Earth - Softcover

Luhr, Jim

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9780756633325: Earth

Synopsis

A team from the Smithsonian Institution working under the direction of Luhr, who is with the US National Museum of Natural History, have put together a stunning picture book of their home planet. The format is reminiscent of an atlas, but the subject matter is topical rather than cartographic. The sections cover the history of Earth, the land, the oceans, the atmosphere, and the seven tectonic plates that underlie the surface. The first American edition was published in 2003; this seems to be a revision or reprint of the 2005 compact edition. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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About the Author

The Smithsonian Institution is a center for research dedicated to public education, national service, and scholarship in the arts, sciences, and history.

From Booklist

How to catalog the earth? Luhr and fellow staff members at the Smithsonian Institution have put together an encyclopedic, picture-rich, beautifully designed compendium that draws on up-to-date research in numerous fields to tell the incredible story of our planet's birth, place in the cosmos, and evolution, noting all the primary characteristics that make this flourishing blue green planet unique within the solar system. The writing is clear, animated, and engrossing. The page layouts are works of graphic art: loaded with complex visual and textual information, they are nonetheless airy, balanced, and inviting. A grand time line beginning with the big bang and moving through the full spectrum of geological eras serves as an overture to the detailed story of the earth's dramatic coalescence into the world we know. Detailed looks at rocks and minerals segue into multifaceted coverage of the atmosphere, tectonic plates, glaciers, earthquakes, volcanoes, deserts, grasslands, rivers, forests, mountains, oceans and seas, as well as the topography of civilization. This superb and stunning volume should be kept handy along with atlases and dictionaries. Donna Seaman
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