The Nectarian is a period in the geological timescale of the Moon, lying between the Pre-Nectarian and the Imbrian, and named after the Nectaris basin, a vast impact basin on the Moon's near side formed at its start. It was a time of intense bombardment, in which several of the large impact basins were created, among them Nectaris and Crisium. It is part of the period often called the Late Heavy Bombardment, although whether this was a sharp spike in impacts or the tail of a longer decline is debated. The lunar timescale is based on relative dating through crater counts and the overlap of basins and deposits, calibrated by radiometric ages of samples brought back by Apollo missions and Soviet Luna probes.
Before and after
- from about 4.1 billion years ago to 3.8 billion years agoLate Heavy Bombardment
- from about 3.92 billion years ago to 3.85 billion years agoNectarian
- from about 2.4 billion years ago to 2.1 billion years agoHuronian glaciation
- from about 1.8 billion years ago to 800 million years agoBoring Billion
- about 543 million years agoCambrian explosion
- about 444 million years agoOrdovician–Silurian extinction event
- from about 380 million years ago to 280 million years agoVariscan orogeny
- about 375 million years agoFish with limbs begin to walk: tetrapods evolve
- about 372 million years agoLate Devonian extinction
More in Earth & climate
- 79 CEVesuvius buries Pompeii and Herculaneum
- from 1303 to 1850Little Ice Age
- from October 1347 to January 1351The Black Death reaches Europe
- 1938Establishment of Mount Olympus
- 2001Establishment of Phong Nha–Ke Bang National Park
- 11 March 2020The WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic
The era
This moment belongs to the Archean (4.03 billion years ago to 2.5 billion years ago), continents, oceans and the first life.