Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth - Hardcover

Bjornerud, Marcia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 081334249X ISBN 13: 9780813342498

Publisher: Basic Books, 2005

Synopsis

For readers of John McPhee and Stephen Jay Gould, this engaging armchair read to the making of the geologic record shows how to understand messages written in stone To many of us, the Earth's crust is a relic of ancient, unknowable history. But to a geologist, stones are richly illustrated narratives, telling gothic tales of cataclysm and reincarnation. For more than four billion years, in sand, granite and garnet schists, the planet has kept a rich and idiosyncratic journal of its past. Fulbright Scholar Marcia Bjornerud takes the reader along non an eye-opening tour of Deep Time, explaining in elegant prose what we see and feel beneath our feet. Both scientist and storyteller, Bjornerud uses anecdotes and metaphors to remind us that our home is a living thing with lessons to teach. She shows us how our planet has long maintained a delicate balance, and how the global give-and-take has sustained life on Earth through numerous upheavals. But with the rapidly escalating effects of human beings on their home planet, that cosmic balance is being threatened - and the consequences may be catastrophic. Containing a glossary and detailed timescale, as well as vivid description and historic accounts, Reading the Rocks is literally a history of the world, for all friends of the Earth.

About this title

About the Author

Marcia Bjornerud is a professor and the Chair of Geology at Lawrence University. She is a Fellow of the Geographical Society of America and was a 2000-2001 Fulbright Scholar. She lives in Wisconsin, USA and this is her first book.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 081334249X
• ISBN 13: 9780813342498
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320