Staten Island Timeline

Staten Island Timeline - 1.6 Billion Years Ago - 3,000 Years Ago

1.6 Billion years ago
Oldest known rock in the New York City area forms.

430 Million years ago
Staten Island located well offshore. Greenish deposits of Serpentine, formed in volcanic activity on the ocean floor, from this period are still present on the Island. Serpentintite deposits are visible where the Staten Island Expressway cuts through bedrock. (Paleozoic Era).

320 Million years ago
Collisions between the continental plates of Africa and North America form "Cameron's Line" a band of crushed rock 30-50 meters wide and 600 feet beneath the surface of the Island. It runs north to south through the center of the island.

75 Million years ago
The sand and clay that underlies most of the Southern and Western parts of Staten Island is formed during the Cretaceous period.

1.8 Million years ago
Four major glacial advances from Canada into the New York area leave Staten Island covered in ice (Pleistocene Era).

28,000 years ago
The Wisconsin Ice sheet begins forming and eventually spreads to Staten Island pushing a large pile of rocks ahead of it.

18,000 years ago
The advance of the Wisconsin Ice sheet stops on Staten Island. Todt Hill, 409 feet tall and the highest point on the US east coast south of Cadillac Mountain, Maine, is formed by the glacial advance.

13,000 years ago
Drainage from "Lake Hackensack", a glacial freshwater lake, cuts the valley for the Arthur Kill, separating Staten Island from New Jersey.

14,000 years ago
Last glacial ice melts in the New York area. Era of the "big game hunters." Hunting points from this period are found in the Rossville area of southwestern Staten Island.

8,000 years ago
Native American burial ground established at Ward's Point near Tottenville.

3,000 years ago
Permanent Native American settlements with agriculture established on Staten Island.