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• Rocking our world
• Blasts from the past
• Lucky stars
• About time
• In the air
• Connecting the dots
• Kings of the hill
• Fevers and chills
• Cold facts
• Mothers of invention.

• Part 1 How the world works: energy balance sheets
• the essence of life
• cosmic setting - dancing to ancient tunes. Part 2 Peering into time: managing time
• continents adrift
• the surface of events
• life, rock, and air. Part 3 Starstuff: alchemy in the stars
• graveyard for comets
• landscape for life. Part 4 "A warm little pond"
• what life is all about
• genesis and the deuteronomists
• life's tender years. Part 5 Climate, mantle, and life: fumes from the engine room
• continents shape climate
• icehouse and greenhouse worlds. Part 6 Life's ups and downs: Armageddon revisited
• reaching for new horizons. Part 7 The peoples' planet: the human record
• all the world's a commodity.
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Many people know more about the planets Venus and Mars than they do about our home planet, Earth. Unique in our solar system, and so far as we know in the Universe itself, the Earth has been evolving for the past five billion years, and is the result of the dynamic interplay of astronomical, physical, and chemical forces ranging from the vast to the barely perceptible. The evolution of the earth has never been predictable. Life has come very close to being extinguished many times. After each such crisis, the survivors and their genes have diversified and grown in number to exploit all opportunities. Without such traumas it is hardly likely that evolution's pace could have reached its present advanced level; that of conscious life capable of changing the world, contemplating it, and in doing so changing itself at geologically stupendous rates. In this text, Stephen Drury explores how such a seemingly fragile world could have been formed and developed.
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Introduces the origin of the Earth, discussing the chemical elements that lead to the formation of planets, the unique interior and exterior structure of the Earth, and the origins of life.
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• Introduction. Prologue.
• 1. 'A Kind of Shell'.
• 2. 'A Higher Desire'.
• 3. 'Matters Physical'.
• 4. 'Hobby Horse Riders'.
• 5. 'There is No Other Born in Germany'.
• 6. 'Thinking Hopelessly about Quanta'.
• 7. 'But God Does Play Dice'.
• 8. 'Dark Future'.
• 9. 'Seeing How Expendable You Are'.
• 10. 'Dreams of a Promised Land'.
• 11. 'This Quiet Valley'.
• 12. 'There Are So Many Ifs'.
• 13. 'A Curse of the Age'.
• 14. 'A Trip to Stockholm'. Epilogue. Acknowledgments. Notes. Index.
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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.
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In a few million years, Nemesis, the companion star to our sun will complete its orbit, bombarding our solar system with comets, some of which will be deflected toward Earth. Such a "large-body impact" might well extinguish humanity. In this stimulating work, updated with the latest scientific evidence, the controversies of the Nemesis theory are re-explored and the issues of mass extinction are re-investigated.
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• Preface.
• 1. A Synopsis of Selected Topics in Cosmology. (B. Lang, R. Teisseyre). Introduction. A synopsis of observations related to cosmology. First cosmological models based on the general theory of relativity. Standard cosmological models. The Hubble law. Friedman-Lemaitre equations. The radiation-dominated epoch. The matter-dominated epoch. Planck units. The singularity. The flatness. Elementary particles and fundamental interactions. Symmetry properties and conservation laws. Evolution scenario.
• 2. Presolar Evolution (M. Panek, J. Ziolkowski). Nuclear processes and primordial nucleosynthesis. Star formation and evolution. Stellar nucleosynthesis. Galaxies: their formation and evolution.
• 3. Rise of Planetary Bodies (Z. Czechowski, J. Leliwa-Kopystynski, R. Teisseyre). On the probability of the formation of planetary systems. Condensation triggered by supernova explosion and tidal capture theory. Foundations of accretion theory. The structure and evolution of the protoplanetary disk. Coagulation of orbiting bodies. Collision phenomena related to planetology: accretion, fragmentation, cratering. Dynamics of planetesimals. Growth of the planetary embryo. Origin of the Moon and the satellites.
• 4. Planets and Satellites (J. Leliwa-Kopystynski). Introduction. Fundamental data. Spherical symmetric planetary bodies: formulae and estimations. Evidence for the mantle-core structure of planets. Two-zone models of planets: a general approach. Two-zone parametrical model with a core of constant density. Equations of state used for modeling of planetary interiors. Models of internal structure - a short review.
• 5. Mineralogy and Petrology of the Terrestrial Planets (N. Bakun-Czubarow). Chemistry and mineralogy of the primitive planetary material. Mineralogical thermobarometers. Nuclear chronology. Cosmochemical and mineralogical models of the planetary interiors.
• 6. Heat Sources in Evolution of the Earth and Terrestrial Planets (S. Maj). Models of thermal evolution. Heating in gravitational accumulation. Heating in gravitational self-compression. Heating from deceleration of the Earth's rotation. Heating from the Earth's core formation. Radiogenic heat production.
• 7. Cores of Terrestrial Planets (Z. Juszkiewicz, A. Losakiewicz). Core formation and core-mantle separation. Planetary magnetic fields. Generation mechanism of the magnetic field of the terrestrial planets. Nearly-geostrophic thermal convection in the planetary cores. Thermal convection in the rotating planetary cores in the presence of a weak magnetic field. References. Index.
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The Earth's evolution is a part of the evolution of the Solar System and of matter itself. Abundances of chemical elements can be explained only by going back to the formation of planets and earlier, to the nucleosynthesis processes. Comparisons with other planets, at different stages of development are necessary in the study of the formation and growth of the Earth's core. The same can be said of the global mobility of the outer layers of the Earth - the lithosphere. Consequently, the Earth's evolution can not be treated separately, but should be described within a broader framework. This fifth volume in the series presents ideas on evolution of the Universe, the Planetary System and the Earth. It explains the formation and early evolution of the Earth and Planets, presenting an introduction and providing background to problems of the Earth's evolution and plate tectonics - the problems to be presented in the last volume of the series. A synopsis of the achievements of cosmology is followed by a discussion of primordial nucleosynthesis, the formation of structures in the Universe, nucleosynthesis in star interiors and the formation of galaxies. Theories related to the formation of the Planetary System and reviews of the main parameters characterizing planetary bodies are also presented. A discussion on the origin of planetary bodies, based mainly on accretion theories provides evidence for the mantle-core structure of planets and their models. Chemical processes, the formation of minerals, heat processes and heat transfer, the formation of cores in the terrestrial group of planets and some elements of their magnetic fields complete the volume. This continuation of the monograph series will be of interest to scientists in the domain of the Earth sciences, especially geophysicists and geologists. The monograph combines results obtained in geophysics and planetology with a rigorous physical approach. Neverthless, it can be understood without a specialist background or higher mathematics.
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• Introduction / Donald E. Osterbrock and Peter H. Raven
• The birth of the Cosmos / Alan H. Guth
• The formation of the Earth / George W. Wetherill
• The ancient microcosm of planet Earth / Lynn Margulis
• Extinction in the geologic past / David M. Raup.