|
During the past several decades our knowledge of the Earth,
its geochemistry, and its geochronology, has exploded, and with the knowledge
has come the need for an up-to-date, well balanced historical synthesis of our
evolving planet. Oasis in Space is that book, the masterwork of a master
geologist. The whole of Earth history is simplified and
integrated here, at a comprehensive level with emphasis on historical processes,
the succession of living systems, and the interactions of both with the evolving
physical environment. Cloud traces the highlights of that history from the triggering
pre-solar supernovation recorded by the Allende meteorite to the arrival of anatomically
and culturally modern humans. In doing so, he reconstructs Earth's eventful journey
from a barren aggregate of stony debris some 4.6 billion years ago to our now
clement and hospitable oasis in space. The evidence for
that contingent chain of events is, in the main, directly observable in the geologic
record. Selected examples here appear in roughly historical order and with enough
attention to the oft-slighted first four billion years to quell any lingering
notion either that life began with trilobites or that the shaping of our planet
was the work of physical processes alone. In seeking new outlooks and better interpretations,
however, Cloud does not abandon the achievements of the past but seeks to blend
the best of the new with the best of the old. The story
centers on fundamental issues -- the solar system, the historical and geochronological
foundations of Earth history, the nature of the primordial crust and atmosphere,
the making and evolution of the continents, plate tectonics, the origin and early
flowering of life and recurrent continental glaciation. It delves into the beginnings
of familiar animal and plant life, the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, the advent
of their mammalian successors, the evolving biosphere. Preston
Cloud, professor emeritus of geology at the University of California at Santa
Barbara, holds a doctorate from Yale University. He is the editor and co-author
of Resources and Man and of Adventures in Earth History, as well
as the author of Cosmos, Earth and Man. Dr. Cloud is a member of the National
Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences. In 1976 he was awarded the Penrose Medal of the Geological
Society of America. For many years associated with the United States Geological
Survey, he now lives in Santa Barbara. |
