Geological Age

The Earth is believed to be between 4 and 5 billion years old.  Geological Age is most commonly measured in millions of years.  Geologists have divided rocks into periods which cover a specific age range.  These periods have been dated by a range of scientific techniques, and together they provide a history of the Earth going back over 3 billion years.

Any one place on Earth may have rocks of some periods and not others - perhaps some types and ages of rocks were never there or they may have been eroded away by rain, wind or ice.

Leicestershire and Rutland have rocks from the periods below; other periods which are not present locally but exist elsewhere in the UK are in italics.

More information is available on the BGS website.