The Earth

For generations, the ground beneath the feet of our ancestors seemed solid and unchanging. Around 30 years ago, two things happened that were to revolutionize the understanding of our home planet. First, geologists realized that the continents themselves were drifting across the surface of the globe and that oceans were being created and destroyed. Secondly, pictures of the entire planet were returned from space. As the astronomer Fred Hoyle had predicted, this 'let loose an idea as powerful as any in history'. Suddenly, the Earth began to be viewed as a single entity; a dynamic, interacting whole, controlled by complex processes we scarcely understood. It began to seem less solid. As one astronaut put it, 'a blue jewel on black velvet; small, fragile and touchingly alone'. Geologists at last were able to see the whole as well as the detail; the wood as well as the trees. This book brings their account up to date with the latest understanding of the processes that govern our planet.

ISBN 0192803077   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780192803078 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 148 Publisher Oxford University Press   Published in Oxford Imprint Oxford Paperbacks   Series ISSN 90 Format Paperback   Series title Very Short Introductions Publication date 26 Jun 2003   Height (mm) 174 Library of Congress QE26.3.R43   Width (mm) 111 DEWEY 551   Spine width (mm) 10 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level General Pages 160

		Acknowledgements
		List of illustrations
1		Dynamic planet		1
2		Deep time		20
3		Deep Earth		35
4		Under the sea		54
5		Drifting continents		76
6		Volcanoes		98
7		When the ground shakes		115
		Epilogue		131
		Further reading		135
		Index		137

"A useful overview of the processes that have shaped our planet. All in all, if you have limited time and only want to dip into a subject, this sort of condensed introduction to a complicated topic like the Earth will hopefully whet your appetite for a more in-depth knowledge."--Katherine Joy, The Astrobiology Society of Britain

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