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1. Chapter
Geological Time…
08

2. Chapter
Geological Time…
08
A thousand years is but a day…

3. Scale

4. Rates of Deposition,
Erosion and Uplift

5. The study of geology requires one to think of time in terms of
millions and tens of millions of years. The expression “a thousand
years is but a day…” is quite apt.
For comparative purposes consider the thickness of a single
sheet of paper (approximately 1/10 of one mm).
10 sheets of paper is approximately = 1 mm thick.
One package of print
paper contains 500
sheets and is 50 mm
thick.
50 mm

6. Two packages of paper contains
1000 sheets and is approximately 100
mm thick.
If you stack twenty packages of paper it
will be approximately 1 meter high (10,
000 sheets).
100 mm

7. 7

8. 8

9. Homer Simpson is
20,000 sheets of paper
tall….
It would take 20,000 years to
bury Homer….

10. If you consider a rate of either deposition or erosion (burial or
‘uplift’) of the thickness of one single sheet of paper per year
then it would take ten thousand years to deposit or erode one
meter of sediment.
That works out to a rate of approximately 100 meters per one
million years. You could bury the world’s tallest buildings (or
erode them) in as little as 4 to 5 million years (at a rate of one
sheet per year).
Every ten million years you could deposit or erode a full
kilometer of sediment.

11. Ten million years seems like a vast amount of time…
(and it is) yet the youngest oil-producing reservoir in the
Hibernia oilfield (Ben Nevis) is approximately 100 million years
old.
The Ben Nevis is ‘buried’ to an average depth of about three
kilometers. At the rate of one sheet of paper per year, that could
have resulted in a burial depth of 10 kilometers.
The oil-producing horizons in the Terra Nova field are
approximately 140 million years old!
So you see, even at what seems like an infinitesimally small rate
of either ‘erosion or burial’ there is more than enough time
available to build a mountain and tear it down again!

12. At a rate of Deposition of just ONE sheet per
year the buildings in black could be ‘buried’
in a mere 5 million years. The Burj Dubai
would take a little longer.

13. At a rate of Deposition of just ONE sheet per
year the buildings in black could be ‘buried’
in a mere 5 million years. The Burj Dubai
would take a little longer.in 5 million years.

14. These mountains resulted from the ‘collision’ of the Indian Plate a mere
50 million years ago. So these mountains were “uplifted” at a rate or
approximately TWO sheets per year!
14

15. ~10 Million sheets of paper
Height: 1000m Time: ~5 million years

16. 15 Million sheets of paper
Height: 1,500m Time: 7.5 million years

17. 20 Million sheets of paper
Height: 2,000m Time: 10 million years

18. 25 Million sheets of paper
Height: 2,500m Time: 12.5 million years

19. 30 Million sheets of paper
Height: 3,000m Time: 15 million years

20. 35 Million sheets of paper
Height: 3,500m Time: 17.5 million years

21. 40 Million sheets of paper
Height: 4,000m Time: 20 million years

22. 45 Million sheets of paper
Height: 4,500m Time: 22.5 million years

23. 50 Million sheets of paper
Height: 5,000m Time: 25 million years

24. 55 Million sheets of paper
Height: 5,500m Time: 27.5 million years

25. 60 Million sheets of paper
Height: 6,000m Time: 30 million years

26. 65 Million sheets of paper
Height: 6,500m Time: 32.5 million years

27. 70 Million sheets of paper
Height: 7,000m Time: 35 million years

28. 75 Million sheets of paper
Height: 7,500m Time: 37.5 million years

29. 80 Million sheets of paper
Height: 8,000m Time: 40 million years

30. 85 Million sheets of paper
Height: 8,500m Time: 42.5 million years

31. 88 Million sheets of paper
Height: 8,848m Time: ~50 million years
Of uplift…

32. 88 Million sheets of paper
Height: 8,848m Time: ~50 million years
Now
erosion…

33. 85 Million sheets of paper
Height: 8,500m Time: 42.5 million years

34. 80 Million sheets of paper
Height: 8,000m Time: 40 million years

35. 75 Million sheets of paper
Height: 7,500m Time: 37.5 million years

36. 70 Million sheets of paper
Height: 7,000m Time: 35 million years

37. 65 Million sheets of paper
Height: 6,500m Time: 32.5 million years

38. 60 Million sheets of paper
Height: 6,000m Time: 30 million years

39. 55 Million sheets of paper
Height: 5,500m Time: 27.5 million years

40. 50 Million sheets of paper
Height: 5,000m Time: 25 million years

41. 45 Million sheets of paper
Height: 4,500m Time: 22.5 million years

42. 40 Million sheets of paper
Height: 4,000m Time: 20 million years

43. 35 Million sheets of paper
Height: 3,500m Time: 17.5 million years

44. 30 Million sheets of paper
Height: 3,000m Time: 15 million years

45. 25 Million sheets of paper
Height: 2,500m Time: 12.5 million years

46. 20 Million sheets of paper
Height: 2,000m Time: 10 million years

47. 15 Million sheets of paper
Height: 1,500m Time: 7.5 million years

48. ~10 Million sheets of paper
Height: 1000m Time: ~5 million years

49. Of erosion…
Height: 1000m Time: ~45 million years

50. The formations that produce oil and gas in the Jeanne d’Arc
Basin were once deposited at or near sea-level and have
since been buried deeply into the earth.
We can determine the ages or “Geological Time Periods”
that those rocks were deposited in from a number of
different methods.

55. Note: The three ‘rock layers’ that currently produce oil and gas are the Ben Nevis,
Hibernia and Jeanne d’Arc Formations (from the White Rose, Hibernia and Terra Nova
Fields). These formations are color-coded yellow to indicate that they are sandstone
reservoirs. The gray ‘layers’ are shale and the blue ‘layers’ are limestone.
Geological Ages and Formations of the Jeanne d’Arc Basin

56. 56
Late Cretaceous approximately 90 million years ago.
The present day configuration of the continents is recognizable. The pale blue areas represent
shallow seas and are spread all over North America, Africa and Europe. In the Jeanne d’Arc
basin (highlighted in the red rectangle) reservoir sands of the Hibernia, Terra Nova, White
Rose, and Hebron are being deposited.

59. A
The areas highlighted above are the major oil
producing regions of the world today.
The position of the continents is
where they were during the Upper
Jurassic to Cretaceous geological
Periods.
The light blue areas indicate areas of
shallow seas where sediments were
being deposited that are today the oil
producing reservoirs…

61. 61

64. Sea-level

65. 65
Sea-level has been constantly changing over geologic time.
In fact since the meltdown of the most recent Ice Age (approximately 20,000 years
ago) sea level has risen globally by approximately 120m.
For the past ~8000 years sea-level has continued to rise but at a much slower rate.
Nonetheless, it is still rising.
“Global Warming” is not something ‘new’, it just seems that way (at least to some of us).