The Proterozoic Eon of Precambrian Time: Chapter Objectives

After completing this chapter, students should:

1. Appreciate that plate tectonic processes had formed mountain belts similar to modern belts at least as early as 2 billion years ago.
2. Be able to describe the Wopmay orogen.
3. Know that the Proterozoic saw several episodes of continental glaciation, know when they occurred, and understand the evidence for them.
4. Understand the probable sequence of events that led from bacteria (prokaryotes) to multicellular animals and plants by the end of the Proterozoic.
5. Understand how oxygen built up in the Proterozoic atmosphere and the impact it had on life.
6. Know when the first unquestioned fossils of multicellular animals appeared, what they are, and what they tell us about the early explosive radiation of animal life.
7. Be able to explain how oxygen may have built up in the Neoproterozoic atmosphere as a result of the massive burial of organic carbon.
8. Know how North America was assembled from earlier terranes by continental accretion and orogeny.
9. Be able to describe the middle Proterozoic rifting of North America and the geologic features it produced.
10. Understand how and when the supercontinent Rodinia formed.
11. Be able to describe the late Proterozoic rifting that split Rodinia in half and created the Pacific Ocean.