The Earth Book
eBook - ePub

The Earth Book

From the Beginning to the End of Our Planet, 250 Milestones in the History of Earth Science

Jim Bell

  1. 528 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Earth Book

From the Beginning to the End of Our Planet, 250 Milestones in the History of Earth Science

Jim Bell

Book details
Table of contents
Citations

About This Book

A beautifully illustrated presentation of 250 milestones in the history of our home planet, from celebrated geologist and planetary scientist Jim Bell. Spanning Earth's entire history, from its birth 4.6 billion years ago to its inevitable destruction billions of years into the future, this stunning volume chronicles the life of our home planet in 250 well-chosen milestones. Jim Bell leads us on a tour of the events, processes, people, and places that have shaped our growing knowledge of Earth, from the oceans' formation and the first perilous polar expeditions to deadly volcanoes and Earth "selfies" from space. He covers relevant topics in a range of fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, geology, mineralogy, planetary science, life science, public policy, atmospheric/climate science, and engineering, along with notes on key scientists and inventors. At a time when it's crucial to understand Earth as a complex interdependent system, and our role in that system, The Earth Book will enhance your appreciation of our home.

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Information

Publisher
Union Square & Co.
Year
2019
ISBN
9781454935551
Topic
Physical Sciences
Subtopic
Geology & Earth Sciences

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Introduction
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. c. 4.54 Billion BCE Earth Is Born
  9. c. 4.54 Billion BCE Earth’s Core Forms
  10. c. 4.5 Billion BCE Birth of the Moon
  11. c. 4.5 Billion BCE Earth’s Mantle and Magma Ocean
  12. c. 4.5–4 Billion BCE The Hadean
  13. c. 4.1 Billion BCE Late Heavy Bombardment
  14. c. 4.5 Billion BCE Continental Crust
  15. c. 4 Billion BCE Earth’s Oceans
  16. c. 4–2.5 Billion BCE The Archean
  17. c. 4–3 Billion BCE? Plate Tectonics
  18. c. 3.8 Billion BCE? Life on Earth
  19. c. 3.7 Billion BCE Stromatolites
  20. c. 3.5 Billion BCE Greenstone Belts
  21. c. 3.4 Billion BCE Photosynthesis
  22. c. 3–1.8 Billion BCE Banded Iron Formations
  23. c. 2.5 Billion BCE The Great Oxidation
  24. c. 2 Billion BCE Eukaryotes
  25. c. 1.2 Billion BCE The Origin of Sex
  26. c. 1 Billion BCE Complex Multicellular Organisms
  27. c. 720–635 Million BCE Snowball Earth?
  28. c. 550 Million BCE Cambrian Explosion
  29. c. 500 Million BCE Roots of the Pyrénées
  30. c. 480 Million BCE The Appalachians
  31. c. 470 Million BCE First Land Plants
  32. c. 450 Million BCE Mass Extinctions
  33. c. 375 Million BCE First Animals on Land
  34. c. 320 Million BCE The Ural Mountains
  35. c. 320 Million BCE Reptiles
  36. c. 300 Million BCE The Atlas Mountains
  37. c. 300 Million BCE Pangea
  38. c. 252 Million BCE The Great Dying
  39. c. 220 Million BCE Mammals
  40. c. 200 Million BCE Triassic Extinction
  41. c. 200–65 Million BCE Age of the Dinosaurs
  42. c. 160 Million BCE The First Birds
  43. c. 155 Million BCE The Sierra Nevada
  44. c. 140 Million BCE The Atlantic Ocean
  45. c. 130 Million BCE Flowers
  46. c. 80 Million BCE The Rockies
  47. c. 70 Million BCE The Himalayas
  48. c. 66 Million BCE Deccan Traps
  49. c. 65 Million BCE The Alps
  50. c. 65 Million BCE Dinosaur-Killing Impact
  51. c. 60 Million BCE Primates
  52. c. 35 Million BCE Antarctica
  53. c. 30 Million BCE East African Rift Zone
  54. c. 30–20 Million BCE Advanced C46 Photosynthesis
  55. c. 30–10 Million BCE Cascade Volcanoes
  56. c. 28 Million BCE Hawaiian Islands
  57. c. 10 Million BCE The Andes
  58. c. 10 Million BCE First Hominids
  59. c. 7 Million BCE Sahara Desert
  60. c. 6–5 Million BCE The Grand Canyon
  61. c. 6–5 Million BCE The Mediterranean Sea
  62. c. 5.5 Million BCE The Caspian and Black Seas
  63. c. 5 Million BCE Galápagos Islands
  64. c. 3.4 Million BCE to 3300 BCE The Stone Age
  65. c. 3 Million BCE The Dead Sea
  66. c. 2 Million BCE Death Valley
  67. c. 400,000 BCE Lake Victoria
  68. c. 200,000 BCE Homo sapiens Emerges
  69. c. 70,000 BCE The San People
  70. c. 50,000 BCE Arizona Impact
  71. c. 40,000 BCE The First Mines
  72. c. 38,000 BCE La Brea Tar Pits
  73. c. 30,000 BCE Domestication of Animals
  74. c. 10,000 BCE Invention of Agriculture
  75. c. 10,000 BCE End of the Last “Ice Age”
  76. c. 9000 BCE Beringia Land Bridge
  77. c. 8000 BCE The Great Lakes
  78. c. 7000 BCE Fermentation of Beer and Wine
  79. c. 6000 BCE Fertilizer
  80. c. 3300–1200 BCE The Bronze Age
  81. c. 3200 BCE Synthetic Pigments
  82. c. 3000 BCE Oldest Living Trees
  83. c. 3000 BCE Stonehenge
  84. c. 3000 BCE The Spice Trade
  85. c. 2500 BCE The Pyramids
  86. c. 2000 BCE Magnetite
  87. c. 1200–500 BCE The Iron Age
  88. c. 800 BCE Aqueducts
  89. c. 600 BCE First World Maps
  90. c. 500 BCE The Earth Is Round!
  91. c. 500 BCE Madagascar
  92. c. 300 BCE Quartz
  93. c. 300 BCE Great Library of Alexandria
  94. c. 280 BCE A Sun-Centered Cosmos
  95. c. 250 BCE Size of the Earth
  96. 79 Pompeii
  97. c. 700–1200 Polynesian Diaspora
  98. c. 1000 Mayan Astronomy
  99. c. 1370–1640 Great Wall of China
  100. c. 1400 Native American Creation Stories
  101. c. 1500 The Little Ice Age
  102. c. 1500 Civil Engineering
  103. 1519 Circumnavigating the Globe
  104. 1541 Amazon River
  105. 1600 Many Earths?
  106. 1600 Huaynaputina Eruption
  107. 1619 Laws of Planetary Motion
  108. 1669 Foundations of Geology
  109. 1686 Tides
  110. 1687 Gravity
  111. 1747 Feldspar
  112. 1769 Transit of Venus
  113. 1788 Unconformities
  114. 1789 Olivine
  115. 1791 Desalination
  116. 1794 Rocks from Space
  117. 1798 Population Growth
  118. 1802–1805 Platinum Group Metals
  119. 1804 Charting North America
  120. 1811 Reading the Fossil Record
  121. 1814 Sunlight Deciphered
  122. 1815 Mount Tambora Eruption
  123. 1815 Modern Geologic Maps
  124. 1830 Uniformitarianism
  125. c. 1830 Industrial Revolution
  126. 1837 Discovering Ice Ages
  127. 1845 Birth of Environmentalism
  128. 1851 Proof that the Earth Spins
  129. c. 1855–1870 Deforestation
  130. 1858–1859 Natural Selection
  131. 1858 Airborne Remote Sensing
  132. 1859 Solar Flares and Space Weather
  133. 1862 The Age of the Earth
  134. 1864 (Geo) Science Fiction
  135. 1869 Exploring the Grand Canyon
  136. c. 1870 The Anthropocene
  137. 1870 Soil Science
  138. 1872 National Parks
  139. 1879 The US Geological Survey
  140. 1883 Krakatoa Eruption
  141. 1892 The Sierra Club
  142. 1896 The Greenhouse Effect
  143. 1896 Radioactivity
  144. 1896 Structure of the Atmosphere
  145. 1896 Women in Earth Science
  146. 1900 Galveston Hurricane
  147. 1902 Controlling the Nile
  148. 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
  149. 1906 Hunting for Meteorites
  150. 1908 The Tunguska Explosion
  151. 1909 Reaching the North Pole
  152. 1910 Big Burn Wildfire
  153. 1911 Reaching the South Pole
  154. 1911 Machu Picchu
  155. 1912 Continental Drift
  156. 1913 The Ozone Layer
  157. 1914 The Panama Canal
  158. 1915 Exploring Katmai
  159. 1921 Russian Famine
  160. 1925 Tri-State Tornado
  161. 1926 Liquid-Fueled Rockets
  162. 1926 Exploration by Aviation
  163. 1933 Angel Falls
  164. 1934 Geology of Corals
  165. 1935 Dust Bowl
  166. 1936 The Inner Core
  167. 1937 Landfills
  168. 1943 Exploring the Oceans
  169. 1943 Sky Islands
  170. 1945 Geosynchronous Satellites
  171. 1946 Cloud Seeding
  172. 1947 Weather Radar
  173. 1948 Tracing Human Origins
  174. 1949 Island Arcs
  175. 1953 Ascending Everest
  176. 1954 Nuclear Power
  177. 1957 Mapping the Seafloor
  178. 1957 Sputnik
  179. 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year (IGY)
  180. 1958 Earth’s Radiation Belts
  181. 1960 Weather Satellites
  182. 1960 Understanding Impact Craters
  183. 1960 Mariana Trench
  184. 1960 Valdivia Earthquake
  185. 1961 Humans in Space
  186. 1961 Terraforming
  187. 1963 Reversing Magnetic Polarity
  188. 1966 Endosymbiosis
  189. 1966 Earth Selfies
  190. 1967 Extremophiles
  191. 1968 Leaving Earth’s Gravity
  192. 1970 Meteorites and Life
  193. 1970 Earth Day
  194. 1972 Earth Science Satellites
  195. 1972 Geology on the Moon
  196. 1973 Seafloor Spreading
  197. 1973 Tropical Rain/Cloud Forests
  198. 1973 Global Positioning System
  199. 1975 Insect Migration
  200. 1975 Magnetic Navigation
  201. 1976 Temperate Rainforests
  202. 1977 Voyager Golden Record
  203. 1977 Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents
  204. 1978 Wind Power
  205. 1979 A World Wide Web
  206. 1980 Mount St. Helens Eruption
  207. 1980 Extinction Impact Hypothesis
  208. 1981 Great Barrier Reef
  209. 1982 Genetic Engineering of Crops
  210. 1982 Basin and Range
  211. 1982 Solar Power
  212. 1982 Volcanic Explosivity Index
  213. 1983 Gorillas in the Mist
  214. 1983 Plant Genetics
  215. 1984 The Oscillating Magnetosphere
  216. 1985 Underwater Archaeology
  217. 1986 Chernobyl Disaster
  218. 1987 California Condors
  219. 1987 Yucca Mountain
  220. 1988 Light Pollution
  221. 1988 Chimpanzees
  222. 1991 Biosphere 2
  223. 1991 Mount Pinatubo Eruption
  224. 1992 Tundra
  225. 1992 Boreal Forests (Taiga)
  226. 1993 Oceanography from Space
  227. 1994 Hydroelectric Power
  228. 1995 Earthlike Exoplanets
  229. 1997 Large Animal Migrations
  230. 1998 Ocean Conservation
  231. 1999 Earth’s Spin Slows Over Time
  232. 1999 Torino Impact Hazard Scale
  233. 1999 Vargas Landslide
  234. 2004 Sumatran Earthquake and Tsunami
  235. 2004 Grasslands and Chaparral
  236. 2007 Carbon Footprint
  237. 2008 Global Seed Vault
  238. 2010 Eyjafjallajökull Eruption
  239. 2011 Building Bridges
  240. 2011 Temperate Deciduous Forests
  241. 2012 Lake Vostok
  242. 2013 Savanna
  243. 2013 Rising CO46
  244. 2016 Long-Duration Space Travel
  245. 2017 North American Solar Eclipse
  246. 2029 Apophis Near Miss
  247. ~2050 Settlements on Mars?
  248. ~2100 End of Fossil Fuels?
  249. ~50,000 Next Ice Age?
  250. ~100,000 Yellowstone Supervolcano
  251. ~100,000–200,000 Loihi
  252. ~500,000 Next Big Asteroid Impact?
  253. ~250 Million Pangea Proxima
  254. ~600 Million Last Total Solar Eclipse
  255. ~1 Billion Earth’s Oceans Evaporate
  256. ~2–3 Billion Earth’s Core Solidifies
  257. ~5 Billion The End of the Earth
  258. GSA Geologic Timescale
  259. Notes and Further Reading
  260. Photo Credits