Customer Reviews

Catastrophism: Asteroids, Comets, and Other Dynamic Events in Earth History

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The book is about the PHILOSOPHY of catastrophism, not about "Asteroids, Comets, and other Dynamic Events in Earth History" as the subtitle implies. It is mostly about the currently outmoded theories of the influence of catastrophies on development of the Earth, and the people who espoused these views. No real data, not much currently constructive synthesis. But lots of good history and references if that is what you want.

The author Richard Hugget is the Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Manchester and his book is very scholarly and detailed and reads like an advanced college lecture. It is well written and interesting in its own way, but it is definitely a dry subject and it was a bit of push to get myself to finish reading the book, at least I didn't have to worry about falling asleep in class. If you are interested in the history of Catastrophism, how it was replaced by uniformitarianism and how it has come back in the form of New Catastrophism, this is probably the best book on the subject. The level of detail and accuracy was above anything else I have read on the subject. It is also interesting to see how religion effected the debate in geology and how it in turn has been effected by the shifts in the Geological view of Catastrophism. (only the geological side is covered in this book) The history of Catastrophism is a large part of the back drop in front of which the on going drama of the conflict between fundamentalists and scientists is acted out, reading this book gives one the historical background on the debate and make better sense of old arguments and repeating history.

If you want to learn about the theories involved in what some term geological catamorphism or catastrophism as it is better known, then you must read this book. Dr. Huggett is a renowned expert who has written the most compelling work of its kind regarding the theory of generalized geological development and the impact of meteors, earthquakes, ice ages, and diluvial events. This is not about creationism nor supporting the notion of an ancient global flood so the biblically induced need not attempt to utilize this work to support their beliefs.

To the publisher I would appreciate it if the publisher could produce an audio adaptation of this book. I would love to listen to this while I drive to work and to let my 16 month old son listen to it as a bedtime story. My goal is to expose him to some of my favorite passions, maths, sciences, physics, geophysics, paleontology, astronomy, electronics, photonics, new science and discoveries etc. The more audio books you can produce of the above genre the more I will support you. Arnold D Veness