The planet in a pebble : a journey into Earth's deep history / Jan Zalasiewicz.
"Every pebble has many stories to tell. Its particular atoms, its crystals, its minerals, its grains, its textures, its strata, its tiny fossils bear evidence to a history that stretches back billions of years."--From Book flap.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780199569700
- ISBN: 0199569703
- Physical Description: xiv, 234 p., [4] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), maps ; 23 cm.
- Publisher: Oxford ; Oxford University Press, 2010.
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-228) and index. |
Formatted Contents Note: | Stardust -- From the depths of the earth -- Distant lands -- To the rendezvous -- The sea -- Ghosts observed -- Ghosts in absentia -- Where on earth? -- Gold! -- The oil window -- Making mountains -- Breaking the surface -- Futures. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Historical geology. Earth > History. Pebbles. Petrology. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Kirtland Community College.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kirtland Community College Library | QE 28.3 .Z35 2010 | 30542969 | General Collection | Available | - |
The Planet in a Pebble : A Journey into Earth's Deep History
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Summary
The Planet in a Pebble : A Journey into Earth's Deep History
This is the story of a single pebble. It is just a normal pebble, as you might pick up on holiday - on a beach in Wales, say. Its history, though, carries us into abyssal depths of time, and across the farthest reaches of space. This is a narrative of the Earth's long and dramatic history, as gleaned from a single pebble. It begins as the pebble-particles form amid unimaginable violence in distal realms of the Universe, in the Big Bang and in supernova explosions and continues amid the construction of the Solar System. Jan Zalasiewicz shows the almost incredible complexity present in such a small and apparently mundane object. Many events in the Earth's ancient past can be deciphered from a pebble: volcanic eruptions; the lives and deaths of extinct animals and plants; the alien nature of long-vanished oceans; and transformations deep underground, including the creations of fool's gold and of oil.Zalasiewicz demonstrates how geologists reach deep into the Earth's past by forensic analysis of even the tiniest amounts of mineral matter. Many stories are crammed into each and every pebble around us. It may be small, and ordinary, this pebble - but it is also an eloquent part of our Earth's extraordinary, never-ending story.