THE PRECAMBRIAN Precambrian was originally

ERA defined as the era that

predated the emergence of
The Precambrian Era. The life in the Cambrian
name means: "before the Period. It is now known,
Cambrian period." This however, that life on Earth
old, but still common term began by the early Archean
was originally used to refer and that fossilized
to the whole period of organisms became more
earth's history before the and more abundant
Source:  Unknown
formation of the oldest throughout Precambrian
rocks with recognizable time.
fossils in them. In the last     The two major
few decades, however, subdivisions of the last part
Hadean
geologists have found that of the Precambrian are the
Hadean ("Hades-like") Era.
there are some hard-to- Archean (oldest) and the
This era began with the
discern fossils in some Proterozoic.  Rocks
formation of the earth from
Precambrian rocks, so this younger than 600 Ma are
dust and gas orbiting the
period is now also known considered part of the
Sun about 4.6 billion years
as the Cryptozoic or Phanerozoic.
ago. During this era the
"obscure life" Eon (from
surface of the Earth was
the words "crypt" =
like popular visions about
"hidden," and "zoon" =
Hades: oceans of liquid
"life").
rock, boiling sulfur, and
    The Precambrian covers
impact craters everywhere!
almost 90% of the entire
Volcanoes blast off all
history of the Earth. It has
over the place, and the rain
been divided into three
of rocks and asteroids from
eras: the Hadean, the
space never ends. It's hard
Archean and the
to take a step without
Proterozoic.
Below is another type of falling in a pool of lava or
breakdown of Precambrian getting hit by a meteor!
time. The air is hot, thick,
steamy, and full of dust
and crud. But you can't
breathe it anyway: it's
made of nothing but
carbon dioxide and water
vapor, with traces of
Source:  Unknown nitrogen and smelly sulfur
compounds! Any rocks
that do form from cooling
    The Precambrian Era lavas are quickly buried
comprises all of geologic under new lava flows or
time prior to 600 million blasted to bits by yet
years ago.  The another impact. Some
people think that an sky is filled with normal of bacteria - are in archean
asteroid as large as the clouds and rain. The lava is rocks about 3.5 billion
planet Mars hit the Earth also mostly cooled to form years old.
near the beginning of the the ocean floor. The ARCHEAN EARTH
Hadean era, completely interior of the earth is still
smashing and melting the quite hot and active, as
Earth and forming the shown by the many
Moon as part of the erupting volcanoes. The
"splash!"  Wow!  No one volcanoes form lots of
has found any rocks on small islands in long
earth from this era. Only chains. The islands are the
meteorites from space and only land surface. The
moon rocks are this old.  If continents have not formed
any life formed on earth yet. The islands are carried Source:  Unknown
during this era, it was over the surface of the
probably destroyed. earth by the movement of
HADEAN EARTH rock deep in the earth's The maps below show the
interior. (This movement probable locations of
results from the loss of Archean (early
heat from the deep interior Precambrian) rocks, which
and is called plate in many cases formed the
tectonics.) Occasionally early continental cratons.
the small islands collide Cratons are large areas of
with each other to form continental lithosphere (or
larger islands. Eventually crust) that have remained
Source:  Unknown these larger islands will coherent and relatively
collide to form the cores of rigid since the
Archean the continents we know Precambrian. Laurentia,
Archean ("Ancient" or today.  Thank goodness the North American craton,
"Primitive") Era. This era those pesky asteroids and is one of the oldest and
begins about a billion years meteorites are now mostly largest. It includes the
after the formation of the gone, so impact craters Precambrian shields of
earth, and things have form only occasionally. Canada and Greenland, the
changed a lot! Mostly What about life? If you covered platform and
everything has cooled look closely, you will see basins of the North
down. Most of the water evidence of blue-green American interior.
vapor that was in the air algae (actually simple Laurentia owes its
has cooled and condensed bacteria) floating in the existence to a network of
to form a global ocean. ocean. That's all there is! Early Proterozoic orogenic
Even most of the carbon Just single-celled bacteria belts. Many of the belts are
dioxide is gone, having in the ocean. There is as collision zones preserving
been chemically changed yet no life on land. Life only the deformed margins
into limestone and began in the ocean near the of formerly independent
deposited at the bottom of beginning of this era. The microcontinents composed
the ocean. The air is now oldest known fossils - the of Archean crust. Other
mostly nitrogen, and the remains of different types belts contain accreted
Early Proterozoic island
arcs and associated or explosive volcanic the sea where they became
intraoceanic deposits. activity. High mountain sediments that muddied the
    Thus, we now know that ranges and plateaus were seawater. Some of the
cratons were the early built or pushed up above sediments were dissolved
"cores" of the continents; the level of the ocean until in the water, and as the
sedimentary rocks accreted finally the continents process kept on through
onto the edges of these settled to the forms of the ages the seas became
cratons later in geologic continental blocks our salty. The sediments,
time, and then were folded geographies show today. sorted by waves and
and bent up into mountains     However, the currents of the first oceans,
as one craton collided with Precambrian oceans did settled to the bottom of the
another, or were down- not settle in the basins we seas and were spread out
dropped when the cratons know, but covered much of on the sea floor. In the
split (rifted) apart. Note the continents with shallow course of a long time, as
that the craton for North seas in which the story of a layer upon layer of
America, now called the billion years of earth sediments were piled one
Canadian Shield or the history was to be recorded. on another, they were
Laurentian Shield, is The continental shelves compressed, cemented, and
located just to the north of are, even today, covered by consolidated into rock
Michigan, and includes shallow seas and there the which we call sedimentary.
parts of the western UP. geologic history of today is Each layer or bed is a
being recorded. What are stratum; layered or bedded
these records made in the rock is said to be stratified.
shallow seas--- these     Various minerals in the
tablets of time on which ancient igneous rocks were
the story of ages is told? made over into different
When the first igneous sediments. The hard
rock cracked, when the minerals like quartz
first drop of water moved, collected together as sand,
Source:  Unknown
the record began. When the and being heavy, were not
atmosphere cooled and carried so far out to sea.
frost arrived the recording They built up coarse and
The early, Precambrian became more rapid. When fine rocks which we call
continents were unlike plant and animal life sandstones. Other minerals
those we know today: they became abundant the were broken up into fine
were smaller and had record became clay and silt muds that
surfaces of igneous rocks. complicated. Changes of were carried far from shore
No life lived upon them. temperature caused the but eventually settled on
Continued squeeze of the granitic rocks to flake off the sea floor and
cooling, shrinking crust at the surface, gravity and compacted to a rock we
caused the pent up forces moving waters carried the call shale. Some of the
beneath to revolt many loosened rocks down the minerals disintegrated to
times and push the land slopes, rolled them form lime, or calcium
masses higher, or crack together, broke them into carbonate. As the igneous
their edges and there pour smaller and smaller rocks were eroded some
forth molten rock in quiet particles, carried them to minerals dissolved and
were carried to the sea in on this side of the earth teeth in their bodies, so
solution; there certain and another one on the their fossils will be hard to
chemical reactions caused other side. These huge find. The atmosphere is
the lime to be precipitated masses of land formed by about the same, mostly
and in places to build up collisions of the many, nitrogen, with a little water
great thicknesses of lime many islands made by vapor and carbon dioxide.
mud that eventually volcanoes during the But what's this? Free
solidified into a rock Archean and most of the oxygen released by the
known as limestone. Other Proterozoic eras. The algae floating in the oceans
chemical reactions caused earth's interior has cooled is beginning to collect in
iron minerals to be formed some more, and there are the air. These single-celled
which in turn settled to the fewer volcanoes than in the plants have been producing
bottom of shallow seas, Archean. Even though the oxygen for about two
and later in the geological movements of the earth's billion years, but up until
history gypsum and salt surface we call Plate now the oxygen has been
crystallized out of the sea Tectonics are still very fast combining chemically with
water to form great beds of and continental collisions iron and other elements to
gypsum and rock salt. are frequent (every few form great mineral deposits
hundred million years or around the world.
so!), the centers or cores of Paradoxically, this oxygen,
the continents are now which we must have to
quite large and stable. In live, is poisonous to most
fact, geologists date the of the life forms living on
beginning of the the Earth during the
Proterozoic Era by the age Proterozoic, so another
of the oldest continental great change in the types of
Source:  Unknown
rocks that have not been life is about to occur.
  reheated or chemically     The earth at this time is
altered. Life has not also very cold, with huge,
Proterozoic changed much during the bluish glacial ice sheets
Proterozoic ("Early Life") last two billion years, but visible across the
Era. Well, here we are the few changes are supercontinent, even in the
about 700 million years significant. Life is still normally warm equatorial
ago, near the end of the found only in the ocean, regions!   In fact, glaciers
longest time period in but somewhere around 1.7 invaded Michigan at this
geologic history. It began billion years ago, single- time; this glaciation is
about two billion years celled creatures appeared referred to as the
after the formation of the that had a real nucleus. Gowganda glaciation.
earth and lasted about Another important change PROTEROZOIC EARTH
another two billion years! is about to happen: true
So what has happened in multi-celled life is about to
all that time?  Hmmmmm. appear, some 30 million
There is a lot more land to years before the end of the
be seen. In fact, there are Proterozoic. These multi-
two supercontinents, one celled creatures will have
visible across the equator no hard parts like shells or
Source:  Unknown later cause the vast thicknesses of sand
Appalachians to form. To and iron sediments were
its west and south, more built up, and the world’s
Now let's focus in on the stable parts of the largest iron deposit was in
one craton that affects continents existed, where the making in Minnesota,
Michigan: the Canadian only subtle down-warping Wisconsin, and Michigan;
Shield.  Michigan began and up-warping occurred. and in that far ago time the
when a shield-shaped mass One of these foundations of Michigan’s
of igneous rock, nearly two "downwarped" areas wealth and the automobile
million square miles in would later become the industry were laid in the
area and centering about Michigan basin, in which old Huronian sediments we
Hudson’s Bay, formed the many thousands of meters now find in the iron ranges
original continent of North of sediments accumulated of Marquette, Baraga, Iron,
America which we refer to and later became rock. Dickinson, Menominee,
as the "Canadian Shield." and Gogebic counties.
The point of the shield
extended southward across
the area now the western
half of the Northern
Peninsula into Wisconsin,
and its southern edge was a
northward-bearing arc
extending from the Lake Source:  Unknown
Superior region to the
Source:  Photograph by Randy Schaetzl,
Adirondacks. Southward During the first part of the Professor of Geography - Michigan State
was a shallow sea covering Proterozoic, a 200 million
University

the remainder of the year-period of quiet, which

continental block. The we name
granite floor of the sea had The map below shows in
the Huronian from its
many depressions and detail where the important
record north of Lake
ridges, but only the basin- boundary is between the
Huron, thick sediments
shaped depression Precambrian rocks (PC: of
were laid down in a
bordering the shield on the the Canadian Shield) and
shallow sea trough that
southeast need interest us. the Paleozoic-age
covered the Lake Superior
The basin shallowed sedimentary rocks of the
region. In places thick sand
scoop-fashion eastward, Michigan Basin and
was deposited; in other
but the deepest part was surrounding areas (C: for
fine muds, and in other
about where the Southern Cambrian).
places pure lime,
Peninsula is now. That was accumulated in the shallow
the early setting of but slowly deepening sea.
Michigan, the basal Over the sand great masses
foundation of the State. of iron minerals
    The maps below show accumulated, either by
the extent of the Canadian chemical action or by the
Shield. To its east lies its work of iron forming
unstable edge, where bacteria, or by both and
folding of the rocks would perhaps other means, until
Source:  Unknown the Northern Peninsula. All moved along faults,
we can see of the oldest vertically and horizontally.
As soon as water fell on rocks are the Huron Some rock blocks were
the Canadian Shield and Mountains and the other shoved up onto others,
the first winds blew, rock granites and their kindred some were tipped on end
weathering began. The of Marquette, Baraga, and until a madly jumbled
rocks started to flake off Gogebic counties. Once mass was made of the flat
and break up, and erosion they were a mountainous Huronian sediments. The
was initiated. Sediments seacoast, but their summits red and black jaspillite of
were carried to and were worn in turn and all Jasper Knob near
deposited in the seas, and but the highest buried Ishpeming shows what
the first sandy beaches under later sediments happened. Into cracks in
were formed. Several times the rock warm and hot
in these early turbulent waters, heavily mineral-
eons the land at the edges laden, made their way.
of the seas were lifted into These waters left deposits
high mountain ranges, like of minerals that are the joy
the Penokeean Range, only of the collector, although
to be worn down and their the complex Huronian
sediments carried to the rocks in which they are
seas to build up new shores found have been the lure,
Source:  Unknown
and to be spread on the sea despair, and subject of
floor to form stratified great dispute among
Rumblings of a new
masses of sandstones, geologists for the last
geologic disturbance,
shales, and limestones. hundred years. The pink
mountain building,
Each newly formed beach pegmatite dike in the
interrupted the quiet
increased the land area and glistening white marble of
Huronian sedimentation of
advanced the land-water Felch Quarry tells a tale of
the Early Proterozoic, 2.5 -
boundary southward. With long sedimentation of pure
1.6 billion years ago.
each successive uplift the lime metamorphosed to
Again mountain building,
sedimentary rocks were marble, perhaps by the
termed the Penokean
bent, folded, broken, very molten rock that
Orogeny (1.8 billion years
twisted, contorted, and cracked and forced its way
ago) lifted the sediments,
changed. Masses of hot through the marble, then
now hardened to rocks, to
igneous rock were forced slowly cooled, forming
mountain heights, and in so
into the broken formations, large crystals of pegmatite.
doing crumbled, folded,
completely changing or
and contorted them. The
metamorphosing them in Parts of the text above have been
sandstones were paraphrased from C.M. Davis’ Readings in
many places so that the
metamorphosed to the Geography of Michigan (1964).
rocks made in the several
quartzite, shales to slate,
periods of mountain This material has been compiled for
limestones to green and educational use only, and may not be
building and sedimentation
white marbles, and the iron reproduced without permission.  One copy
became a very complex may be printed for personal use.  Please
sediments were folded and contact Randall Schaetzl (soils@msu.edu)
mass of disturbed, broken
changed with them. The for more information or permissions. 
(faulted), distorted rock ---
rocks were cracked and
the oldest rocks that
broken; they slipped and
underlie the western half of
[Figure1] Continents grow mean? These
when microcontinents, ancient
When did Earth or small continents, greenstones
collide with each other indicate the
become a or with a larger presence of
dynamic continent. Oceanic
subduction zones.

planet? island arcs also collide

with continents to make
Earth was always them grow.
dynamic! Earth has
changed many times Cratons
over billions of years.
The earliest continental
Huge mountains have
crust is now found in the
formed, been destroyed, Ice age glaciers scraped the
ancient cores of Canadian Shield down to the 4.28
and been replaced with
continents, called billion year old greenstone in
new mountains. Northwestern Quebec.[Figure2]
the cratons. Geologists
Continents have moved,
can learn many things
split apart, and collided
about the Precambrian
Supercontinent
with each other. Ocean
basins have opened up.
by studying the rocks of s
the cratons.
Life on Earth evolved There are times in Earth
slowly for billions of  Cratons contain history when all of the
years. felsic continents come
igneous rocks, together to form
which are remnants a supercontinent.
of the first Supercontinents come
Early 
continents.
Cratonic rocks cont
together and then break
apart. Pangaea was the
Continents ain rounded
sedimentary grains. last supercontinent on
The earliest crust was Rounded grains Earth, but it was not the
probably basalt. It may indicate that first. The supercontinent
have resembled the minerals erode before Pangaea is called
the current seafloor. d from an earlier Rodinia. Rodinia
rock. It also means contained about 75% of
This crust formed before
that rivers or seas the continental
there were any oceans. existed.
More than four billion landmass that is present
 One common rock today. The
years ago, continental type in the cratons
crust appeared. The first supercontinent came
is greenstone, a
continents were very metamorphosed together about 1.1 billion
small compared with volcanic rock years ago. Rodinia was
those today. (Figure below). not the first
Since greenstones supercontinent either.
Continents are found today in Scientists think that
oceanic trenches, three supercontinents
Grow what does the came before Rodina,
presence of making five so far in
greenstones Earth history.
 Convection on
Early Plate 
early Earth was
Tectonics faster and so plate
tectonics was
Since the early Earth faster. Since then,
was very hot, Earth has been
mantle convection was cooling.
very rapid. Plate
tectonics likely moved
quickly. The early Earth
was an active place with
abundant volcanic
eruptions
and earthquakes. The
remnants of these early
rocks are now seen in
the ancient cores of the
continents.

Further
Reading
Paleozoic Plate
Tectonics
Paleozoic and Mesozoic
Seas
Mesozoic Plate
Tectonics
Cenozoic Plate
Tectonics

Summary
 The first crust was
basalt. It resembled
the
modern seafloor.
 Microcontinents
come together to
create continents
and
supercontinents.