66-million-year-old deathbed linked to dinosaur-killing meteor. The torrent of rocks, like fine sand, and small glass beads continued. That impact created a huge crater, called Chicxulub, in the ocean. Rex and the Crater of Doom', by Walter Alvarez (mentioned in the. It is available in ebook format.
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:3 C H A P T E R Gradualist versus Catastrophist BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY AND CATASTROPHISM In previous centuries, travelers crossing the Alps on primitive trails faced drowning in wild rivers, freezing in blizzards, or burial by avalanches. As grim obstacles, slashed through by dark canyons and capped by a wilderness of glacial ice, mountains must often have seemed threatening in the past.
When scientists began to turn their attention to what we now call geology, an obvious question was how mountains like the Alps came to be. We now see that the answer to this question depended on how much time was available for their creation. Mountains could form slowly and gradually if there was lots of time in Earth history. However, the early geologists automatically assumed a brief history, because the Bible actually lists the generations of our forefathers back to the creation of the Earth, and the Bible was accepted as an accurate account of history. On this basis, James Ussher, an Anglo-Irish bishop (1581–1656), determined that the Earth had been created in 4004 B.C. With so little time available for its formation, a mountain range like the Alps could only be seen as the wreckage from a catastrophe, and perhaps this view resonated with the gloom that travelers evidently felt while crossing mountain barriers.
As long as the biblical chronology was accepted, people who thought about the history recorded in rocks and landscapes had to conclude that changes in the Earth’s past had been very rapid. This viewpoint came to be called catastrophism.
Geology could not become a real science until the stranglehold of Biblical chronology was broken. Geologists have long C H A P T E R T H R E E 44 attributed this breakthrough to two scientific heroes. The first of these was the eighteenth-century Scotsman, James Hutton, who is credited with the discovery that the Earth is enormously ancient. The other was the nineteenth-century Englishman, Charles Lyell, recognized as the father of “uniformitarianism”— the view that all changes in Earth history have been gradual.
Although these traditional accounts are now recognized as oversimplified and misleading,1 they were accepted until recently by most geologists and paleontologists. TO MAP THE PLANET Hutton’s ancient Earth and Lyell’s uniformitarianism gave geologists the tools they needed to approach their central scientific problem—to understand rocks and landscapes. Long-familiar mountains like the Alps and dramatic, newly discovered landscapes like the Grand Canyon no longer required catastrophic explanations. Slow deformation and slow erosion over very long periods of time better explained what geologists saw in the field. John Muir poetically but correctly attributed the vertical walls of Yosemite to the slow grinding of glaciers, rather than to violence and catastrophe: “Nature chose for a tool not the earthquake or lightning to rend and split asunder, not the stormy torrent or eroding rain, but the tender snow-flowers noiselessly falling through unnumbered centuries, the offspring of the sun and sea.”2 The concept of an ancient Earth made it possible to understand rocks and landscapes correctly, but it raised a new problem.
Geologic processes, active through the 4,600 million years of Earth history, have produced an enormously complex and varied array of rocks. Those rocks, constituting the historical record of the Earth, are to be found all around the globe—in farmlands, deserts, mountains, jungles, and under the sea. Describing all those rocks and interpreting all that history would be a formidable task. It would take generations of geologists to G R A D U A L I S T V E R S U S C A T A S T R O P H I S T 45 complete. And so, beginning in the nineteenth century, geologists settled down to do what was clearly a necessary task—to measure and describe the rocks of the entire surface of the world and to plot their distribution on detailed maps that would be the basis for understanding Earth history.
Constructing an accurate geologic map of an area, showing the locations of all the different kinds of rocks and their geometrical relationships, is a challenging and rewarding task, and geologists became very skilled at mapping. I’ve made several geologic maps at a variety of scales, and I take pride and pleasure in them. As the decades went by, systematic geologic mapping paid off in a more and more detailed knowledge of the history of the Earth, region by region.
Author: Walter AlvarezPublisher: W. Norton & CompanyISBN: Category: SciencePage: 288View: 1593'A thrilling synthesis from a brilliant scientist who discovered one of the most important chapters in our history.' Carroll Big History, the field that integrates traditional historical scholarship with scientific insights to study the full sweep of our universe, has so far been the domain of historians. Famed geologist Walter Alvarez—best known for the “Impact Theory” explaining dinosaur extinction—has instead championed a science-first approach to Big History. Here he wields his unique expertise to give us a new appreciation for the incredible occurrences—from the Big Bang to the formation of supercontinents, the dawn of the Bronze Age, and beyond—that have led to our improbable place in the universe. Author: Walter AlvarezPublisher: W.
Norton & CompanyISBN: 934Category: SciencePage: 288View: 5399The major new work by the best-selling author of T. Rex and the Crater of Doom-a fascinating history. Walter Alvarez and his team made one of the most astonishing scientific discoveries of the twentieth century-that an asteroid smashed into the Earth 65 million years ago, exterminating the dinosaurs. Alvarez had the first glimmer of that amazing insight when he noticed something odd in a rock outcrop in central Italy. Alvarez now returns to that rich terrain, this time to take the reader on an distant past. We encounter the volcanoes that formed the Seven Hills of Rome; the majestic limestone Apennine mountains that started to develop millions of years ago under water; the evidence that the Mediterranean Sea completely evaporated to a sunken desert, perhaps several times; and the proof that continental plates once overran one another to form telling, all major geologic episodes are as dramatic as the great impact that killed the dinosaurs, even when they happen over eons and without huge creatures to witness them. Author: PEEBLES CURTISPublisher: Smithsonian InstitutionISBN: Category: SciencePage: 280View: 9976Asteroids suggest images of a catastrophic impact with Earth, triggering infernos, tidal waves, famine, and death — but these scenarios have obscured the larger story of how asteroids have been discovered and studied.
During the past two centuries, the quest for knowledge about asteroids has involved eminent scientists and amateur astronomers, patient research and sudden intuition, advanced technology and the simplest of telescopes, newspaper headlines and Cold War secrets. Showing how asteroid research is increasingly collaborative, Peebles's Asteroids provides insights into the evolution of scientific ideas and the ebb and flow of scientific debate. Author: Douglas J.
Nichols,Kirk R. JohnsonPublisher: Cambridge University PressISBN: Category: SciencePage: N.AView: 530In this text, two of the world's leading experts in palynology and paleobotany provide a comprehensive account of the fate of land plants during the 'great extinction' about 65 million years ago. They describe how the time boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene Periods (the K–T boundary) is recognised in the geological record, and how fossil plants can be used to understand global events of that time. There are case studies from over 100 localities around the world, including North America, China, Russia and New Zealand. The book concludes with an evaluation of possible causes of the K–T boundary event and its effects on floras of the past and present. This book is written for researchers and students in paleontology, botany, geology and Earth history, and everyone who has been following the course of the extinction debate and the K–T boundary paradigm shift.
From Heresy to TruthAuthor: James Lawrence PowellPublisher: Columbia University PressISBN: Category: SciencePage: 352View: 6527Over the course of the twentieth century, scientists came to accept four counterintuitive yet fundamental facts about the Earth: deep time, continental drift, meteorite impact, and global warming. When first suggested, each proposition violated scientific orthodoxy and was quickly denounced as scientific—and sometimes religious—heresy. Nevertheless, after decades of rejection, scientists came to accept each theory.
The stories behind these four discoveries reflect more than the fascinating push and pull of scientific work. They reveal the provocative nature of science and how it raises profound and sometimes uncomfortable truths as it advances. For example, counter to common sense, the Earth and the solar system are older than all of human existence; the interactions among the moving plates and the continents they carry account for nearly all of the Earth's surface features; and nearly every important feature of our solar system results from the chance collision of objects in space. Most surprising of all, we humans have altered the climate of an entire planet and now threaten the future of civilization.
This absorbing scientific history is the only book to describe the evolution of these four ideas from heresy to truth, showing how science works in practice and how it inevitably corrects the mistakes of its practitioners. Scientists can be wrong, but they do not stay wrong. In the process, astonishing ideas are born, tested, and over time take root. An EncyclopediaAuthor: Eric Gottfrid SwedinPublisher: ABC-CLIOISBN: Category: ReferencePage: 382View: 5731This work is a unique introductory A–Z resource detailing the scientific achievements of the contemporary world and analyzing the key scientific trends, discoveries, and personalities of the modern age. Over 200 A–Z entries covering topics ranging from plate tectonics to the first Moon landings. More than 40 stunning photographs providing a unique pictorial chronicle of the achievements of modern science.
Author: Don LessemPublisher: ediciones LernerISBN: Category: Juvenile NonfictionPage: 32View: 3640'Dino' Don Lessem brings readers face-to-face with various dinosaur species, detailing their habitats, way of life and how they became extinct. An acclaimed dinosaur expert, Don Lessem has written more than 30 children's books, writes a popular dinosaur column in Highlights magazine, and was an adviser for Jurassic Park. Take a trip through dinosaur time to meet these sea giants face-to-face: The Archelon was similar to a turtle, but its shell was made of crossed rib bone covered in rubbery skin! The Mososaurs had huge pointy jaws and grew to be fifty feet long! The Ichthyosaurs looked a lot like dolphins! Plus, you'll get to know Opthalmosaurus, Kronosaurus, Shonisaurus, Plesiosaurs and Teleosaurus! Research Questions for a Changing PlanetAuthor: National Research Council,Division on Earth and Life Studies,Board on Earth Sciences and Resources,Committee on Grand Research Questions in the Solid-Earth SciencesPublisher: National Academies PressISBN: 309Category: SciencePage: 150View: 6033Questions about the origin and nature of Earth and the life on it have long preoccupied human thought and the scientific endeavor.
Deciphering the planet's history and processes could improve the ability to predict catastrophes like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, to manage Earth's resources, and to anticipate changes in climate and geologic processes. At the request of the U.S. Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Geological Survey, the National Research Council assembled a committee to propose and explore grand questions in geological and planetary science. This book captures, in a series of questions, the essential scientific challenges that constitute the frontier of Earth science at the start of the 21st century.
Author: Patricia Barnes-Svarney,Thomas E SvarneyPublisher: Visible Ink PressISBN: Category: NaturePage: 288View: 6305Featuring more than 600 questions about dinosaurs—such as What dinosaurs are thought to have evolved into birds? Did dinosaurs travel in herds? And Where and what is the Dinosaur Freeway?—this fun-filled fact-book provides a wealth of information on the lives and habits of these astonishing creatures. From the Tyrannosaurus rex to the Stegosaurus, the guide profiles numerous species, chronicling their time on earth and exploring their roles in archaeological expeditions and museums today. Delightful and intriguing, this comprehensive record includes the debates still surrounding the origins and fate of these creatures that dominated the earth for millions of years but seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye.
225 Million Years of EvolutionAuthor: Sankar ChatterjeePublisher: JHU PressISBN: 142141614XCategory: SciencePage: 392View: 8291A small set of fossilized bones discovered almost thirty years ago led paleontologist Sankar Chatterjee on a lifelong quest to understand their place in our understanding of the history of life. They were clearly the bones of something unusual, a bird-like creature that lived long, long ago in the age of dinosaurs. He called it Protoavis, and the animal that owned these bones quickly became a contender for the title of 'oldest known bird.'
In 1997, Chatterjee published his findings in the first edition of The Rise of Birds. Since then Chatterjee and his colleagues have searched the world for more transitional bird fossils. And they have found them. This second edition of The Rise of Birds brings together a treasure trove of fossils that tell us far more about the evolution of birds than we once dreamed possible. With no blind allegiance to what he once thought he knew, Chatterjee devours the new evidence and lays out the most compelling version of the birth and evolution of the avian form ever attempted. He takes us from Texas to Spain, China, Mongolia, Madagascar, Australia, Antarctica, and Argentina.
He shows how, in the 'Cretaceous Pompeii' of China, he was able to reconstruct the origin and evolution of flight of early birds from the feathered dinosaurs that lay among thousands of other amazing fossils. Chatterjee takes us to where long-hidden bird fossils dwell. His compelling, occasionally controversial, revelations—accompanied by spectacular illustrations—are a must-read for anyone with a serious interest in the evolution of 'the feathered dinosaurs,' from vertebrate paleontologists and ornithologists to naturalists and birders. Alan Feduccia, University of North CarolinaSearch for: Search Best Books.
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