Hazen writes of how the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere—of rocks and living matter—has shaped our planet into the only one of its kind in the Solar System, if not the entire cosmos.With an astrobiologist’s imagination, a historian’s perspective, and a naturalist’s passion for the ground beneath our feet, Hazen explains how changes on an atomic level translate into dramatic shifts in Earth’s makeup over its 4.567 billion year existence. He calls upon a flurry of recent discoveries to portray our planet’s many iterations in vivid detail. Through his theory of “co-evolution,” we learn how reactions between organic molecules and rock crystals may have generated Earth’s first organisms, which in turn are responsible for more than two-thirds of the mineral varieties on the planet.The Story of Earth is also the story of the pioneering men and women behind the sciences. Readers will meet black-market meteorite hawkers of the Sahara Desert, the gun-toting Feds who guarded the Apollo missions’ lunar dust, and the World War II Navy officer whose super-pressurized “bomb”—recycled from military hardware—first simulated the molten rock of Earth’s mantle. As a mentor to a new generation of scientists, Hazen introduces the intrepid young explorers whose dispatches from Earth’s harshest landscapes will revolutionize geology.

    From dazzling blue lapis lazuli to volcanic snowflake obsidian, an incredible variety of rocks are showcased in all their splendor. Poetic in voice and elegant in design, this book introduces an array of facts, making it equally perfect for classroom sharing and family reading.

    From igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks to hundreds of sparkling minerals, this guide covers vital data on where and how rocks and minerals form, as well as explaining characteristics such as hardness, color and luster. With pages of amazing encyclopedic stats and genius gem facts to provide extra wow. This mine of information will help you learn how to identify rocks and minerals in no time!Aligns with the educational Common Core State Standards.

    What emerges is a much more complex and nuanced picture than is usually presented. For more information - and a book club guide - go to www.climatewholestory.com

    But as Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams reveal in The Goldilocks Planet, the climatic changes we are experiencing today hardly compare to the changes the Earth has seen over the last 4.5 billion years.Indeed, the vast history that the authors relate here is dramatic and often abrupt--with massive changes in global and regional climate, from bitterly cold to sweltering hot, from arid to humid. They introduce us to the Cryogenian period, the days of Snowball Earth seven hundred million years ago, when ice spread to cover the world, then melted abruptly amid such dramatic climatic turbulence that hurricanes raged across the Earth. We read about the Carboniferous, with tropical jungles at the equator (where Pennsylvania is now) and the Cretaceous Period, when the polar regions saw not ice but dense conifer forests of cypress and redwood, with gingkos and ferns. The authors also show how this history can be read from clues preserved in the Earth's strata. The evidence is abundant, though always incomplete--and often baffling, puzzling, infuriating, tantalizing, seemingly contradictory. Geologists, though, are becoming ever more ingenious at deciphering this evidence, and the story of the Earth's climate is now being reconstructed in ever-greater detail--maybe even providing us with clues to the future of contemporary climate change.And through all of this, the authors conclude, the Earth has remained perfectly habitable--in stark contrast to its planetary neighbors. Not too hot, not too cold; not too dry, not too wet--"the Goldilocks planet." [Description taken from the Oxford University Press's web site.]

    The epic, 1,800-million-year geologic story behind this amazing landscape is even more awe inspiring. In Geology Underfoot along Colorado�s Front Range, the most recent addition to the Geology Underfoot series, authors (and geoscientists) Lon Abbott and Terri Cook narrate the Front Range�s tale, from its humble beginnings as a flat, nondescript seafloor through several ghostly incarnations as a towering mountain range. The book�s 21 chapters, or vignettes, lead you to easily accessible stops along the Front Range�s highways and byways, where you�ll meet the apatosaur and other dinosaurs who roamed the floodplains and beaches that once covered the Front Range; look for diamonds in rare, out-of-the-way volcanic pipes; learn how America�s mountain, Pikes Peak, developed from molten magma miles below the surface only to become an important visual landmark for early Great Plains� travelers; and walk the Gangplank, a singularly important plateau for both nineteenth-century westward expansion and our understanding of the Front Range�s most recent exhumation. A healthy dose of full-color illustrations and photos demystify the concepts put forth in the authors� elegant, insightful prose. With Geology Underfoot along Colorado�s Front Range in hand, you�ll feel like you�re traveling through time as you explore the Front Range�s hidden geologic treasures.

    This title is packed full of images that reveal intricate details and unique characteristics of the rocks and minerals featured.

    In an exhilarating, surprising exploration of our planet, Craig Childs takes readers on a firsthand journey through apocalypse, touching the truth behind the speculation. "Apocalyptic Planet" is a combination of science and adventure that reveals the ways in which our world is constantly moving toward its end and how we can change our place within the cycles and episodes that rule it. In this riveting narrative, Childs makes clear that ours is not a stable planet, that it is prone to sudden, violent natural disasters and extremes of climate. Alternate futures, many not so pretty, are constantly waiting in the wings. Childs refutes the idea of an apocalyptic end to the earth and finds clues to its more inevitable end in some of the most physically challenging places on the globe. He travels from the deserts of Chile, the driest in the world, to the genetic wasteland of central Iowa to the site of the drowned land bridge of the Bering Sea, uncovering the micro-cataclysms that predict the macro: forthcoming ice ages, super-volcanoes, and the conclusion of planetary life cycles. Childs delivers a sensual feast in his descriptions of the natural world and a bounty of unequivocal science that provides us with an unprecedented understanding of our future.

    Over the next 11 months, this find would yield a treasure trove of amazingly well-preserved ice age fossils - more than 5,000 bones of over 40 kinds of animals - and would change forever our understanding of alpine life in the ice age. The Snowmastodon Project's two lead scientists tell the dynamic story of this discovery and dig: the excitement, emotion, and the colorful cast of characters who made the project a success.

    A field guide to rocks and minerals of Washington and Oregon, featuring photos and details needed for identifying and collecting.

    

    Do you know what it takes to buy diamonds, or diamond jewelry, at the right price?Do you know the tricks that unscrupulous sales people will use to overcharge you?In Diamond 101 - A Diamond Buyers Guide, the Author (accredited by the Gemological Institute of America and with two decades of experience in buying and selling diamonds) will teach you insider secrets on everything you need to know about buying diamonds.In this entertaining guide you will learn:- the 6 C's of diamond grading (everyone else only talks about Cut, Clarity, Color and Carat, we add Cost and Confidence)- the terms (and their meaning), that will make the retailer think, you're a diamond expert- tips to spot value...and so much more.Pick up your copy and enjoy a stress free and entertaining diamond buying experience.

    It's a scavenger hunt, a search for treasure and a day of outdoor recreation all rolled into one! Vacationers and budding hobbyists will appreciate this book's simple approach to getting you started. You'll learn what to look for, where to look and how to find these Lake Superior gemstones.

    This is the ultimate visual encyclopedia of rocks and minerals, with a directory of over 300 specimens. It instructs the amateur geologist on how to identify and extract samples safely, clean and store specimens, and build and present their own unique collection.

    The relationship between minerals and rocks and how they relate to the broader Earth, materials and environmental sciences is interwoven throughout. Beautiful photos of specimens and Crystal-Maker's 3-D illustrations allow students to easily visualize minerals, rocks and crystal structures. Review questions at the end of chapters allow students to check their understanding. The importance of Earth materials to human cultural development and the hazards they pose to humans are discussed in later chapters. This ambitious, wide-ranging book is written by two world-renowned textbook authors each with over 40 years of teaching experience, who bring that experience to clearly convey the important topics.

    Perfectly preserved 36-million-year-old tsetse flies in Colorado. Dinosaur trackways cemented into ancient floodplains in Connecticut. A gaping rift in the Idaho desert. What do these enigmatic geologic phenomena have in common? Besides initiating a profusion of head-scratching over the years, these sites of geologic wonder appear side by side, for the first time, in a single publication.Examining in detail at least one amazing site for all fifty states, Albert Dickas clearly explains the geologic forces behind each one�s origin in 101 Geologic Sites You�ve Gotta See. Dickas discusses not only iconic landforms such as Devil�s Tower in Wyoming but also locales that are often overlooked yet have fascinating stories. Consider the Reelfoot scarp in Tennessee: to the casual observer it is nothing more than a slight rise in a farm field. Yet this subtle slope represents a rift formed during an 1812 earthquake that forced the mighty Mississippi to flow upstream. Or Lousiana�s unassuming, low-lying Avery Island, which actually caps an 8.5-mile-high column of salt. Amply illustrated with full-color photographs and illustrations and written in clear yet playful prose, 101 Geologic Sites You�ve Gotta See will entertain and inform amateur and seasoned geology buffs whether from an armchair or in the field.

    Technical descriptions of the spacecraft, of their mission designs and of instrumentations will be provided. Scientific results will be discussed in considerable depth, together with details of mission management.The books will cover missions from the 1950s until the present day, and some of the latest missions and their results will appear in a popular science book for the first time. The authors will also cover many unflown projects, providing an indication of the ideas that proved to be unfulfilled at the time but which may still be proven and useful in the future.Just like Lunar Exploration, these books will use sources only recently made available on the Soviet space program, in addition to some obscure and rarely used references on the European space program.The project will deliver three volumes totaling over 1000 pages that will provide comprehensive coverage of the topic with thousands of references to the professional literature that should make it the 'first port of call' for people seeking information on the topic.

    Provided by the author:Written to suit ages 10-14, or for younger readers with adults on hand, or curious older people, this is about simple methods for examining the wild things that are found in every garden, park, piece of rough ground, or even in or under a flower pot.There is reliable information on the different taxonomic groups and advice on how to catch and examine them, and how to keep them.As the title implies, the focus is on Australian life and conditions, but most of the methods are immediately applicable all over the globe.

    Animal communities in the path of these sediment-laden flows were instantly engulfed, the inhabitants "frozen" in the last moment of their lives. Amazingly, many of the creatures lost in this ancient catastrophe were almost perfectly preserved through the eons, fossilized in a thick series of muds now known as the Hunsrück Slate west of the Rhine Valley in western Germany. Excavations there have yielded the most diverse and surpassingly beautiful collection of marine fossils of the Devonian period ever discovered.This book pays tribute to the exquisite fossils of the Hunsrück Slate. Large full-color photographic plates display fossil sponges, brachiopods, clams, starfish, sea lilies, trilobites, worms, sea spiders, sea stars, crustaceans, corals, and many other species. An accessible commentary recounts the discovery of the fossils and explains how the slate was formed, how the animals are preserved, the significance of the fossils, and the controversies that surround them. A special presentation in every way, this book makes an exceptional contribution to the fascinating history of life on Earth.

    Readers will discover how geologists study rocks to learn more about Earth, from how it was formed to how it has grown and changed over millions of years. They will also learn about the causes of earthquakes, volcanoes, and other Earth-shaking disasters.

    Once completed, the Trail will connect interpretive facilities, signage, and other tourism activities * Features regional maps and photosOften overlooked by those cruising on the highway to Spokane or the Tri-Cities area, more than 2,000 square miles of terrain in eastern Washington are home to a striking collection of sharp-edged coulees slicing through a crust of basalt. In this stunning landscape, deep lakes fill the depths of dramatic gorges flanked by steep walls of towering rock columns, labyrinthine channels, and wide tracts of scabby rock that give the region its name—geologically, no other region in the world contains features like those found in the Channeled Scablands.Where-to guidebook and travel narrative come together in the Washington's Channeled Scablands Guide to offer a comprehensive and intimately knowledgeable tour of this one-of-a-kind region. Local writer and historian John Soennichsen is your guide to fascinating lore; snapshots of the unique towns connected by this singular landscape; descriptions of the unique geology; advice on how to explore whether by auto, horseback, canoe, bike, or on foot; and essential info like where to fuel up and stop for dinner.Take the family to scenic camping and fishing in Coffeepot Lake, and read out loud the legend of Old West outlaw Harry Tracey as you cruise along on a "Back Roads Auto Tour." Lace up your boots for a cross-country hike in the Juniper Dunes Wilderness Area or up Badger Mountain Trail. Explore the unearthly crater-like formations in the Telford–Crab Creek Tract, or set up with your camera for a stunning sunrise over Palouse Falls. Whether you're a boater looking for new waterways to explore, a naturalist interested in unique ecosystems, or just a curious traveler—if you're seeking adventure and intrigue just a little off the beaten path, you'll find the keys to a whole new world of exploration with Washington's Channeled Scablands Guide.

    In this way they have achieved a form of immortality. Stonehenge, Giza Pyramids, Macho Piccho, are all examples of such monuments. This book provides the relevant information to all such monuments along with interesting photographs and pictures that makes it an engaging read.