MARC record from Internet Archive

LEADER: 03884cam 22003134a 4500
001 13731791
005 20080505125441.0
008 040927s2005 mau b 001 0 eng
906 $a7$bcbc$corignew$d1$eecip$f20$gy-gencatlg
925 0 $aacquire$b2 shelf copies$xpolicy default
955 $ajp43 2004-09-27$cjp43 2004-09-27 to subj$djp02 2004-10-04 to SL$ejp05 2004-10-05 to Dewey$aaa01 2004-10-06$aps08 2006-07-24 1 copy rec'd., to CIP ver.$fjp20 2006-07-31 Z-CipVer$gjp20 2006-07-31 to BCCD$alc15 2006-08-04 copy 2 added
010 $a 2004022738
020 $a081334249X (hardcover : alk. paper)
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm56672295
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dYDX$dOCL$dBAKER$dBUR$dPFO$dDLC
042 $apcc
050 00 $aQE31$b.B524 2005
082 00 $a551.7$222
100 1 $aBjornerud, Marcia.
245 10 $aReading the rocks :$bthe autobiography of the earth /$cMarcia Bjornerud.
260 $aCambridge, MA :$bWestview Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group,$cc2005.
300 $ax, 237 p. ;$c22 cm.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 213-226) and index.
505 0 $aAcknowledgments -- Prologue : Stone Crazy. No place with no past -- The accidental diarist -- The Tao of Earth. The department of redundancy department, Inertia and spare parts -- Equals and opposites -- Going home to Mother Earth -- Everything old is new again -- The Earth fugue -- Reading rocks: a primer. Meeting rocks on common ground -- A rock by any other name -- Grammar and syntax of the three rock languages -- Mind the gap, what rocks don't tell us -- Putting everything in order -- Getting a date -- Peering into the primordial mists -- The great and the small. Geo-metry: Sizing up the Earth -- A sense of scale -- The importance of being erroneous -- Making retroactive measurements -- Tiny bubbles -- Stretchy coastlines and imperial microbes -- Lawmakers or outlaws? -- Measure for measure -- Mixing and sorting. Stars of rock and heavy metal -- Density is destiny -- Whither the water -- Mixed drinks and metaphors -- The mantle of power -- Waste management -- Mal de mer -- Only connect -- Innovation and conservation. You say you want a revolution -- The paradox of oxygen -- Coming out of the cold -- Swimming with the (not-yet-evolved) sharks -- An arthropod eat arthropod world -- The many legs of the arms race -- Communes and junkyards -- Something old, something new, everything borrowed -- Strength and weakness. Earth before geology -- Naming names and making maps -- A mechanical Earth -- The incredible shrinking Earth -- Earth unbound -- Epilogue: The once and future Earth -- Glossary -- Notes -- Index.
520 $aThis armchair guide to the making of the geologic record shows how to understand messages written in stone. To many of us, the Earth's crust is a relic of ancient, unknowable history--but to a geologist, stones are richly illustrated narratives, telling gothic tales of cataclysm and reincarnation. For more than four billion years, in beach sand, granite, and garnet schists, the planet has kept a rich and idiosyncratic journal of its past. Fulbright Scholar Bjornerud takes the reader along on an eye-opening tour of Deep Time, explaining what we see and feel beneath our feet. Both scientist and storyteller, Bjornerud uses anecdotes and metaphors to remind us that our home is a living thing with lessons to teach. She shows how our planet has long maintained a delicate balance, and how the global give-and-take has sustained life on Earth through numerous upheavals.--From publisher description.
650 0 $aGeology.
856 41 $3Table of contents$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip051/2004022738.html
856 42 $3Contributor biographical information$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0832/2004022738-b.html
856 42 $3Publisher description$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0832/2004022738-d.html