Brief History of Earth

<p><b>Harvard's acclaimed geologist charts Earth's history in accessible style (AP)</b></p><p><b>A sublime chronicle of our planet. -Booklist STARRED review</b></p><p>How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? </p><p>Odds are where you're standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava crushed by a towering sheet of ice rocked by a nearby meteor strike or perhaps choked by poison gases drowned beneath ocean perched atop a mountain range or roamed by fearsome monsters. Probably most or even all of the above. </p><p>The story of our home planet and the organisms spread across its surface is far more spectacular than any Hollywood blockbuster filled with enough plot twists to rival a bestselling thriller. But only recently have we begun to piece together the whole mystery of our planet's past into a coherent narrative. Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing twenty first-century climate change in deep context <i>A Brief History of Earth</i> is an indispensable look at where we've been and where we're going.</p><p><b>Features original illustrations depicting Earth history and nearly 50 figures (maps tables photographs graphs).</b></p><p>This essential work of popular science explains: </p><ul><li><b>Deep Earth History: </b> Follow the epic 4.6-billion-year story of our planet from roiling seas of lava to the age of fearsome monsters.</li><li><b>Accessible Science Writing: </b> Understand the complex forces that shaped our world through a narrative filled with enough plot twists to rival a bestselling thriller.</li><li><b>Geological Perspective: </b> See how the ground beneath your feet was once crushed by ice drowned beneath oceans or perched atop mountain ranges.</li><li><b>Climate Change in Context: </b> Grasp the significance of twenty-first-century climate change by placing it within the grand narrative of Earth's past and future.</li></ul>