Deep time is a term introduced and applied by John McPhee to the concept of geologic time in his Basin and Range, parts of which originally appeared in the New Yorker magazine.
Consider the Earth’s history as the old measure of the English yard, the distance from the King’s nose to the tip of his outstretched hand. One stroke of a nail file on his middle finger erases human history.
Bibliography
“Deep Time.” 2021. Wikipedia, December. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deep_time&oldid=1059381667.