Eurasia

History

The past. The last ice age: the Fennoscandian and British-Irish ice sheets grew from 30,000 years ago, held their peak from 26,576 to 19,076 years ago, and melted back by 11,726 years ago. The land beds turn to ice, all at once, and only across those spans.

3.8 billion years ago

Some of Earth's oldest crust, at least 3.8 billion years old, formed in what is now northern China.

251.9 million years ago

Vast lava floods poured out across Siberia at the time of the most severe mass extinction of the last half billion years.

59 million years ago

India began to collide with Asia, starting the rise of the Himalaya and Tibet.

55.5 million years ago

Europe and Greenland split apart and the northeast Atlantic Ocean began to open.

27.5 million years ago

Arabia began to collide with Eurasia, raising the Zagros mountains.

Sources: Clark et al. 2009, Science 325:710 · Liu et al. 1992, Geology 20:339 · Burgess and Bowring 2015, Science Advances 1:e1500470 · ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart v2024/12 (Cohen et al. 2013, updated), stratigraphy.org · Hu et al. 2016, Earth-Science Reviews 160:264 · Storey, Duncan and Swisher 2007, Science 316:587 · McQuarrie and van Hinsbergen 2013, Geology 41:315