section_path: Geological time
section_name: Geological time
paragraph_text: Geological time
  
  The geological time scale encompasses the history of the Earth. It is bracketed at the earliest by the dates of the first Solar System material at 4.567 Ga (or 4.567 billion years ago) and the formation of the Earth at4.54 Ga (4.54 billion years), which is the beginning of the Hadean eon – a division of geological time. At the later end of the scale, it is marked by the present day (in the Holocene epoch).