Earth System History

Steven M. Stanley

Macmillan, Oct 29, 2004 - Science - 567 pages

Designed for a new generation of readers, Stanley's Earth System History is a reforging of his Exploring Earth and Life Through Time. Adopting an earth system approach throughout, Earth System History shows students how Earth's ecosystem has developed over time and how events in the past provide a perspective for dealing with present and future changes. Clear and concise, the new Second Edition of this introduction to historical geology is perfect for one-term non-majors courses and contains lots of new content and improved visuals.

Contents

• Materials Processes and Principles: 1
• Earth as a System: 3
• Global Dating of the Rock Record: 11
• RockForming Minerals and Rocks: 27
• Rocks and Their Origins: 28
• Types of Rocks: 36
• Chapter SummaryReview Questions: 47
• The Diversity of Life: 49
• Identifying Clades and Their Relationships: 57
• A Kingdom of Decomposers: 64
• Chapter SummaryReview Questions: 76
• Environments and Life: 79
• The Terrestrial Realm: 87
• The Marine Realm: 94
• Chapter SummaryReview Questions: 101
• Sedimentary Environments: 103
• Marginal Marine and OpenShelf: 114
• DeepSea Environments: 124
• Correlation and Dating of the Rock Record: 129
• Methods of Stratigraphic: 130
• Earths Absolute Age: 139
• Event Stratigraphy: 145
• Evolution and the Fossil Record: 153
• Genes DNA and Chromosomes: 160
• Extinction: 166
• Evolution is irreversible: 174
• The Theory of Plate Tectonics: 177
• The Rise of Plate Tectonics: 185
• Plate Movements: 192
• Continental Tectonics and Mountain Chains: 199
• Mountain Building: 207
• Suturing of Small Landmasses: 215
• Major Chemical Cycles: 221
• Carbon burial enlarges the atmospheres oxygen: 231
• Oxygen Isotopes Climate and: 238
• The Story of Earth: 245
• The Archean Eon of Precambrian Time: 247
• The Ages of the Planets and the Universe: 251
• Evidence of Archean Life: 262
• Atmospheric Oxygen: 270
• The Proterozoic Eon of Precambrian Time: 273
• Global Events of the Paleoproterozoic: 278
• The Expansion and Contraction: 287
• The Assembly and Breakup of Neoproterozoic: 294
• The Early Paleozoic World: 299
• Major Events of: 300
• The Middle Paleozoic World: 327
• Ordovician Life 309 Chapter SummaryReview Questions: 352
• The Late Paleozoic World: 355
• Paleogeography of the Cambrian World 312 Aragonitic reef builders flourished in aragonite: 360
• in Mass Extinction 316 Earth System Shift 151 Weakened: 366
• Middle Paleozoic 328: 374
• Landscapes and Open the Way for Reefs formed in the Delaware Basin of western: 381
• The Early Mesozoic Era: 387
• Life on Land: 394
• The Paleogeography of the Early: 404
• Chapter SummaryReview Questions: 415
• The Cretaceous World: 417
• Paleogeography of the Cretaceous World: 428
• The Paleogene World: 445
• Early Paleogene birds were large: 453
• Regional Events of Paleogene Time: 460
• Chapter SummaryReview Questions: 467
• The Neogene World: 469
• The Modern Ice Age of the Northern: 477
• Chapter SummaryReview Questions: 512
• The Holocene: 515
• The First Americans: 520
• Sea Level: 529
• Chapter SummaryReview Questions: 538
• Index: 553

Bibliographic information

• Title: Earth System History
• Author: Steven M. Stanley
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2004
• ISBN: 0716739070, 9780716739074
• Length: 567 pages
• Subjects: Science / Earth Sciences / General; Science / Earth Sciences / Geology