Mysteries of terra firma: the age and evolution of the earth
In Mysteries of Terra Firma, James Lawrence Powell tells an engrossing three-part tale of how we came to understand the ground on which we walk, and how that ground holds the key to the greatest secrets of deep space and time. Naming his profound stories Time, Drift, and Chance, he tells of the thre...
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| Format: | Buch |
| Sprache: | English |
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Free Press
2001
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| Zusammenfassung: | In Mysteries of Terra Firma, James Lawrence Powell tells an engrossing three-part tale of how we came to understand the ground on which we walk, and how that ground holds the key to the greatest secrets of deep space and time. Naming his profound stories Time, Drift, and Chance, he tells of the three twentieth-century revolutions in thought that created the amazing science of Earth-and of all planets to the edge of the universe. The riddle that drove the first revolution is obvious and yet in 1904 remained impenetrable: how old is Earth? An encounter between the imperious Lord Kelvin and a New Zealand farm-boy-turned-physicist, Ernest Rutherford, set the stage for the solution and launched a golden century of geology. As a result, scientists learned that if the 4.5 billion years of geologic time were compressed into a single twenty-four-hour period, Homo sapiens would have arrived only in the last second The geological Revolution of Time reveals how long the ground on which we walk has existed, and how briefly we have trod that ground. In the early twentieth century, German meteorologist and polar explorer Alfred Wegener proposed a counterintuitive, heretical theory: that terra firma is not so firm; instead of being fixed in place, continents drift. In 1926, petroleum geologists convened in New York City to discuss Wegener's radical idea, where it was met with outrage and skepticism: "If we are to believe Wegener's hypothesis we must forget everything which has been learned in the last seventy years and start all over again," one attendee said. Forty years later, a new generation did exactly that. The Revolution of Drift, the second part of Powell's narrative, showed us how the ground on which we walk moves. Throughout geologic time, meteorites have incessantly bombarded everything in the solar system Far from serene and predictable, the planets are ruled by random violence on an unimaginable scale. Once a mountain-sized meteorite flew through space, struck the Earth, killed the dinosaurs and two-thirds of all species, and spared the small hamster-sized creature that happened to be our ancestor. The chance of that happening again is essentially zero. So, the final revolution in Powell's history of a golden century of geology is the Revolution of Chance. Simply put, this revolution in thought has transformed our understanding of how lucky we really are. If we can learn so much from considering no more than the rocks beneath our feet, what will we learn when we begin walking on other planets? Mysteries of Terra Firma is both charming in its story-telling and staggering in its implications. Discovering the ground on which we stand is a fascinating journey into our past- and our future |
| ISBN: | 068487282X |
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| 520 | 3 | |a In Mysteries of Terra Firma, James Lawrence Powell tells an engrossing three-part tale of how we came to understand the ground on which we walk, and how that ground holds the key to the greatest secrets of deep space and time. Naming his profound stories Time, Drift, and Chance, he tells of the three twentieth-century revolutions in thought that created the amazing science of Earth-and of all planets to the edge of the universe. The riddle that drove the first revolution is obvious and yet in 1904 remained impenetrable: how old is Earth? An encounter between the imperious Lord Kelvin and a New Zealand farm-boy-turned-physicist, Ernest Rutherford, set the stage for the solution and launched a golden century of geology. As a result, scientists learned that if the 4.5 billion years of geologic time were compressed into a single twenty-four-hour period, Homo sapiens would have arrived only in the last second | |
| 520 | 3 | |a The geological Revolution of Time reveals how long the ground on which we walk has existed, and how briefly we have trod that ground. In the early twentieth century, German meteorologist and polar explorer Alfred Wegener proposed a counterintuitive, heretical theory: that terra firma is not so firm; instead of being fixed in place, continents drift. In 1926, petroleum geologists convened in New York City to discuss Wegener's radical idea, where it was met with outrage and skepticism: "If we are to believe Wegener's hypothesis we must forget everything which has been learned in the last seventy years and start all over again," one attendee said. Forty years later, a new generation did exactly that. The Revolution of Drift, the second part of Powell's narrative, showed us how the ground on which we walk moves. Throughout geologic time, meteorites have incessantly bombarded everything in the solar system | |
| 520 | 3 | |a Far from serene and predictable, the planets are ruled by random violence on an unimaginable scale. Once a mountain-sized meteorite flew through space, struck the Earth, killed the dinosaurs and two-thirds of all species, and spared the small hamster-sized creature that happened to be our ancestor. The chance of that happening again is essentially zero. So, the final revolution in Powell's history of a golden century of geology is the Revolution of Chance. Simply put, this revolution in thought has transformed our understanding of how lucky we really are. If we can learn so much from considering no more than the rocks beneath our feet, what will we learn when we begin walking on other planets? Mysteries of Terra Firma is both charming in its story-telling and staggering in its implications. Discovering the ground on which we stand is a fascinating journey into our past- and our future | |
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| 650 | 4 | |a Plate tectonics | |
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| adam_text | JAMES LAWRENCE POWELL MYSTERIES OF TERRA FIRMA THE AGE AND EVOLUTION OF
THE WORLD THE FREE PRESS NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY SINGAPORE
CONTENTS PROLOGUE IX PART I: TIME 1 1. THE MILL OF EXQUISITE WORKMANSHIP
3 2. STRANGE RAYS 29 3. THE END OF THE DEBATE 45 4. THE AGE OF
METEORITES, THE MOON, AND THE EARTH 61 PART II: DRIFT 75 5. A SCIENCE
WITHOUT A THEORY 77 6. THE DREAM OF A GREAT POET 83 7. THE REJECTION OF
DRIFT 91 8. A PLAUSIBLE MECHANISM 99 9. DATA FROM THE ABYSS 113 10.
SEAFLOOR SPREADING 123 11. REJECTION AND PRIORITY 145 PART III. CHANCE
163 12. GLIMPSES OF THE MOON 165 13. MOONLIGHTING 183 14. VOYAGES 191
CONTENTS 15. A MOST DIFFICULT BIRTH 201 16. IMPACT REVOLUTION 213 17.
THE TAPESTRY 223 NOTES 227 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 243 INDEX 245
|
| any_adam_object | 1 |
| author | Powell, James Lawrence |
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| callnumber-first | Q - Science |
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| callnumber-subject | QE - Geology |
| ctrlnum | (OCoLC)48092205 (DE-599)BVBBV014090970 |
| dewey-full | 551.701 |
| dewey-hundreds | 500 - Natural sciences and mathematics |
| dewey-ones | 551 - Geology, hydrology, meteorology |
| dewey-raw | 551.701 |
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| dewey-tens | 550 - Earth sciences |
| discipline | Geologie / Paläontologie |
| format | Book |
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| spelling | Powell, James Lawrence Verfasser aut Mysteries of terra firma the age and evolution of the earth James Lawrence Powell New York Free Press 2001 txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier In Mysteries of Terra Firma, James Lawrence Powell tells an engrossing three-part tale of how we came to understand the ground on which we walk, and how that ground holds the key to the greatest secrets of deep space and time. Naming his profound stories Time, Drift, and Chance, he tells of the three twentieth-century revolutions in thought that created the amazing science of Earth-and of all planets to the edge of the universe. The riddle that drove the first revolution is obvious and yet in 1904 remained impenetrable: how old is Earth? An encounter between the imperious Lord Kelvin and a New Zealand farm-boy-turned-physicist, Ernest Rutherford, set the stage for the solution and launched a golden century of geology. As a result, scientists learned that if the 4.5 billion years of geologic time were compressed into a single twenty-four-hour period, Homo sapiens would have arrived only in the last second The geological Revolution of Time reveals how long the ground on which we walk has existed, and how briefly we have trod that ground. In the early twentieth century, German meteorologist and polar explorer Alfred Wegener proposed a counterintuitive, heretical theory: that terra firma is not so firm; instead of being fixed in place, continents drift. In 1926, petroleum geologists convened in New York City to discuss Wegener's radical idea, where it was met with outrage and skepticism: "If we are to believe Wegener's hypothesis we must forget everything which has been learned in the last seventy years and start all over again," one attendee said. Forty years later, a new generation did exactly that. The Revolution of Drift, the second part of Powell's narrative, showed us how the ground on which we walk moves. Throughout geologic time, meteorites have incessantly bombarded everything in the solar system Far from serene and predictable, the planets are ruled by random violence on an unimaginable scale. Once a mountain-sized meteorite flew through space, struck the Earth, killed the dinosaurs and two-thirds of all species, and spared the small hamster-sized creature that happened to be our ancestor. The chance of that happening again is essentially zero. So, the final revolution in Powell's history of a golden century of geology is the Revolution of Chance. Simply put, this revolution in thought has transformed our understanding of how lucky we really are. If we can learn so much from considering no more than the rocks beneath our feet, what will we learn when we begin walking on other planets? Mysteries of Terra Firma is both charming in its story-telling and staggering in its implications. Discovering the ground on which we stand is a fascinating journey into our past- and our future Catastrophes (Geology) Geological time Plate tectonics GBV Datenaustausch application/pdf http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=009652773&sequence=000001&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA Inhaltsverzeichnis |
| spellingShingle | Powell, James Lawrence Mysteries of terra firma the age and evolution of the earth Catastrophes (Geology) Geological time Plate tectonics |
| title | Mysteries of terra firma the age and evolution of the earth |
| title_auth | Mysteries of terra firma the age and evolution of the earth |
| title_exact_search | Mysteries of terra firma the age and evolution of the earth |
| title_full | Mysteries of terra firma the age and evolution of the earth James Lawrence Powell |
| title_fullStr | Mysteries of terra firma the age and evolution of the earth James Lawrence Powell |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mysteries of terra firma the age and evolution of the earth James Lawrence Powell |
| title_short | Mysteries of terra firma |
| title_sort | mysteries of terra firma the age and evolution of the earth |
| title_sub | the age and evolution of the earth |
| topic | Catastrophes (Geology) Geological time Plate tectonics |
| topic_facet | Catastrophes (Geology) Geological time Plate tectonics |
| url | http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=009652773&sequence=000001&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA |
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