Reading The Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth - Softcover

9780465006847: Reading The Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
To many of us, the Earth's crust is a relic of ancient, unknowable history. But to a geologist, stones are richly illustrated narratives, telling gothic tales of cataclysm and reincarnation. For more than four billion years, in beach sand, granite, and garnet schists, the planet has kept a rich and idiosyncratic journal of its past. Fulbright Scholar Marcia Bjornerud takes the reader along on an eye-opening tour of Deep Time, explaining in elegant prose what we see and feel beneath our feet. Both scientist and storyteller, Bjornerud uses anecdotes and metaphors to remind us that our home is a living thing with lessons to teach. Containing a glossary and detailed timescale, as well as vivid descriptions and historic accounts, Reading the Rocks is literally a history of the world, for all friends of the Earth.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:
Marcia Bjornerud is a Professor and Chair of Geology at Lawrence University. She is a Fellow of the Geographical Society of America, and was a 2000-2001 Fulbright Scholar. She lives in Appleton, Wisconsin.
From Publishers Weekly:
In this engrossing volume of pop-geology, geologist Bjornerud chronicles the watersheds in Earth's history from the primordial supernova that seeded the nascent solar nebula to the man-made cataclysms of global warming and habitat destruction, visiting along the way such "near-death experiences" as the Moon's apparent birth from a collision between Earth and a wandering planet, the "Snowball Earth" period when the oceans froze over, and the asphyxiating "Permian-Triassic oxygen crisis," when 90% of the world's species died out in less than a million years. Adopting something of a Gaian perspective of Earth as a self-regulating superorganism, the author attributes the planet's stability in the face of upheaval to dynamic mechanisms that cycle elements back and forth among the atmosphere, the oceans, the biosphere and Earth's crust and interior. Bjornerud conveys these lessons through a stimulating introduction to the geological principles by which Earth's past is teased out of obscure but telling details of rocks and fossils. Her thematically structured chapters, reminiscent of Stephen Jay Gould's essays, are written in an expansive, erudite style ranging from science to philosophy, history and the occasional admonition against humanity's reckless remaking of the environment "like spoiled children." (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherBasic Books
  • Publication date2006
  • ISBN 10 0465006841
  • ISBN 13 9780465006847
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages257
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780813342498: Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780813342498
Publisher: Basic Books, 2005
Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Bjornerud, Marcia
Published by Basic Books (2006)
ISBN 10: 0465006841 ISBN 13: 9780465006847
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GF Books, Inc.
(Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 0465006841-2-1

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.23
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Bjornerud, Marcia
Published by Basic Books (2006)
ISBN 10: 0465006841 ISBN 13: 9780465006847
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0465006841-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.24
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Bjornerud, Marcia
Published by Basic Books (2006)
ISBN 10: 0465006841 ISBN 13: 9780465006847
New Soft Cover Quantity: 10
Seller:
booksXpress
(Bayonne, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780465006847

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.27
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Bjornerud, Marcia
Published by Basic Books (2006)
ISBN 10: 0465006841 ISBN 13: 9780465006847
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 4296078-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 13.41
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Bjornerud, Marcia
Published by Basic Books (AZ) 10/31/2006 (2006)
ISBN 10: 0465006841 ISBN 13: 9780465006847
New Paperback or Softback Quantity: 5
Seller:
BargainBookStores
(Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth 0.55. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780465006847

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 16.06
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Bjornerud, Marcia
Published by Basic Books (2006)
ISBN 10: 0465006841 ISBN 13: 9780465006847
New Paperback Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Save With Sam
(North Miami, FL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 0465006841

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 18.77
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Bjornerud, Marcia
Published by Basic Books (2006)
ISBN 10: 0465006841 ISBN 13: 9780465006847
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Lucky's Textbooks
(Dallas, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # ABLIING23Feb2215580217423

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.11
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Marcia Bjornerud
Published by Basic Books, New York (2006)
ISBN 10: 0465006841 ISBN 13: 9780465006847
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Grand Eagle Retail
(Wilmington, DE, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. To many of us, the Earth's crust is a relic of ancient, unknowable history. But to a geologist, stones are richly illustrated narratives, telling gothic tales of cataclysm and reincarnation. For more than four billion years, in beach sand, granite, and garnet schists, the planet has kept a rich and idiosyncratic journal of its past. Fulbright Scholar Marcia Bjornerud takes the reader along on an eye-opening tour of Deep Time, explaining in elegant prose what we see and feel beneath our feet. Both scientist and storyteller, Bjornerud uses anecdotes and metaphors to remind us that our home is a living thing with lessons to teach. Containing a glossary and detailed timescale, as well as vivid descriptions and historic accounts, Reading the Rocks is literally a history of the world, for all friends of the Earth. For readers of John McPhee and Stephen Jay Gould, this engaging armchair guide to the making of the rock record shows how to understand messages written in stone Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780465006847

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 20.99
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Bjornerud, Marcia
Published by Basic Books (2006)
ISBN 10: 0465006841 ISBN 13: 9780465006847
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
California Books
(Miami, FL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # I-9780465006847

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 22.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Marcia Bjornerud
Published by Hachette Book Group (2006)
ISBN 10: 0465006841 ISBN 13: 9780465006847
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
INDOO
(Avenel, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0465006841

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 18.48
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book