An engaging and ominous history of how asteroid and comet collisions with the Earth have shaped the course of human events--and the dangers that may lie ahead. Recently, astronomers discovered Hale-Bopp, a giant comet that will streak across the sky in 1997, burning its brightest in April.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A crater discovered in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in 1978, and intensively investigated in 1990, may provide the "smoking gun" confirming that the extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by a meteorite that smashed into Earth 65 million years ago, wiping out 70% of all plant and animal species. The Gribbins, popular science writers, consider the evidence for this theory overwhelming. Collisions with comets, scientists now believe, have resulted in mass extinctions on Earth every 26 to 30 million years. Lesser cosmic impacts, the Gribbins hypothesize, shaped the evolution of human civilization by triggering ice ages. The Tunguska explosion of 1908, which produced a devastating fireball in Siberia that destroyed forests and caused worldwide tremors, was the result of an asteroid or meteor, they believe. More speculative is their proposal that a cataclysmic collision triggered the collapse of Roman Britain around A.D 500. Fragments of the Shoemaker-Levy comet rammed into Jupiter in 1994. To monitor the possibility of similar catastrophes on our planet, the Gribbins strongly endorse NASA's proposed Spaceguard Survey, a scheme to identify threatening asteroids and comets using a network of as-yet-unbuilt telescopes. Free of sensationalism, this is popular science writing at its most lucid and entertaining.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Most science readers are familiar with the widely accepted theory that the impact of an object from space led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Accumulating evidence suggests that this was no isolated incident but that numerous bombardments and massive extinctions have occurred regularly, with consequent shifts in the patterns of evolution and major climatic changes such as the Ice Ages. Presenting the history, discovery, and theories about such devastating impacts, best-selling science writers John and Mary Gribbin (Schroedinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality, LJ 5/1/95) present an enthralling story of how astronomical events have determined biological development on Earth. Their work is recommended as an excellent introduction to catastrophic collisions, but it will also satisfy library patrons who've already read Duncan Steel's Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets (LJ 51/95) or John Lewis's Rain of Fire and Ice (LJ 1/96) and who are begging for more on this exciting and controversial topic.?Valerie Vaughan, Hatfield P. L., Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Errors riddle Fire on Earth,
By Brian Tung (Marina del Rey, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fire on Earth: Doomsday, Dinosaurs, and Humankind (Hardcover)
People have trouble with long time scales. We can't experience anything longer than the time we live, and have to resort to extrapolation and imaginative analogies. But happenings on very large time scales--geological and astronomical time scales--aren't required to accord with human experience. The earth looks stable to us because as long as we can remember, it has remained relatively constant. Yet the geological record proves to us that the earth has at times been scarred by impacts from asteroids and other space debris. John and Mary Gribbin examine this matter and its consequences for the human race in *Fire on Earth*. The book looks at some of the physics and history behind collisions on earth, and the descriptions of the effects of the collisions make nuclear holocaust seem like a dribble in a pond. Yet, from the very beginning of the book, errors make reading a distracting act indeed. Another reader has already pointed out the missing slash in the equation for kinetic energy, changing 1/2 to 12. There are more inconsistencies: the mass of the famed Tunguska object is given variously as 100,000 tonnes or 1,000,000 tonnes, and yet later in the book, an object that is "substantially larger" than the Tunguska object has an estimated mass of 1,000 tonnes. Huh? Similar errors dot the book. A more serious weakness has to do with the end of the book. After describing the geological, ecological, and meteorological consequences of an impact, the Gribbins attempt to explain wars and social change as the indirect results of comet or asteroid impacts. This doesn't ring true, or at the very least, the Gribbins don't make a very convincing case for it. This penultimate chapter reminds one of lawyers arguing a case, where circumstances are very carefully assembled to support an assertion, circumstances that give the impression of strength, but that fall over under the slightest breath of opposition. This book isn't intended to be an in-depth, scientific examination of impacts; the Gribbins wrote a popular book on an increasingly popular subject. But careless proofreading and a runaway imagination mar the book. Enough information is here to satisfy many; but for a more objective survey of the same subject, consider Gerrit Verschuur's *Impact*, or even Carl Sagan's *Comet*. The Gribbins have the style, as evinced by the long list of popular science books they've written, but this one just doesn't measure up.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
No new ground broken in "Fire on Earth",
By A Customer
This review is from: Fire on Earth: Doomsday, Dinosaurs, and Humankind (Hardcover)
One thing very specifically bothered me about "Fire On Earth". It is a typo that should never have gotten by the astute eyes of editorial staff at St. Martin's Press. The equation for kinetic energy is given as the product of mass and velocity (square), multiplied by 12. A layman trying to create his own rock of doom will come up with an blast energy that is off by a factor of 24. That particular typo notwithstanding, "Fire On Earth" should break no new ground for serious students of cosmic impact. Much of the book is a recounting of information already available in other, more authoritative texts. The one redeeming feature of the book is its easy-to-read style, which allows the reader to quickly grasp the scope of the impact threat without trying to muddle through a lot of technical jargon. Those desiring to read a more serious treatment of the threat of asteroids and comets should check out "Rain of Iron and Ice" by John S. Lewis and "T-Rex and the Crater of Doom" by Walter Alvarez.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
More than "obvious" errors emerge on "Fire on Earth",
By juan arauco (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fire on Earth: Doomsday, Dinosaurs, and Humankind (Paperback)
A previous reader comments about missing slashes in formulas and excessive or lesser number of zeros in quantitative estimations of for example the Tunguska impactor on this book and it is true that this type of mistakes are common in the text but I found more serious errors in the following pages(these refer to the hardcover edition of the book): a)On page 32: "standard dating techniques involving measurements of radiactive argon in the rocks showed that the (Manson)crater had formed exactly 65 Myr ago". False. We know since 1993 that a careful application of this same technique to this crater reveal "exactly" 73.8 Myr for this formation. b)On the same page:"...geologists have also found another crater (Popigai)65 Myr old". Not true. Geologically Popigai is around 35 Myr old. c)Errors (a) and (b) conduce to the statement on page 33: "...three pieces of interplanetary debris...strike simultaneosly in Yucatan, Iowa and northern Siberia". Similar mistakes to (a) and (b) are repeated on page 133. d)On page 57:"...it was certainly(the explosive power of the Sikhote-Alin impact) at least 100,000 Kilotonnes". False. A minimun of at least 100 kilotonnes is enough for explain the characteristics observed of this impact. e)On the same page:"...in April 1972, came a genuine close encounter(the Montana fireball).False.The genuine Montana fireball close encounter came on August 10, 1972. f)On page 69:"Venus,..spins.. with each day lasting a year".Not true.Venus spins with each day lasting 243.01 Earth's days and each venusian year lasting 224.701 Earth's days. These are mistakes that I am aware of and do not diminish any other virtues that readers may find in the book.
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