object to orbit the earth, and triggers the Space Race between the United States and USSR, culminating with the First man in space in 1961, and the Moon landing, humanity's first ventures to the Moon in 1969
1960 World human population reached 3 billion mark.[13]
1970s 2010s Deindustrialization occurs in the Midwest and then much of the United States, as manufacturing industries (and their pollution) move to China, India, and other countries.
1980 Mount St. Helens erupts explosively in Washington state.
1984 Bhopal disaster.
1986 Chernobyl meltdown and explosion, contaminating surrounding area, including Pripyat.
1987 World human population reached 5 billion mark.[13]
1999 World human population reached the 6 billion mark.

3rd millennium

21st century

Year(s) Event(s)
Start End
2004 Earthquake causes large tsunamis in the Indian Ocean, killing nearly a quarter of a million people.
2005
2010
2011
  • Tsunami in Japan An Earthquake and later a Tsunami hit the country on March 11, 2011. After this disaster, nuclear power plants in Japan have been releasing radiation due to damage from the earthquake.
  • World human population reached the 7 billion mark

See also

Environment portal
Ecology portal

References

  1. ^ Dolores R. Piperno; Ehud Weiss; Irene Holst; Dani Nadel (August 5, 2004). "Processing of wild cereal grains in the Upper Palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis". Nature 430 (7000): 670–3. doi:10.1038/nature02734. PMID 15295598. http://anthropology.si.edu/archaeobio/Ohalo%20II%20Nature.pdf.
  2. ^ Creosote Bush: Long-Lived Clones in the Mojave Desert, Frank C. Vasek, American Journal of Botany, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Feb., 1980), pp. 246-255
  3. ^ a b http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=11165 Larrea tridentata - King Clone
  4. ^ Science Daily: World's Oldest Living clonal tree, 9550 years old, Discovered In Sweden
  5. ^ Cambridge Conference Correspondence
  6. ^ Blakeslee, Sandra (November 14, 2006). "Ancient Crash, Epic Wave". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/science/14WAVE.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=science.
  7. ^ Wilson, C. J. N.; Ambraseys, N. N.; Bradley, J.; Walker, G. P. L. (1980). "A new date for the Taupo eruption, New Zealand". Nature 288 (5788): 252–253. doi:10.1038/288252a0.
  8. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/malaria_01.shtml
  9. ^ http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0859541.html
  10. ^ Witze, Alexandra (2008-04-11). "The volcano that changed the world". Nature.Com News. Nature Publishing Group. http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080411/full/news.2008.747.html. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  11. ^ Richard H. Grove, “Global Impact of the 1789–93 El Niño,” Nature393 (1998), 318-319.
  12. ^ Kerry A. Odell and Marc D. Weidenmier, Real Shock, Monetary Aftershock: The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and the Panic of 1907, The Journal of Economic History, 2005, vol. 64, issue 04, p. 1002-1027.
  13. ^ a b "United Nations Population Fund moves Day of 6 Billion based on new population estimates". Population Connection. 1998-10-28. Archived from the original on 2006-02-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20060220031624/http://www.populationconnection.org/Reports_Publications/Reports/report14.html. Retrieved 2006-03-11.

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