Product Details
Earth System History

Earth System History
By Steven M. Stanley

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Average customer review:
Geology for beginners.

Product Description

Designed for a new generation of readers, Stanley's Earth System History is a reforging of his Exploring Earth and Life Through Time. Adopting an earth system approach throughout, Earth System History shows students how Earth's ecosystem has developed over time and how events in the past provide a perspective for dealing with present and future changes.  Clear and concise, the new Second Edition of this introduction to historical geology is perfect for one-term non-majors courses and contains lots of new content and improved visuals.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #66879 in Books
  • Published on: 2004-10-29
  • Released on: 2004-10-29
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 608 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
STEVEN M. STANLEY, John Hopkins University, USA.

Customer Reviews

Excellent beginner book for geology.4
This book covers general geology and the fundamentals of earth processes and paleontology. From earthquakes to evolution, this book gives at least a superficial and fundamental view of each major topic. The images and diagrams are by far the most impressive part of this book. Full color diagrams, photos and drawings help to illustrate practically every page.

Chapter 1: historical theories in geology as well as the basics of geology from the rock cycle to geologic time.

Chapter 2: minerals, rock properties and types of rocks.

Chapter 3: basic scientific organization of life and fossils.

Chapter 4: environment and its relationship with life.

Chapter 5: sedimentary rocks, soils & environments including glaciers, lakes, deserts, rivers and the ocean.

Chapter 6: geologic time, stratigraphy basics and dating methods.

Chapter 7: evolution basics, concepts of extinction, evolutionary trends.

Chapter 8: plate tectonics - evidence, consequences and general mechanisms.

Chapter 9: orogenesis (mountain building) - processes, introduction to structural geology.

Chapter 10: introduction to geochemistry - chemical cycles, isotopes, atmospheric trends related to weathering rates, climate-related isotopes and mineralogy.

Chapter 11 - Chapter 20 each deal with a major phase in geologic time from the creation of the planet to the movement of the plates to the great ice ages and finally to the modern era.

The CD, while helpful, essentially contains the same information as the book. I personally did not find it any more or less helpful than the book itself.

It is wonderfull !5
Everybody that is interested in historical geology and paleontology must have this book. It is clear with a lot of informations, has beautifull pictures and a fantastic CD ROM. One of the best I bought last year !

A Text EVERYONE Should Read!5
I'll keep this simple.
It's great for geoscience students.
It contains well-put information about our world that EVERYONE should know!
It paints an excellent picture of historical geology and general Earth processes.
Give it a try!