Douglas Palmer 
Earth Time 
Exploring the Deep Past from Victorian England to the Grand Canyon

The 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.

* Full of fascinating anecdotes about 19th century explorers and
natural philosophers who first carved up Earth’s history just as
others were carving up the globe.

* Unravels the fascinating history of rock strata and the
implications they have had on accepted theories on the Earth’s
life.

* Considers the future of the earth, and what a repeat of some of
the catastrophic events of the earth’s past, such as major
earthquakes and asteroid collisions, could mean for life
today.

Содержание

Acknowledgements.

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.

Об авторе

Douglas Palmer is an academic, lecturer and popular science writer. He is author or co-author of a wide range of books on prehistoric life and fossils, including the best selling Earth. He teaches for the Cambridge University Natural Science Tripos and the International Summer School. A former earth sciences lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin, he also spent two years as an exhibition coordinator at the National Museum of Wales.