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.
The Earth After Us
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"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.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Darryl Roy
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
By G. Book
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's a neat concept to write a book about what humanity will leave behind in the rocks in 100,000,000 years. However, the author could have excluded 60% of the text in the book and you would still understand exactly what he was talking about. Not until 2/3 of the way through the book does he even begin to mention anything about what humans will leave behind.
Also, if you skip every single aside (everything in parentheses), you won't be missing anything.
Also, if you skip every single aside (everything in parentheses), you won't be missing anything.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, thought-provoking book. Strongly recommended!
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... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Calvin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoroughly enjoyed
I wasn't sure if the science was too advanced for me. My knowledge of geology is superficial at best, though at the same time I don't want it dumbed down to something no longer... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Brennen T. Dyer
