| Nectarian | ||||||
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| Chronology | ||||||
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| Usage information | ||||||
| Celestial body | Earth's Moon | |||||
| Time scale(s) used | Lunar geologic timescale | |||||
| Definition | ||||||
| Chronological unit | Period | |||||
The Nectarian Period of the lunar geologic timescale runs 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.
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[1] as an unofficial subdivision of the terrestrial Hadean eon.
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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) |
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| Hadean Eon (4–4.6 Ga) |
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ka = kiloannum (thousands years ago); Ma = megaannum (millions years ago); Ga = gigaannum (billions years ago). | |||||||||||||
