This is the story of a single pebble. It is just a normal pebble,
as you might pick up on holiday - on a beach in Wales, say. Its
history, though, carries us into abyssal depths of time, and across
the farthest reaches of space. This is a narrative of the Earth's
long and dramatic history, as gleaned from a single pebble. It
begins as the pebble-particles form amid unimaginable violence in
distal realms of the Universe, in the Big Bang and in supernova
explosions and continues amid the construction of the Solar System.
Jan Zalasiewicz shows the almost incredible complexity present in
such a small and apparently mundane object. Many events in the
Earth's ancient past can be deciphered from a pebble: volcanic
eruptions; the lives and deaths of extinct animals and plants; the
alien nature of long-vanished oceans; and transformations deep
underground, including the creations of fool's gold and of oil.
Zalasiewicz demonstrates how geologists reach deep into the Earth's
past by forensic analysis of even the tiniest amounts of mineral
matter. Many stories are crammed into each and every pebble around
us. It may be small, and ordinary, this pebble - but it is also an
eloquent part of our Earth's extraordinary, never-ending story.
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Review This Product
My review
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 | Review
by: Tanya K.
“Take a pebble. A slate pebble, say, from a beach in Wales. Look at its rich grey, cut by veins of white quartz. Look closely. There are other markings too…”
The Planet in a Pebble is the story of the Earth as determined from a single pebble, from the depth of time and across the far reaches of space to its current existence. The many events in the Earth’s past that can be deciphered from the subject pebble include: the Big-Bang; solar system creation; planet creation; volcanic eruptions; magnetic fields, the lives and deaths of extinct organic species; the nature of long-vanished oceans; transformations in the depth of the earth; the creation of fool’s gold and of oil; and tectonics.
Jan Zalasiewicz demonstrates, in an accessible and lyrical manner, how geologists reach deep into the Earth's past by forensic analysis of even the tiniest amounts of mineral matter to discover aspects of Earth’s history. However, while the writing style is entertaining and accessible, there is some technical vocabulary that may be confusing for non-geologists, but this can’t be helped in a book like this. None of this technical vocabulary is incomprehensible with a bit of application of grey matter.
The author shows how many stories are crammed into each and every pebble around us, no matter how ordinary the pebble. But this pebble is also a part of the Earth’s amazing journey through time.
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