Description
Book SynopsisThe dramatic history of planet Earth and the rocky road to understanding the past * A probing account of the history of the earth and an introduction to the many eccentric characters that have attempted to understand its origins.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements.
Introduction.
PART I: CUTTING THROUGH EARTH TIME—MR. SMITH'S SECTION FROM LONDON TO SNOWDON.
1. Recent Earth Time - The Holocene.
2. The Diluvium - The Flood and the Ice Ages.
3. Below the Surface - Into Tertiary Times.
4. Layer upon Layer - Deeper and Deeper into Earth Tine.
5. Oolites and Lias - The Jurassic before the Park.
6. Red Beds in the Midlands and Russia.
7. Fuelling the Industrial Revolution.
8. A Boundary dispute in the Welsh Hills.
9. The end of the Line - The Precambrian.
PART II: MAJOOR POWELL'S BOAT TRIP THROUGH THE GRAND CANYON.
10. A Glympse into the abyss of Earth Time.
11. Signs of life appear.
12. The cambrian arms race.
13. The Upper Paleozoic - American Style.
14. The Missing Mesozoic and the making of the Canyon.
15. Peopling the Americas.
16. Rock of ages - Dating rocks and fossils.
Earth Time - Conclusion.
References.
Index.
