The Little Book of Planet Earth (Little Book Series) - Hardcover

Meissner, Rolf

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0387952586 ISBN 13: 9780387952581

Publisher: Copernicus, 2002

Synopsis

Acknowledgments chapter 1 The Roots of Earth Sciences 1 Classical Scientific Thought 1 The Copernican Revolution 2 From Physics and Philosophy to Geology 4 The Age of the Earth 6 chapter 2 The Earth in the Context of Our Solar System 9 The Origins of the Solar System The Elements of the Solar System The Planets Circling the Sun chapter 3 The Formation of Earth and Moon 21 Similarities and Differences 21 Exploring the Moon chapter 4 The Interior of the Earth and the Role of Seismology Seismic Waves 28 The Earth’s Interior 36 chapter 5 Rotation and Shape, Gravity and Tides 41 Describing the Earth’s Shape Tides 44 Rotation 44 43 27 23 15 12 10 xiii xi chapter 6 The Earth’s Magnetic Field 47 Establishing a Physical Concept Reversals of the Magnetic Field 51 Paleomagnetism chapter 7 Atom―Mineral―Rock 59 Crystallization 60 Minerals in Crust and Mantle 60 Rocks chapter 8 The Early Ages 71 The Archean 71 The Proterozoic 77 chapter 9 Radioactive Dating The Chemistry of Unstable Elements Determining the Age Applications of Radioactive Dating Techniques Carbon Dating 90 chapter10 Plate Tectonics Twentieth-Century Research Gathering Evidence 95 Drifting Plates 3 Pangea and Beyond 4 chapter11 The Crust of the Earth 7 The Moho 7 The Crust Hydrocarbons 4 Coal 9 Other Subsurface-based Resources 9 12 12 12 108 10 10 10 10 94 93 89 83 81 81 63 52 48 chapter12 Formation of Mountains and Basins Collisions Orogeny Sediment Basins

About this title

From the Back Cover

Our Earth In A Nutshell...

For thousands of years, people have been trying to solve the riddle of our planet's composition and its position in the Universe. But only twentieth-century research revealed how Earth emerged out of the solar nebula, and what it is made of. In The Little Book of Planet Earth, Rolf Meissner gives us an insight into different aspects of earth sciences, and answers questions such as:

How was our Solar System formed and, with it, our planet?

How does the Earth's magnetic field work?

What is the role of plate tectonics, and why does it make Earth such a special planet?

How did life on our planet evolve?

What techniques do scientists have to determine the age of rocks and fossils?

What seismological methods are applied for the exploration of the Earth's interior?

What natural resources do we have, and are they infinite?

Edition details

• Publisher: Copernicus
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0387952586
• ISBN 13: 9780387952581
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 218