The Earth After Us: What Legacy Will Humans Leave in the Rocks? [Hardcover]

Jan Zalasiewicz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2009

Geologist Jan Zalasiewicz takes the reader on a fascinating trip one hundred million years into the future--long after the human race becomes extinct--to explore what will remain of our brief but dramatic sojourn on Earth. He describes how geologists in the far future might piece together the history of the planet, and slowly decipher the history of humanity from the traces we will leave impressed in the rock strata. What story will the rocks tell of us? What kind of fossils will humans leave behind? What will happen to cities, cars, and plastic cups? The trail leads finally to the bones of the inhabitants of petrified cities that have slept deep underground for many millions of years. As thought-provoking as it is engaging, this book simultaneously explains the geological mechanisms that shape our planet, from fossilization to plate tectonics, illuminates the various ingenious ways in which geologists and paleontologist work, and offers a final perspective on humanity and its actions that may prove to be more objective than any other.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"What fragments of our cities, dams and factories may be detectable in, say, 100 million years' time? It is a simple but intriguing thought experiment that is explored in this neat little geological entertainment."--The Observer

"It is sobering to consider what sort of legacy we're bequeathing our planet and in this regard The Earth After Us is a thoroughly inspirational book. At all levels, it provides a fantastic introduction to the world about us taken from a highly original angle."--Nature

"The central premise of The Earth After Us is in discussing what traces might remain 100 million years in the future of our species and the civilisation we have built if we were to fall extinct. In answering this question, Jan Zalasiewicz provides an engaging and broad sweep of the science of geology, different signals preserved in the rocks, and the important inferences that can be drawn from them."--The Astrobiology Society of Britain

About the Author

Jan Zalasiewicz is a Lecturer in Geology at the University of Leicester, before that working at the British Geological Survey. A field geologist, palaeontologist and stratigrapher, he teaches various aspects of geology and Earth history to undergraduate and postgraduate students, and is a researcher into fossil ecosystems and environments across over half a billion years of geological time. He has published over a hundred papers in scientific journals.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199214972
• ISBN-13: 978-0199214976
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,498,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jan Zalasiewicz has a gift for clear explanations, April 29, 2009

By 

Darryl Roy (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Earth After Us: What Legacy Will Humans Leave in the Rocks? (Hardcover)

While there are speculations on just how (and how many) artifacts of our technical civilization will survive through 100 million years, Zalasiewicz's book excels beyond that.

It is one of the clearest introductions to the principles of sedimentary geology this outsider to the field has encountered. The reader will have clear mental animations of turbid mudflows offshore river deltas, sea levels rising and falling relative to nearby land masses (and why), sedimentary beds thrust up via the tectonic "up-escalator", only to be sheared off at the erosional plane near sea-level. We see only the edges of an invisible (and ghostly past) world, and many of the mechanisms are explained herein.

While the title suggests that the book is a successor of sorts to Weisman's "The World Without Us" (that book being a something of meditation on the fragility of human engineering), it is really something else entirely. Highly recommend for budding geologists to provide a paradigmatic framework for the other elements of the discipline.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good geology, August 9, 2009

By 

Retired Archaeologist - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Earth After Us: What Legacy Will Humans Leave in the Rocks? (Hardcover)

I purchased this book in hopes that it would be more geologically and paleontologically detailed than other books that talked about what happened after humans became extinct. There is no doubt that this book is more detailed geologically. In fact most of the book talks about geological processes. For readers who have little or no background, this is an excellent summary in layman's language of geological processes. However, the "what comes after" part is only a small part of the book and really doesn't have enough detail about what might happen and how the world would look step by step in the 100 million years after humans disappear.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, thought-provoking book. Strongly recommended!, October 20, 2011

By 

Calvin "mike_k99" (Upper Darby, PA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Earth After Us: What Legacy Will Humans Leave in the Rocks? (Paperback)

This is dense, very inteligent book, by an author who obviously knows the subject very well,explaning how the geological machinery of the earth will all but eliminate the products of human civilization after the human race is extinct. This book may not be really appreciated by someone who has no previous basic knowledge of geological processes. For those who do, it provides a marvelous, fascinating and mind-expanding journey into the far future of geological time. After reading the book you realize how insignificant we humans are in the grand scheme of things. I hope this book will reach the right people to inspire ideas for a TV science documentary or maybe even a scifi film!