The Little Book of Planet Earth

Little Book Series

by Rolf Meissner

Acknowledgments chapter 1 The Roots of Earth Sciences 1 Classical Scientific Thought 1 The Copernican Revolution 2 From Physics and Philosophy to Geology 4 The Age of the Earth 6 chapter 2 The Earth in the Context of Our Solar System 9 The Origins of the Solar System The Elements of the Solar System The Planets Circling the Sun chapter 3 The Formation of Earth and Moon 21 Similarities and Differences 21 Exploring the Moon chapter 4 The Interior of the Earth and the Role of Seismology Seismic Waves 28 The Earth’s Interior 36 chapter 5 Rotation and Shape, Gravity and Tides 41 Describing the Earth’s Shape Tides 44 Rotation 44 43 27 23 15 12 10 xiii xi chapter 6 The Earth’s Magnetic Field 47 Establishing a Physical Concept Reversals of the Magnetic Field 51 Paleomagnetism chapter 7 Atom―Mineral―Rock 59 Crystallization 60 Minerals in Crust and Mantle 60 Rocks chapter 8 The Early Ages 71 The Archean 71 The Proterozoic 77 chapter 9 Radioactive Dating The Chemistry of Unstable Elements Determining the Age Applications of Radioactive Dating Techniques Carbon Dating 90 chapter10 Plate Tectonics Twentieth-Century Research Gathering Evidence 95 Drifting Plates 3 Pangea and Beyond 4 chapter11 The Crust of the Earth 7 The Moho 7 The Crust Hydrocarbons 4 Coal 9 Other Subsurface-based Resources 9 12 12 12 108 10 10 10 10 94 93 89 83 81 81 63 52 48 chapter12 Formation of Mountains and Basins Collisions Orogeny Sediment Basins

218 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Thomas DeHart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping this would be a little more geared towards novices / entertaining reading. It was just too much like a textbook for me.

[Rodrigo Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book for new interested geologists that would be introduced them to the basics of earth and from the big bang until human civilizations.