Informazioni su questo prodotto

Product Identifiers

PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated

ISBN-100198502710

ISBN-139780198502715

eBay Product ID (ePID)1101588

Product Key Features

Book TitleStepping Stones : the Making of Our Home World

Number of Pages430 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year1999

TopicGeneral, Cosmology, Earth Sciences / General, Life Sciences / Biology

IllustratorYes

GenreScience

AuthorStephen Drury

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.3 in

Item Weight30.7 Oz

Item Length9.3 in

Item Width6.3 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN98-045284

Dewey Edition21

Dewey Decimal525

Table Of ContentIntroductionPart 1 - How the world works1. Energy balance sheets3. The essence of life4. Cosmic setting: dancing to ancient tunesPart 2 - Peering into time5. Managing time6. Continents adrift7. The surface of events8. Life, rock, and airPart 3 - Starstuff9. Alchemy in the stars10. Graveyard for comets11. Landscape for lifePart 4 - 'A warm little pond'12. What life is all about13. Genesis and the deuteronomists14. Life's tender yearsPart 5 - Climate, mantle, and life15. Fumes from the engine room16. Continents shape climate17. Icehouse and greenhouse worldsPart 6 - Life's ups and downs19. Armageddon revisited20. Reaching for new horizonsPart 7 - The peoples' planet22. The human record23. All the world's a commodity

SynopsisMany people know more about the planets Venus and Mars than they do about our home planet, Earth. Unique in our solar system, and so far as we know in the Universe itself, the Earth has been evolving for the past five billion years, and is the result of the dynamic interplay of astronomical, physical, and chemical forces ranging from the vast to the barely perceptible. The evolution of the earth has never been predictable. Life has come very close to being extinguished many times. After each such crisis, the survivors and their genes have diversified and grown in number to exploit all opportunities. Without such traumas it is hardly likely that evolution's pace could have reached its present advanced level; that of conscious life capable of changing the world, contemplating it, and in doing so changing itself at geologically stupendous rates. In Stepping Stones, Stephen Drury explores how such a seemingly fragile world could have been formed and developed. Looking at the astonishing leaps, and near catastrophes that have occurred along the way, intermingled with inexorable but slow change, the book interweaves the evidence from geology, physics, biology, and chemistry, to tell an extraordinary story of the earth's evolution spanning nearly 5 billion years., The Earth has been evolving for the past five billion years, the result of the dynamic interplay of astronomical, physical, and chemical forces that range from the vast to the barely perceptible. Now, in Stepping Stones , Stephen Drury illuminates the processes that have formed the Earth, creating the atmosphere, the oceans, the continents, and life itself. Looking at the astonishing leaps and near catastrophes that have occurred along the way--intermingled with inexorable but slow change--the book interweaves the evidence from geology, physics, biology, and chemistry, to tell an extraordinary story . We discover how the Earth works--the interaction of geothermal and solar energy, the role of the atmosphere, and the impact of tides and rotation. We learn how matter originated in processes in the stars and how it is assembled in planetary systems, and we discover how the Earth came to have a Moon through a giant collision--and its consequences for the evolution of Earth and life. Drury discusses the origin of atmosphere and water by volcanic activity, the paradox of the cold young Sun and the essential role of carbon dioxide in avoiding an ice-bound planet, and he evaluates theories for the origin of life in light of the chemistry of the early Earth. He describes the supercontinents Rodinia and Gondwanaland, the icehouse and greenhouse worlds of the last billion years, the Cambrian explosion of life forms, and finally human origins and evolution. An original and stimulating account of the history of our home planet, Stepping Stones does for the Earth what Carl Sagan did for the cosmos--it offers general readers an illuminating tour of a fascinating and little-known area of science., The Earth has been evolving for the past five billion years, the result of the dynamic interplay of astronomical, physical, and chemical forces that range from the vast to the barely perceptible. Now, in Stepping Stones, Stephen Drury illuminates the processes that have formed the Earth, creating the atmosphere, the oceans, the continents, and life itself. Looking at the astonishing leaps and near catastrophes that have occurred along the way--intermingled with inexorable but slow change--the book interweaves the evidence from geology, physics, biology, and chemistry, to tell an extraordinary story . We discover how the Earth works--the interaction of geothermal and solar energy, the role of the atmosphere, and the impact of tides and rotation. We learn how matter originated in processes in the stars and how it is assembled in planetary systems, and we discover how the Earth came to have a Moon through a giant collision--and its consequences for the evolution of Earth and life. Drury discusses the origin of atmosphere and water by volcanic activity, the paradox of the cold young Sun and the essential role of carbon dioxide in avoiding an ice-bound planet, and he evaluates theories for the origin of life in light of the chemistry of the early Earth. He describes the supercontinents Rodinia and Gondwanaland, the icehouse and greenhouse worlds of the last billion years, the Cambrian explosion of life forms, and finally human origins and evolution. An original and stimulating account of the history of our home planet, Stepping Stones does for the Earth what Carl Sagan did for the cosmos--it offers general readers an illuminating tour of a fascinating and little-known area of science.

LC Classification NumberQB632.D78 1999