Brief History of Earth (HarperCollins Publishers Inc)

Harvard's acclaimed geologist "charts Earth's history in accessible style" (AP)"A sublime chronicle of our planet." -Booklist, STARRED reviewHow well do you know the ground beneath your feet$421 Odds are, where you're standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed aby a towering sheet of ice, rocked żeby a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked żeby poison gases, drowned beneath ocean, perched atop a mountain range, or roamed by fearsome monsters.

Probably most or even all of the above. The story of our home planet and the organisms spread across its surface is far more spectacular than any Hollywood blockbuster, filled with enough plot twists to rival a bestselling thriller.

But only recently have we begun to piece together the whole mystery into a coherent narrative. Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H.

Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing twenty first-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we've been and where we're going.Features original illustrations depicting Earth history and nearly 50 figures (maps, tables, photographs, graphs).