Includes bibliographical references (p. 191) and index.

CONTENTS:

Big bang to stellar space : birth of the universe -- Meteorites, asteroids and comets : clues to the origins of the Earth -- Formation of the planets : Solid worlds from solar nebula -- The moon : Earth's dead satellite -- Motions in the earth : active forces beneath the crust -- The earth's magnetic field : dynamo in the core -- The making of the continents : beginnings of a solid crust -- Atmosphere and oceans : Earth's life support system -- The archean world : Earth 4,000 to 2,500 million years ago -- The origins of life : a chance combination -- The making of rocks : solid rock from sediment -- The Proterozoic world : Earth 2,500 to 550 million years ago -- Early life and the fossil record : discovering the past in the present -- Early glaciations : Earth cools and freezes -- Evolutionary explosion : early marine life of the Burgess Shale -- The Cambrian world : Earth 550 million to 500 million years ago -- Shells and skeletons : guides to the history to life on Earth -- The Ordovician world : Earth 500 to 440 million years ago -- The Silurian world : Earth 440 to 410 million years ago -- The Caledonian mountains : Europe and North America in collision -- The Devonian world : Earth 410 to 350 million years ago -- Life onto land : plants and animals move from sea to land -- The Lower Carboniferous world : Earth 350 to 315 million years ago -- Limestone : chemical deposition of carbonates -- The Upper Carboniferous World : Earth 315 to 290 million years ago -- The great swamp forests : coal from vegetation in Pennsylvania and Northern Europe -- The Appalachians : shaping of North America -- Metals in the earth : sedimentary ores in the Mississippi valley -- The Permian world : Earth 290 to 250 million years ago -- Gondwanaland glaciations in the Permian : ice ages of the Late Paleozoic -- Mass extinctions of marine life : end of the Paleozoic era --

Europe and Asia joined : Ural Mountains and the Siberian Traps -- The Triassic world : Earth 250 to 210 million years ago -- Desert sandstone : northern continents turn hot and dry -- Reptiles and birds : dominant animals of the Mesozoic -- The Jurassic world : Earth 250 to 145 million years ago -- The opening of the central Atlantic : North America separates from Africa and South America -- Ammonites : abundance and diversity -- Early dinosaurs : origins and development -- Arabian oil : world's largest concentration of mineral wealth -- The cretaceous world : Earth 145 to 65 million years ago -- Chalk : warm, tranquil waters over northern Europe -- The arctic basin and Verkhoyansk Mountains : Ocean floor and oil-rich shelf seas -- Flowering plants : domination of the plant kingdom -- Cretaceous dinosaurs : dominance, isolation and decline -- South America splits from Africa : opening of the South Atlantic -- The Caribbean basin : a sea between two continents -- Mass extinction of Mesozoic life : from dinosaurs to mammals -- The tertiary world : Earth 65 to 2 million years ago -- The rise of mammals : development and spread of the dominant land animals -- The Cordilleran orogeny and the Rocky Mountains : uplift of western North America -- The Himalayas : India in collision with Asia -- Australasia : long separation from Gondwanaland -- Corals : changing sea levels and reef-building-- The Hawaiian Islands : a 'hot spot' on the earth's crust" -- The northern north Atlantic : from Iceland to the Arctic basin -- The Alps and the Mediterranean basin : Africa and Arabia collide with Europe and Asia -- The Andes : mountain chains and metal ores -- The Japanese Islands : disturbance zones in the west Pacific -- Flooding the Mediterranean : last remnants of the Tethys Sea -- Ice Ages : world turns colder -- The Pleistocene World : Earth 2 million years ago -- The Great Lakes and the Mississippi Basin : remnants of the ice ages -- Human Origins and Migration: From Africa to every corner of the Earth -- Mount St. Helens : Volcanoes in recent history -- San Andreas Fault: Plate margins in the present world -- Earthquakes: Historical recordings of geological events -- Antarctica : Ice movements on a continental scale -- The Earth's Climate : Present trends and future changes -- Future World : Earth continues to change -- Timelines -- Glossary.