Early Imbrian
| Divisions of Lunar geologic time : |
| Pre-Nectarian - Nectarian - Early Imbrian - Late Imbrian - Eratosthenian - Copernican |
In the lunar geologic timescale, the Early Imbrian epoch occurred between 3850 million years ago to about 3800 million years ago. It overlaps the end of the Late Heavy Bombardment of the inner solar system. The impact which created the huge Mare Imbrium basin occurred at the start of the epoch. The other large basins that dominate the lunar nearside (such as Crisium, Tranquilitatis, Serenitatis, Fecunditatis, and Procellarum) were also formed in this period. These basins filled with basalt mostly during the subsequent Late Imbrian epoch. The Early Imbrian was preceded by the Nectarian.
Relationship to Earth's geologic time scale
Since little or no geological evidence on Earth exists from the time spanned by the Early Imbrian epoch of the Moon, the Early Imbrian has been used by at least one notable scientific work[1] as an unofficial subdivision of the terrestrial Hadean eon.
| Hadean Eon | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Hadean does not have any recognizable subdivisions categorized by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. The following subdivisions represent one proposal that is loosely based on the lunar geologic time scale. | |||
| Cryptic | Basin Groups | Nectarian | Lower Imbrian |
References
- ↑ W. Harland, R. Armstrong, A. Cox, L. Craig, A. Smith, D. Smith (1990). A Geologic time scale 1989. Cambridge University Press.