| |
| |
Preface | |
| |
| |
| |
How Has Earth Evolved? | |
| |
| |
| |
The Birth of Planet Earth | |
| |
| |
From Meteorites to Earth | |
| |
| |
The Formation of the Moon | |
| |
| |
Early Earth Organizes Itself | |
| |
| |
The Emergence of an Atmosphere and an Ocean | |
| |
| |
| |
Learning the Age of Earth | |
| |
| |
The Seeds of Doubt | |
| |
| |
The Emergence of the Revolutionary Concept of an Old Earth | |
| |
| |
Radioactivity and the Age of Earth | |
| |
| |
| |
The Evolution of the Continents | |
| |
| |
Earth: The Only Planet with a Continental Crust | |
| |
| |
The Continents and Continental Crust | |
| |
| |
The First Continental Crust | |
| |
| |
The Assembly of the Continents | |
| |
| |
| |
Life and Conditions on Early Earth | |
| |
| |
Ancient Microbes | |
| |
| |
Banded Iron Formations and Oxygenation of the Atmosphere and Ocean | |
| |
| |
A Warm Early Earth? | |
| |
| |
The Appearance of Animals and Explosion of Life in the Cambrian | |
| |
| |
| |
Reading Rocks: The Story of the Grand Canyon | |
| |
| |
How Sedimentary Rocks Describe Ancient Environments | |
| |
| |
Evidence of Missing Rock | |
| |
| |
How Old Is the Grand Canyon? | |
| |
| |
| |
Why Are There Ocean Basins, Continents, and Mountains? | |
| |
| |
| |
Internal Earth | |
| |
| |
The Core | |
| |
| |
The Magnetic Field | |
| |
| |
Convection in the Core and Origin of the Geomagnetic Field | |
| |
| |
Earth's Internal Heat | |
| |
| |
The Mantle | |
| |
| |
Convection in the Mantle | |
| |
| |
| |
Plate Tectonics | |
| |
| |
Continental Drift: An Idea Proposed Before Its Time | |
| |
| |
Wegener's Theory of Continental Drift | |
| |
| |
From Continental Drift to Plate Tectonics | |
| |
| |
Plate Boundaries: Where the Action Is | |
| |
| |
Plate Motions and Continental Reconstruction | |
| |
| |
| |
Lavas from the Depths of Earth | |
| |
| |
Hawaii | |
| |
| |
Kilauea Volcano | |
| |
| |
Volcanoes of the Mid-Ocean Ridges | |
| |
| |
Great Lava Floods and the Columbia River Basalts | |
| |
| |
| |
Great Explosive Volcanoes | |
| |
| |
The Nature of Explosive Volcanism | |
| |
| |
How Gases Drive Explosive Eruptions | |
| |
| |
Vesuvius: The Anatomy of an Explosive Eruption | |
| |
| |
Tambora: Volcanoes and Climate Change | |
| |
| |
Krakatau: An Explosion that Reverberated Around the World | |
| |
| |
Great Prehistoric Eruptions | |
| |
| |
Granite | |
| |
| |
| |
Earthquakes | |
| |
| |
Why Do Earthquakes Occur? | |
| |
| |
How Earthquakes Are Measured | |
| |
| |
How Earthquakes Destroy | |
| |
| |
Fault Behavior and Calculating the Odds | |
| |
| |
Short-term Prediction | |
| |
| |
The San Andreas Fault Zone, California | |
| |
| |
The Great Alaska Earthquake | |
| |
| |
| |
Mountains | |
| |
| |
The Shape of Earth and Why Mountains Are High | |
| |
| |
The Importance of Erosion | |
| |
| |
The Folding of Rocks | |
| |
| |
The Metamorphism of Rocks | |
| |
| |
| |
The Alps | |
| |
| |
The Beginnings of Alpine Research | |
| |
| |
The Formation and Structure of the Alps | |
| |
| |
| |
What Causes Earth's Climate and Climate Change? | |
| |
| |
| |
The Atmosphere | |
| |
| |
The Structure of the Atmosphere | |
| |
| |
Global Atmospheric Circulation | |
| |
| |
Greenhouse Earth: The Troposphere Story | |
| |
| |
Ozone: The Stratosphere Story | |
| |
| |
The Importance of Clouds | |
| |
| |
| |
The World Ocean | |
| |
| |
The Important Properties of Water | |
| |
| |
Why Is the Ocean Salty? | |
| |
| |
The Global Ocean Conveyor System | |
| |
| |
Ocean Surface Currents | |
| |
| |
Upwelling and Downwelling | |
| |
| |
El Nino and La Nina | |
| |
| |
| |
The Geological Record of Climate Change | |
| |
| |
Climate Forcing Factors | |
| |
| |
The Climate Record in Greenland Ice | |
| |
| |
Some Other Indicators of Past Climate | |
| |
| |
The Ice Age | |
| |
| |
| |
Why Is Earth Habitable? | |
| |
| |
| |
Conditions for Life | |
| |
| |
Water: The Essential Ingredient | |
| |
| |
The Carbon Cycle | |
| |
| |
Earth, Venus, and Mars | |
| |
| |
Earth's Intangible Shields | |
| |
| |
| |
Black Smokers from the Deep | |
| |
| |
How Hydrothermal Vent Fields Form | |
| |
| |
Life at Hydrothermal Vents | |
| |
| |
Did Life Originate in Deep-Sea Vents? | |
| |
| |
Heat and Water: What Goes In, and What Goes Out | |
| |
| |
| |
Some Natural Resources and How They Form | |
| |
| |
What Salt, Gold, and Coal Have in Common | |
| |
| |
Ore Deposits from Hot Water | |
| |
| |
An Ancient Analogue of Black Smokers | |
| |
| |
Ore Deposits from Magmas | |
| |
| |
Notes | |
| |
| |
Glossary | |
| |
| |
Bibliography | |
| |
| |
Index | |