Earth Time: Exploring the Deep Past from Victorian England to the Grand Canyon [Paperback]

Douglas Palmer (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470022213 | ISBN-13: 978-0470022214 | Publication Date: June 20, 2005 | Edition: 1

The dramatic history of planet Earth and the rocky road to understanding the past

• A probing account of the history of the earth and an introduction to the many eccentric characters that have attempted to understand its origins.
• Full of fascinating anecdotes about 19th century explorers and natural philosophers who first carved up Earth's history just as others were carving up the globe.
• Unravels the fascinating history of rock strata and the implications they have had on accepted theories on the Earth's life.
• Considers the future of the earth, and what a repeat of some of the catastrophic events of the earth's past, such as major earthquakes and asteroid collisions, could mean for life today.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The story of the Earth is one that has developed far beyond the traditional Biblical view of events, to the realm of high science and complex analysis. But still questions remain about the age and structure of the earth.

Expert geologist Douglas Palmer examines the extraordinary story of mankind???s quest to uncover the history of the Earth and introduces us to the host of eccentric characters that have paved the way to our current understanding. The Earth???s rocks have divulged startling information about a 4.54 billion year history filled with earthquakes, floods, asteroid collisions and stark climate changes, but the route to enlightenment has been far from straightforward and many questions remain unanswered.

From the Back Cover

Walk from London to North Wales, as a certain William Smith did, or from the top of the Grand Canyon to the river bed and you will walk through history from the present time to the deepest and most secret time in the history of the Earth.

In this fascinating tale Douglas Palmer explores mankind???s quest to understand the history of the planet on which we live. As nineteenth century explorers delved deeper into the hidden parts of the visible world, so scientists of the time explored the hidden depths of the Earth???s past. Douglas Palmer reveals the story of humankind???s search for a better understanding of the Earth???s story from the biblical view through to the most up-to-date rock sampling methods available to science today.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (June 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470022213
• ISBN-13: 978-0470022214
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,570,948 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite good introduction, July 17, 2006

By 

John Me Wallace "Keymaster of Gozer" (San Antonio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Earth Time: Exploring the Deep Past from Victorian England to the Grand Canyon (Paperback)

A singular description of "Earth Time" would not be helpful, as the book is really two in one. The first half is a history of the development of the (relative) geologic time scale, set largely in 19th century England. The second half is a more technical discussion of the stratigraphy of the Grand Canyon, with the book closing on a summary of radiometric dating techniques. The organization of the work is interesting; its first half covers the time scale from the Holocene back to the Precambrian, while the second half starts from the Precambrian and works its way forward.

There is a lot in this book to like, as the author wanders through the various personalities and historical set pieces that gave us the modern geologic time scale. Palmer's prose is light on tech and easy to read, and especially in the book's second half, he has a "just the facts" approach that makes it the strongest part of the book. One paragraph biographies of key individuals are sprinkled throughout the text; I found these distracting at first, but in retrospect felt they are probably more useful than a cumbersome appendix the reader would have to flip back and forth from.

The book isn't perfect, though; for instance, in the first half, the Holocene and Precambrian feel glossed over, while in the second half more attention is given to radiometric dating than equally (and perhaps more) effective biostratigraphic dating. A chapter on the "Missing Mesozoic" strata of the Grand Canyon could have gone into a little more detail about the events that caused this hiatus. These are all minor quibbles, though.

On the whole, I'd definitely recommend this book for those interested in the "meat and potatoes" of how the geologic time scale was developed; as an historical geology geek, I greatly enjoyed it.