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Earth in 100 Groundbreaking Discoveries Douglas Palmer

Earth in 100 Groundbreaking Discoveries By Douglas Palmer

Earth in 100 Groundbreaking Discoveries by Douglas Palmer


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Summary

Uncovered here are the 100 groundbreaking discoveries that reveal why Earth is the one lucky blue planet in our Solar System that can support life and how this has come about in its myriad forms.

Earth in 100 Groundbreaking Discoveries Summary

Earth in 100 Groundbreaking Discoveries by Douglas Palmer

Uncovered here are the 100 groundbreaking discoveries that reveal why Earth is the one lucky blue planet in our Solar System that can support life and how this has come about in its myriad forms. The Material World: clay and quartz, feldspar and diamond, satellite image of deltaic muds, sandy desert, feldspar crystals, diamond, crystal, the water cycle, seawater, clouds, glacier ice, volcanic gas propelling pyroclastic flow. Earth's Engine: computer model of flow in the core and the magnetic field, major fault zone e.g. San Andreas or East African Rift; folded rocks in mountains e.g. one of the alpine 'nappes' or Zagros mountain folds and erupting volcano. Earth's Changing Face: Earth's oldest rocks (Greenland or Pilbara, Australia), stromatolites from Western Australia - early marine rocks, banded iron formation rocks (Australia), snowball Earth glacial deposits in Namibia, Carboniferous coal deposits with seat earths in which the plants grew. Living Earth: hydrothermal vent communities, hot-spring life forms, simple plants e.g. lichens and mosses and complex ones such as modern flowering plants, domesticated plants and animals. Past Life: 3.2 billion year old acritarch spores from South Africa, fossil red algae (Bangiomorpha) and first evidence for sexual reproduction, Cooksonia (first true land plant). Life Evolves: the Ediacaran explosion in late Precambrian times, the Cenozoic explosion of mammals, insects and flowering plants, the human family bursts upon the scene, trilobites slowly evolve, the end of the Palaeozoic world 251 million years ago, the end of the Mesozoic world 65 million years ago. Earth's Future: computer simulations of future plate positions, what the world will look like with changing sealevel, artists impressions of future evolutionary adaptations.

About Douglas Palmer

Douglas Palmer is a science writer and lecturer on Earth Sciences for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. His most recent books include The Origins of Man, Fossils, Dinosaurs, The Complete Earth, Seven Million Years, Earth Time, Unearthing the Past, Earth, Prehistoric Past Revealed.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Birth of a planet. Earth's oldest materials. Geological dating. The oldest rocks. The early atmosphere. The evolving hydrosphere. Layered Earth. Probing Earth's interior. Tectonic Earth. The molten core. 'D double-prime'. Exploring the mantle. The base of the crust. Oceanic crust. Long-lived continents. Earth's continental rocks. Continental rifting. Making mountains. Tectonic uplift. Glacial puzzles. Earthquakes and plate tectonics. What makes faults slip? A case study in volcanism. Island arc volcanoes. Hot spot volcanoes. Earth's greatest eruptions. First fossils? LUCA. Controversial origins. Rising oxygen levels. From simple to complex life. Rodinia. Snowball Earth. The phosphorus effect. Gondwana and Pangea. Mysterious Ediacarans. The first animals. Secrets of the sponge genome. The Doushantuo embryos. Life in the Cambrian seas. Soft bodies from the Ordovician. Avalonia. Ordovician boom and bust. Living on the land. Oxygen booms and growth spurts. Four feet on the ground. The fossils of East Kirkton. Joggins Fossil Cliffs. Coal forests and glaciations. Early Permian life. The Great Dying. Triassic survivors. Rise of the dinosaurs. Late Triassic life. Mongolian mammals. Africa's giant dinosaurs. Australia's polar dinosaurs. India's journey north. Evolution of flowering plants. Sauropod puzzles. Linking birds and dinosaurs. Dinosaur eggs and babies. The end of the Mesozoic. The Cenozoic recovery. Primate beginnings. PETM - The Great Warming. The Great Rift Valley. Changing climates of the past. The australopithecine clan. The real 'Great Flood'. The Quaternary Ice Age. Genus Homo. The first art. Neanderthal mysteries. Unexpected cousins. The Younger Dryas. Megafloods. The Holocene rebound. Domestication of plants and animals. Disappearing megafauna. Biodiversity. Extremophiles. The Census of Marine Life. Human overkill. The carbon dioxide record. Climate change and mountain erosion. Changing sea levels. Habitats on the move. Danger from the soil? Freshwater challenges. Does coal have a future? Atmospheric pollution. Ocean hypoxia. Energy futures. The Athabasca tar sands. Threat from the skies. Future sea levels. Future tectonics. The fate of the Earth. Glossary and Timeline. Index. Acknowledgements.

Additional information

GOR007702243
9780857385017
0857385011
Earth in 100 Groundbreaking Discoveries by Douglas Palmer
Used - Like New
Paperback
Quercus Publishing
2011-09-01
416
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
The book has been read, but looks new. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket is included if applicable. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins

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