What is the difference between eras and periods

You agree that we have no liability for any damages. Summary: 1. Author Recent Posts. Emelda M. Latest posts by Emelda M see all.

Help us improve. Rate this post! Historical events and their significance is well understood only when there is a clear understanding of the blocks of time. Indeed, history denotes every happening of the past using the time factor with different terms. These terms denote the events in a perfect sequence. The terminologies Era and Period play a notable role in this context.

The difference between Era and Period is in the time and event factor. Era denotes the start and end time of a significant event, while Period denotes an event that necessarily does not have any specific time frame for that to have happened. That means to say, an era has specific years and dates while a period does not have it.

Era is a time that has important events happened on the earth. Era is a time frame that defines the chronological factors in history. The term era also defines a particular quality of situations that happened during that particular time frame.

History denotes Era as incredible developments that have happened in the past. The period is again a chunk of time in history that is large but not as large as denoted by era also denotes an important event that had happened in the past. The term period denotes a concrete characteristic factor of the event. One of the most contentious questions in chronostratigraphy is how to define our own time.

The Holocene epoch began about 12, years ago when Earth began warming after the last ice age. But according to Gill, the end of that ice age, even though it coincided with the transition to a new epoch, isn't of greater geological importance than the end of the ice ages before it.

Even today, scientists are still naming new windows of time, including the Chibanian age , named after a Japanese prefecture where the sediment defining the age was found. Editor's Note: This story was updated to correct Karl Wegmann's title. Originally published on Live Science. Written and presented in a style that makes even the most complex subjects interesting and easy to understand, How It Works is enjoyed by readers of all ages.

Grant Currin is a freelance science journalist based in Nashville, Tennessee. Live Science. View Deal. Grant Currin. Mesozoic Era: Topic [Gr. Great crustal disturbances that marked the close of the Paleozoic and the beginning of the Mesozoic eras brought about drastic changes in the topography of North America. Precambrian: Topic Name of a major division of geologic time from c. It is now usually divided into the Archean and Proterozoic eons. The Archean begins with the formation of the Earth's crust 4 billion years ago and extends to 2.