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Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth
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 Marcia Bjornerud takes the reader along on an eye-opening tour of Deep Time, explaining in elegant prose 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. But with the rapidly escalating effects of human beings on their home planet, that cosmic balance is being threatened -- and the consequences may be catastrophic. Containing a glossary and detailed timescale, as well as vivid descriptions and historic accounts, Reading the Rocks is literally a history of the world, for all friends of the Earth.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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May 20, 2020
There is geology – “Look, a rock. I wonder what kind it is,” and then there is Geology with a capital ‘G’, encompassing all time, from the Big Bang to the fusion of simple atoms through nucleosynthesis; the primordial formation of the Earth; the mechanics of plate tectonics; the origin and evolution of life up to the present. This book is Geology with a capital ‘G’.
For the average reader the book is full of interesting observations that help illuminate some non-obvious aspects of geology and earth sciences. For example, “If Earth were significantly larger, heat production would exceed heat loss and the planet might never have developed the crispy outer crust necessary for a self-sustaining plate tectonic system.” (p. 24) Therefore:
The book starts with cosmology, how time and the fundamental forces of physics led to the creation of our solar system 4.55 billion years ago. From the origin of the earth the book moves to geology, as crustal plates shifted and collided, creating and destroying continents and altering the climate to be hostile or benevolent toward life. Finally, from geology the focus shifts toward paleontology and how the the rocks reflect traces of evolving life, evidence of great extinctions, and the geochemistry that weaves living and non-living things together.
In the discussions of tectonics there is an interesting description of the role that water plays, which is something I had not known about. The absorption of water via subducting plates is essential for the regeneration of the earth’s crust along the lines where plates collide. And from this observation the discussion moves into the endless circulation of elements essential to life.
After pulling together the story of geology and life the author spends time reflecting on how humankind is changing the planet. The Earth has a remarkable ability to maintain balance, a kind of geological and climatological homeostasis, but there are limits to its ability to self-correct. Humans seem to be pushing the boundaries of sustainability, with potentially dire consequences for the near future. There are some interesting additional details for the debate which all thinking people are aware of these days. When things start going sideways we can’t say we weren’t warned.
The book is informative and well written, requiring no scientific or technical knowledge and is full of interesting facts thrown in to buttress the author’s main points. Some of these are:
- More than 99 percent of all the carbon in Earth’s near-surface environment is stored in carbonate rocks – layers of limestone and dolomite – deposited from seawater. On Venus, carbon dioxide can leave the atmosphere only by dissipating slowing into space.(p. 13)
- Mountains on earth self-destruct at nearly the same rate that they are built. Two processes – erosion and gravitational collapse – act to keep peaks from becoming too lofty….Gravitational collapse occurs because the sheer weight of mountains exceeds the long-term strength of the rocks that form them. (p. 25)
- small phenomena can wield surprising power: A trivial deviation from sphericity causes the entire planet to wobble, raindrops and tiny flaws in minerals bring down mountains, trace gases in the air govern climate, and microbes modulate the atmosphere. (p. 111)
- The elements from lithium through iron (with three to twenty-six protons per nucleus) are, collectively, 10,000 times more abundant than all the remaining heavy elements, including the coveted metals like copper, silver, and gold, which are unusually abundant on Earth. (p. 115)
- it takes the pressure of 100 miles of rock to change ordinary carbon into a diamond. (p. 116)
- Si [Silicon], the essential constituent of 95 percent of all of Earth’s rocks. (p. 127)
- under normal circumstances, even unpolluted rainwater is slight acidic because dissolved carbon dioxide in it creates weak carbonic acid. (p. 135)
Someone who expects this book to be solely about geology might wonder about the long digressions into cosmology and life sciences, but they are all interrelated, and the discussion of one topic leads logically to the next. Anyone with an interest in how we got here and where we are going would enjoy this book.
For the average reader the book is full of interesting observations that help illuminate some non-obvious aspects of geology and earth sciences. For example, “If Earth were significantly larger, heat production would exceed heat loss and the planet might never have developed the crispy outer crust necessary for a self-sustaining plate tectonic system.” (p. 24) Therefore:
Earth’s size gives it a double advantage: Not only does it have a comparatively small surface area through which to lose heat, but the planet also has a sizable store of radioactive elements to generate more. While Earth has experienced some net cooling over the past 4.5 billion years, its heat loss and heat production have remained more nearly in balance than on Mercury, Mars, and the Moon. These small worlds died young, but Earth still has a warm and mobile mantle that keeps its crustal plates dancing even at an advanced age. (p. 10)
The book starts with cosmology, how time and the fundamental forces of physics led to the creation of our solar system 4.55 billion years ago. From the origin of the earth the book moves to geology, as crustal plates shifted and collided, creating and destroying continents and altering the climate to be hostile or benevolent toward life. Finally, from geology the focus shifts toward paleontology and how the the rocks reflect traces of evolving life, evidence of great extinctions, and the geochemistry that weaves living and non-living things together.
In the discussions of tectonics there is an interesting description of the role that water plays, which is something I had not known about. The absorption of water via subducting plates is essential for the regeneration of the earth’s crust along the lines where plates collide. And from this observation the discussion moves into the endless circulation of elements essential to life.
Carbon, water, sulfur, phosphorus, and nitrogen are in constant motion at and near the Earth’s surface, reincarnated again and again as minerals in rocks, gases in the atmosphere, ions in the ocean, schools of fish, leaves on trees. Each year, for example, even in the absence of human activities, 440 million tons of carbon are transferred from one form to another, with about 45 percent of this carbon “remanufactured” and shipped by biological processes. Similarly, 5.8 billion tons of nitrogen and 740 billion kilograms of phosphorous change hands in a year. Organisms are involved in 87 percent of the nitrogen trades and more than 99 percent of the phosphorus transactions. (p. 32-33)
After pulling together the story of geology and life the author spends time reflecting on how humankind is changing the planet. The Earth has a remarkable ability to maintain balance, a kind of geological and climatological homeostasis, but there are limits to its ability to self-correct. Humans seem to be pushing the boundaries of sustainability, with potentially dire consequences for the near future. There are some interesting additional details for the debate which all thinking people are aware of these days. When things start going sideways we can’t say we weren’t warned.
The book is informative and well written, requiring no scientific or technical knowledge and is full of interesting facts thrown in to buttress the author’s main points. Some of these are:
- More than 99 percent of all the carbon in Earth’s near-surface environment is stored in carbonate rocks – layers of limestone and dolomite – deposited from seawater. On Venus, carbon dioxide can leave the atmosphere only by dissipating slowing into space.(p. 13)
- Mountains on earth self-destruct at nearly the same rate that they are built. Two processes – erosion and gravitational collapse – act to keep peaks from becoming too lofty….Gravitational collapse occurs because the sheer weight of mountains exceeds the long-term strength of the rocks that form them. (p. 25)
- small phenomena can wield surprising power: A trivial deviation from sphericity causes the entire planet to wobble, raindrops and tiny flaws in minerals bring down mountains, trace gases in the air govern climate, and microbes modulate the atmosphere. (p. 111)
- The elements from lithium through iron (with three to twenty-six protons per nucleus) are, collectively, 10,000 times more abundant than all the remaining heavy elements, including the coveted metals like copper, silver, and gold, which are unusually abundant on Earth. (p. 115)
- it takes the pressure of 100 miles of rock to change ordinary carbon into a diamond. (p. 116)
- Si [Silicon], the essential constituent of 95 percent of all of Earth’s rocks. (p. 127)
- under normal circumstances, even unpolluted rainwater is slight acidic because dissolved carbon dioxide in it creates weak carbonic acid. (p. 135)
Someone who expects this book to be solely about geology might wonder about the long digressions into cosmology and life sciences, but they are all interrelated, and the discussion of one topic leads logically to the next. Anyone with an interest in how we got here and where we are going would enjoy this book.
April 14, 2019
The title and subtitle of this book should be reversed. The book is about the earth in a cosmic context. What we take for granted – the Earth, our home as we know it now – has a history of fragility (e.g., in just the last ice age, there have been at least 20 ice cycles). As serious as these disruptions have been, Gaia-like feedback mechanisms, for the most part, pull the Earth back into balance. But at least on two occasions (“late Precambrian Snowball Earth…an ultra-ice age when the oceans may have frozen over” and “the Permian-Triassic oxygen crisis, which led to the most severe mass extinction event in Earth’s history and in which some 90 percent of all species died out….”) the damage was severe enough that it resulted in “profound reorganizations of the biosphere.” In addition to the potential for meteor strikes, future threats include the decrease in the magnetic field’s intensity (there’s been a 10% decline in the last 150 years “which could leave the Earth more vulnerable to cosmic irradiation for a few centuries”). We know about ecosystem balance – the flow of energy happens in response to inequality - and we might comfort ourselves with that, but then the author says that “ecosystems are dismantled, reassembled, or fabricated without serious consequences for the integrity of the whole. Arms races in the geologic record always end, but never with victors. Instead, an external referee – a meteorite, an ice age, a methane belch – abruptly changes the criteria for fitness, and all the elaborate armaments and defenses so assiduously stockpiled become as useless as a credit card in the wilderness.”
As has been said by many others, the author writes that humans have disrupted the ecosystem balance, with harmful or unknown consequences for life, including our own. What concerns the author most is the impact we are having on global climate, and we already see troubling signals that are roughly parallel to the Permian extinction due to a global methane belch. She advocates a Taoist-like approach where we constrain our outsized impacts, to live within limits. Looking at all of this, though, one senses doom. There’s a fatal flaw in the human species. Negative consequences to our actions lie years and centuries down the road. We are a here and now species. Even if we can see the effects of human impacts, we still don’t care enough to change our behavior. We vaunt our great minds, but we are, really, less than squirrels who plan for the winter.
The author is a geologist who can write. This is no jargon- or formula-filled book. The concerns, the warnings – from reading the rocks – are softly but obviously stated. This is not an in-your-face advocacy book. She says what needs to be said in the way it needs to be said. It’s a sophisticated summary of what she, an expert, knows about the impacts of humans who ignore the dead-end consequences of living outside their bounds.
As has been said by many others, the author writes that humans have disrupted the ecosystem balance, with harmful or unknown consequences for life, including our own. What concerns the author most is the impact we are having on global climate, and we already see troubling signals that are roughly parallel to the Permian extinction due to a global methane belch. She advocates a Taoist-like approach where we constrain our outsized impacts, to live within limits. Looking at all of this, though, one senses doom. There’s a fatal flaw in the human species. Negative consequences to our actions lie years and centuries down the road. We are a here and now species. Even if we can see the effects of human impacts, we still don’t care enough to change our behavior. We vaunt our great minds, but we are, really, less than squirrels who plan for the winter.
The author is a geologist who can write. This is no jargon- or formula-filled book. The concerns, the warnings – from reading the rocks – are softly but obviously stated. This is not an in-your-face advocacy book. She says what needs to be said in the way it needs to be said. It’s a sophisticated summary of what she, an expert, knows about the impacts of humans who ignore the dead-end consequences of living outside their bounds.
April 26, 2015
This gal can really write. Among books in the genre "Science Not For Dummies." it's a standout. I had no background in geological earth science to speak of so I found the material rather dense (sorry, we're talking rocks here) but Prof. Bjornerud explains her terms and uses parallels from common experience to help the reader relate. There's a glossary worth using. I've started reading this again. It's worth it, and I expect by the second time through I'll have learned enough to take on other works about this subject that's so often pushed aside in our scientific schooling. After returning a copy to the library, I've bought two, one for myself and one as a gift. Budget well spent.
August 10, 2019
Terrific book for non-scientists and scientists
I'm a retired geologist, got my BS & MS a long time ago before we knew a number of things that we know now. I really enjoyed the comfortable approach to presenting our science to non scientists as well as getting some refreshers on newer developments. I was reminded why I spent my career thoroughly enjoying what I was doing, reading the rocks everywhere I was.
I'm a retired geologist, got my BS & MS a long time ago before we knew a number of things that we know now. I really enjoyed the comfortable approach to presenting our science to non scientists as well as getting some refreshers on newer developments. I was reminded why I spent my career thoroughly enjoying what I was doing, reading the rocks everywhere I was.
March 22, 2024
Surprisingly enjoyable to be honest
It started slow and had a tendency to go off on tangents, but was very uniquely written.
Pretty different to what I normal read, which was nice. I think it’s nice to get a bit of book diversity.
That being said, giving it a 4 star rating does make me feel like my favourite geography teacher Mr Mullet.
It started slow and had a tendency to go off on tangents, but was very uniquely written.
Pretty different to what I normal read, which was nice. I think it’s nice to get a bit of book diversity.
That being said, giving it a 4 star rating does make me feel like my favourite geography teacher Mr Mullet.
April 29, 2020
This would be a good book to use with students. I love her use of analogy to common, well-known, everyday situations, events, and things to explain these concepts of science. I particularly liked the analogy she used when explaining radioactivity. That was helpful. And I loved how detailed she got in explaining the problems and difficulties of the process. It was all most interesting.
Once I hit chapter 4, where she begins to focus more on the ideas where biology ties into geology, the analogies abruptly stopped and everything became very technical. At that point I had a hard time remaining focused. It got confusing, and I didn’t feel like I was learning the things I needed and wanted to know about it all. It seemed she was assuming her readers had a knowledge that I didn’t feel I had.
Overall I think this is a good book. The assumptions weren’t as clearly stated as I would have liked, but they were fairly easy to pick out. While she seemed to rely pretty heavily on her assumptions in the middle, the beginning chapters were quite good. And I really liked some of her conclusions toward the end.
Once I hit chapter 4, where she begins to focus more on the ideas where biology ties into geology, the analogies abruptly stopped and everything became very technical. At that point I had a hard time remaining focused. It got confusing, and I didn’t feel like I was learning the things I needed and wanted to know about it all. It seemed she was assuming her readers had a knowledge that I didn’t feel I had.
Overall I think this is a good book. The assumptions weren’t as clearly stated as I would have liked, but they were fairly easy to pick out. While she seemed to rely pretty heavily on her assumptions in the middle, the beginning chapters were quite good. And I really liked some of her conclusions toward the end.
August 22, 2018
Though this book seems a bit like a textbook, the author, a structural geologist, narrates a story here with even a bit of humor interspersed with facts. I learned a lot about the way people interpret information from rocks, the atmosphere, ice cores, the deep ocean. Earth is very much an active, changing system. For the most part the systems function well by correcting themselves when necessary. The regeneration of the earth's crust through volcanism and subduction is continuous. The huge ocean currents function to regulate temperature; they could be affected by fast-melting glaciers reducing the salinity of the ocean. A very delicate temperature and moisture range is required for the growth of plants. How all of these systems work together is the focus of this book.
September 26, 2018
While this book is sold as some sort of geology book, the heart of the work reaches for a sort of ecological teleology. It's a love your mother book, heavy on metaphor and analogies. Reaching back to the employment of metaphors, this was an awful use of them. Nonfiction is something I'm plainly used to reading. This was often intangible, difficult to follow, and unnecessarily convoluted by analogies with little cohesion. Throughout the read, the often lengthy metaphors or analogies in passing would drop their heads into streams of scientific thought, blowing the point out of the water. By the time I was finished, I'd forgotten this was a geology book and I would've rather read something else.
October 12, 2024
超級喜歡。
這是一本用各個角度切入，說明目前科學對地球46億年間的重要發現的科普書。本書不是用編年史的寫法，而是每章取兩種相對概念來說明關於地球我們現在知道什麼，一邊看的同時吸收到對地質專業的人可能算常識，但對外行或半外行人看來就很驚奇的事實。這麼說可能還是很抽象，取幾個有趣的內容如下：
第一章 地球之道
最高的山脈崩延展崩平的速率最快，這就為地球的地形變化設下了上限。喜馬拉雅山脈和夏威夷火山群的最高峰，其高度(分別自海平面及海床起算)為8.8公里，這大概就是高度的上限。
損壞若是太過嚴重，重建便不可免。流氓隕石所製造的大混亂(隕石襲擊活行星的可能，跟攻擊死「博物館」行星一樣高)不算的話，地球至少曾經有過兩次瀕死經驗。
第二章 初級岩石讀本
馬克˙吐溫就很了解地質學詞彙之豐富。在《馬克˙吐溫自傳》(一九零七年出版)當中提及一名頭髮花白的河船舵手，以地質詞彙為自己的語言添加風味：
身為一名大副，他是個驚人且稱職的咒罵者，那是幹這行所必備。但他擁有一套河上其他舵手都沒有的字彙，使他比這行中任何舵手更能說動那些好吃懶做的碼頭工，因為這些字眼雖不瀆神，卻很神祕可怕，使人深受驚嚇，覺得聽來比河上服務業所有船頭上找得到的語彙都還要瀆神個五、六倍。
...他讀書，讀得又多又勤奮，但他整座圖書館裡只有一部書，那就是萊爾的《地質學》。...情況特別緊急的時候，他會像火山噴發般爆出一般老式的正統瀆神咒罵語，混合佐以壯觀的地質用語，然後正式指控他的碼頭工人是白熱不等趾足後上新世時期的古志留紀無脊椎動物，再詛咒他們整幫人死後都下地獄。
這是一本用各個角度切入，說明目前科學對地球46億年間的重要發現的科普書。本書不是用編年史的寫法，而是每章取兩種相對概念來說明關於地球我們現在知道什麼，一邊看的同時吸收到對地質專業的人可能算常識，但對外行或半外行人看來就很驚奇的事實。這麼說可能還是很抽象，取幾個有趣的內容如下：
第一章 地球之道
最高的山脈崩延展崩平的速率最快，這就為地球的地形變化設下了上限。喜馬拉雅山脈和夏威夷火山群的最高峰，其高度(分別自海平面及海床起算)為8.8公里，這大概就是高度的上限。
損壞若是太過嚴重，重建便不可免。流氓隕石所製造的大混亂(隕石襲擊活行星的可能，跟攻擊死「博物館」行星一樣高)不算的話，地球至少曾經有過兩次瀕死經驗。
第二章 初級岩石讀本
馬克˙吐溫就很了解地質學詞彙之豐富。在《馬克˙吐溫自傳》(一九零七年出版)當中提及一名頭髮花白的河船舵手，以地質詞彙為自己的語言添加風味：
身為一名大副，他是個驚人且稱職的咒罵者，那是幹這行所必備。但他擁有一套河上其他舵手都沒有的字彙，使他比這行中任何舵手更能說動那些好吃懶做的碼頭工，因為這些字眼雖不瀆神，卻很神祕可怕，使人深受驚嚇，覺得聽來比河上服務業所有船頭上找得到的語彙都還要瀆神個五、六倍。
...他讀書，讀得又多又勤奮，但他整座圖書館裡只有一部書，那就是萊爾的《地質學》。...情況特別緊急的時候，他會像火山噴發般爆出一般老式的正統瀆神咒罵語，混合佐以壯觀的地質用語，然後正式指控他的碼頭工人是白熱不等趾足後上新世時期的古志留紀無脊椎動物，再詛咒他們整幫人死後都下地獄。
March 6, 2018
Ah, Mother Earth, you have such a history! Why do we humans treat you so cruelly?
July 13, 2025
Good, but it bounces back and forth between giving great analogies to help someone who isn't familiar with material and going to in depth with specialized terminology that isn't thoroughly explained. It's also definitely beginning to show its age and I don't know that the geology presented in the book fully supports the conservation message given that the epilogue.
This review was generated using speech to text and has not been proof read.
This review was generated using speech to text and has not been proof read.
January 31, 2022
The parts of the book that interested me deserve five stars, but the middle section that lagged really brought the book as a whole down. If you want to learn more about rocks, this is a good book! If you’re not interested in discussions of all kinds of sciences, be ready to skim in parts.
December 19, 2024
Very readable history of the planet earth.
Not recommended for those who subscribe to the "Chinese Hoax" theory of climate change.
Source: New Yorker magazine review of the author's most recent book.
Not recommended for those who subscribe to the "Chinese Hoax" theory of climate change.
Source: New Yorker magazine review of the author's most recent book.
January 24, 2024
I came across a review that criticized this book for not being an autobiography as its title might suggest. However, I believe the reviewer may have misunderstood the title's intention. The title doesn't assert that the book is Earth's autobiography; instead, it draws a metaphorical comparison between the narrative "written" in the rocks and an autobiography. In other words, the earth's geological record tells its own story. The book's primary emphasis is on narrating the Earth's story and using geology to explain how we know what the earth was like billions of years ago and throughout various epochs. The book excels in its ability to convey the valuable insights we can gain from reading the rocks.
January 3, 2018
Having taken Geology in college as my chosen science, I was naturally drawn to this book and also glad for that background knowledge. Reading the Rocks goes deep (for a non-scientist) in a number of areas, which I enjoyed, but it was not wise to delve in just before bed as I often did. The author's writing style is cleverly floral, and I found myself looking up words every so often. One thing I didn't expect but gained from this book was a renewed appreciation for the incredibly small odds that Earth would create an atmosphere suitable for sparking life and that it continues to reset/rebalance in a way that might wipe out some species but always sustains existence as a whole.
October 12, 2017
What an amazing book for the person who wants to go deeper into geology...why rocks look like they do...how continents formed and are still morphing...how concepts of evolution and cycles of geologic phases relate to all of life. Enjoyed author's pithy writing style and basic analogies to explain scientific concepts. Be a dream to take a class from Marcia B. This book should be in every high school and college library.
July 11, 2017
3.5 stars.
August 29, 2024
A fascinating history of the earth, as “written” in the rocks. Reduces geology to (mostly) non-technical explanations, avoiding (mostly) the complex Latin terminology, so that someone like me, with zero background in geology, can follow the story. While there are a few spots where the technical terminology escaped me, there were only a few, and they did not undermine the strength of the basic narrative.
To the extent that there is an organizing narrative, it consists of three overlapping and contrasting points: (1) The earth today follows basically the same rules as it has always followed; (2) except when it hasn’t (eg, snowball earth and the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, are the prime examples); and (3) the system is incredibly complex and interdependent, balanced in just the right way to be sustainable.
The only weakness was in the last couple of chapters, which turned away from geological time, and focused on evolution and more particularly on humans’ impact on the earth. Not that the arguments presented seemed wrong; rather, they seemed rushed and summary, covering a few thousand years in two chapters, means you can do little more than raise questions about whether we as a species are going to remain so arrogant as to think that we can usefully interfere with natural processes which have evolved over 4+ billion years.
To the extent that there is an organizing narrative, it consists of three overlapping and contrasting points: (1) The earth today follows basically the same rules as it has always followed; (2) except when it hasn’t (eg, snowball earth and the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, are the prime examples); and (3) the system is incredibly complex and interdependent, balanced in just the right way to be sustainable.
The only weakness was in the last couple of chapters, which turned away from geological time, and focused on evolution and more particularly on humans’ impact on the earth. Not that the arguments presented seemed wrong; rather, they seemed rushed and summary, covering a few thousand years in two chapters, means you can do little more than raise questions about whether we as a species are going to remain so arrogant as to think that we can usefully interfere with natural processes which have evolved over 4+ billion years.
October 19, 2025
Behind te review in Dutch, a review in English follows.
Na het lezen van dit wetenschappelijk georiënteerd boek ben ik me ervan bewust dat de aarde 4600 miljoen jaren bestaat. In en op de aarde zijn talloze systemen in evenwicht. Soms kunnen deze evenwichten ernstig verstoord geraken. Soms verdwijnt alle leven in de zin van dieren en planten. Maar de kracht van de aarde bestaat erin deze evenwichten terug te herstellen. Soms kan het wel enkele miljoenen jaren duren.
Met deze wetenschap gebruiken we best de rijkdommen die de aarde ons ter beschikking stelt met veel verantwoordelijkheid en zonder arrogantie. Tevens is het goed dat we bij de jeugd de interesse leren om te weten waar alles vandaan komt en hoe er voor te zorgen.
After reading this scientifically oriented book, I realize that the Earth has existed for 4600 million years. Countless systems within and on the Earth are in balance. Sometimes these balances can be severely disrupted. Sometimes all life, in the sense of animals and plants, disappears. But the Earth's power lies in restoring these balances. Sometimes it can take several million years.
With this knowledge, we should use the resources the Earth provides us with great responsibility and without arrogance. It is also good that we teach young people to be interested in knowing where everything comes from and how to take care of it.
Na het lezen van dit wetenschappelijk georiënteerd boek ben ik me ervan bewust dat de aarde 4600 miljoen jaren bestaat. In en op de aarde zijn talloze systemen in evenwicht. Soms kunnen deze evenwichten ernstig verstoord geraken. Soms verdwijnt alle leven in de zin van dieren en planten. Maar de kracht van de aarde bestaat erin deze evenwichten terug te herstellen. Soms kan het wel enkele miljoenen jaren duren.
Met deze wetenschap gebruiken we best de rijkdommen die de aarde ons ter beschikking stelt met veel verantwoordelijkheid en zonder arrogantie. Tevens is het goed dat we bij de jeugd de interesse leren om te weten waar alles vandaan komt en hoe er voor te zorgen.
After reading this scientifically oriented book, I realize that the Earth has existed for 4600 million years. Countless systems within and on the Earth are in balance. Sometimes these balances can be severely disrupted. Sometimes all life, in the sense of animals and plants, disappears. But the Earth's power lies in restoring these balances. Sometimes it can take several million years.
With this knowledge, we should use the resources the Earth provides us with great responsibility and without arrogance. It is also good that we teach young people to be interested in knowing where everything comes from and how to take care of it.
July 17, 2023
3.5 stars
I understand why I was supposed to read this for my high school earth science class.
It's a good combo of solid information and useful examples and analogies. While reading this book, I wish I'd read it when I was supposed to because I think the information would've stuck better; I also don't think I would've had to look up so many terms. I used the index, notes, and glossary often.
With that said, it's not just about geology, which I think is hinted at in the title. I didn't mind because I think it made sense to include the additional subjects. I also loved the conversational, and sometimes story-like, tone the narrative takes. It made the material so much more palatable for someone who knows little but wants to know more.
Overall, Reading the Rocks is an interesting and engaging delve into the history of rocks related to Earth's history and stages. For me, it was fun.
One thing I noticed that I found funny was how dated some things were. This book was written in 2007, so it makes sense, but I was taking notes and looking up a lot of things that stood out. Like the theory of feathered dinosaurs, which is more accepted now than a decade ago.
I understand why I was supposed to read this for my high school earth science class.
It's a good combo of solid information and useful examples and analogies. While reading this book, I wish I'd read it when I was supposed to because I think the information would've stuck better; I also don't think I would've had to look up so many terms. I used the index, notes, and glossary often.
With that said, it's not just about geology, which I think is hinted at in the title. I didn't mind because I think it made sense to include the additional subjects. I also loved the conversational, and sometimes story-like, tone the narrative takes. It made the material so much more palatable for someone who knows little but wants to know more.
Overall, Reading the Rocks is an interesting and engaging delve into the history of rocks related to Earth's history and stages. For me, it was fun.
One thing I noticed that I found funny was how dated some things were. This book was written in 2007, so it makes sense, but I was taking notes and looking up a lot of things that stood out. Like the theory of feathered dinosaurs, which is more accepted now than a decade ago.
July 3, 2024
Πολύ ενδιαφέρον βιβλίο με ωραίο τρόπο γραφής. Πραγματεύεται κυρίως τις επιστήμες της γεωλογίας και της βιολογίας. Γίνονται αναφορές στη θεωρία της Γαίας, στη γη-χιονόμπαλα, στον Κέλβιν, στο Δαρβίνο, στη θεωρία της εξέλιξης, στις τεκτονικές πλάκες, στο ρόλο της διάβρωσης, στους μετεωρίτες. Στο 2ο κεφάλαιο εξηγεί πως διαβάζουμε τα είδη των πετρωμάτων και τι πληροφορίες μας δίνουν για το παρελθόν. Αναφέρεται η ιδέα του ομοιομορφισμού, τα πρώτα βήματα της γεωλογίας και ποιοι συνέβαλλαν στην εξέλιξη της γνώσης, τα απολιθώματα και η παλαιοντολογία. Ασχολείται ακόμα με τη δημιουργία και την ηλικία της γης, τις καταστροφές που συνέβησαν στην ιστορία της, τη ραδιοχρονολόγηση, το μαγνητικό πεδίο, τον πάγο, το νερό, τα παλαιότερα πετρώματα, την παλαιοκλιματολογία, το DNA, τα δομικά στοιχεία, το γεωλογικό χρόνο και τις εποχές του, τους στρωματόλιθους, την πανίδα Ediacara. Γενικότερα δίνει μία ιδέα στον αναγνώστη για το πως δομήθηκε η γη και με τι μηχανισμούς αντλούμε τη γνώση που αυτός μας δίνει, ώστε να συμπορευτούμε παράλληλα και με σεβασμό απέναντι στον πλανήτη που είμαστε γέννημα θρέμμα του..
September 14, 2024
I loved this book. When my youngest son was about four years old, we were in the car-and I remember exactly where we were-and from his carseat in the back he said to me,” Mom, what is it all about?” This book has some answers.
How did this planet come to be? What do all these rocks around us mean? How did we get here? The author uses a lot of similes and metaphors to make some pretty technical science understandable. The creation of the Earth. The evolution of the Earth. The balances, contradictions and catastrophes that brought our home and us from stardust to today.
One of my favorite stories. There was not much oxygen and what there was was produced by pond scum. Over millions of years excess oxygen was absorbed into the sea. Iron was originally soluble. As more and more oxygen was absorbed into the sea, the iron rusted-all of it- and became the solid we thought it always was. Now where does the pond scum oxygen go? Into the atmosphere. Voila! Life happens.
Readable, exciting, great story.
How did this planet come to be? What do all these rocks around us mean? How did we get here? The author uses a lot of similes and metaphors to make some pretty technical science understandable. The creation of the Earth. The evolution of the Earth. The balances, contradictions and catastrophes that brought our home and us from stardust to today.
One of my favorite stories. There was not much oxygen and what there was was produced by pond scum. Over millions of years excess oxygen was absorbed into the sea. Iron was originally soluble. As more and more oxygen was absorbed into the sea, the iron rusted-all of it- and became the solid we thought it always was. Now where does the pond scum oxygen go? Into the atmosphere. Voila! Life happens.
Readable, exciting, great story.
August 21, 2022
Sort of a 'sedimentary' (haha) analysis of earth science from a geologic perspective. But very readable and entertaining while being full of dire undertones and implications for the future course of earth history (due to good old homo sapiens of course) that make 'enjoyment' rather uneasy. A lot of information is packed into around 200 pages, so while a generally superficial survey it is well referenced and written in a very engaging manner with frequent analogies and metaphors to help render complex ideas more comprehensible. Additional graphics and maps would have helped this as much as the inventive prose however. Yet judging by the number of my little yellow page flags by the end, I found a lot of interesting ideas and concepts any one of which might warrant further investigation. In particular the Snowball Earth theory, the Permian extinction and Gaia hypothesis. She apparently has a more recent book (2020) 'Timefulness' which I will definitely add to my 'want to read' list.
October 26, 2020
Earth science, science history, evolutionary biology, ecology — this book covers a lot of ground while adhering to the planet’s own geologic timeline. I was hoping it would teach me more practical geology (all of my friends, involuntarily, now know why Duluth became an unexpected steel manufacturing hub though!) but as a physicist and planetary scientist, I really enjoyed learning more about the recycling and circulation interactions between different major systems on Earth, as well as the primordial planetary stuff. Rocky planets really are the most incredible things in space.
Bjornerud has excellent communication skills, sharp wit, and lucid insights, and I would recommend this book to absolutely anybody who is interested enough in earth science that they’ll read a well-researched book about it.
Bjornerud has excellent communication skills, sharp wit, and lucid insights, and I would recommend this book to absolutely anybody who is interested enough in earth science that they’ll read a well-researched book about it.
January 24, 2022
This short book provides a quick overview of the fascinating subject of structural geology - how the Earth was formed, how its crust recycles itself, continental drift, the interplay between the rocks and the atmosphere, the effect of life on both, and how things have changed over billions of years. The book is intended for the non-scientist, and its brevity necessarily means that it is not very details. While these characteristics often mean that a book is not very substantive, Reading the Rocks does not fall within that pattern. Four stars.
June 1, 2024
I am a geologist!! I enjoyed the book and read it to refresh myself on Geology 101 topics. Really good intro to Geology but I feel like the author had a tendency to get stuck in the weeds and go on tangents. Other reviews have also mentioned how flowery the author's word choices can be; I concur and it kind of annoyed me a little at times. Overall, the book aimed to provide a holistic overview of Geology (as interdisciplinary as it can be) and she did a good job! I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about our beautiful planet.
June 23, 2017
Interesting, but not my cup of tea. While the subject is interesting - what we can infer about the history of the earth from its geology - the writing is dry and seems to suffer from an overactive thesaurus. I hate when large, esoteric words are used when they can be easily substituted with "normal" ones. Witnessing this pontification moves my review from a 3 to a 2. It really put a damper on the book.
January 12, 2021
Marcia Bjornerud helps you watch the earth evolve from it's birth 4.37 billion years ago into the still-changing planet it is today.
Some parts are more accessible than others, but her use of metaphors is striking and helpful.
Highly recommended for geology lovers.
If you like this, you have to check out John McPhee and his book or series of books Annals of a Former World.
As a side note, it was curious to me how middle-class her metaphors were: lattes, ski trips, etc...
Some parts are more accessible than others, but her use of metaphors is striking and helpful.
Highly recommended for geology lovers.
If you like this, you have to check out John McPhee and his book or series of books Annals of a Former World.
As a side note, it was curious to me how middle-class her metaphors were: lattes, ski trips, etc...
October 5, 2024
One of the most fluid, fun science writers I've ever read. Her intelligence and humor make every page a surprise and a delight. I'm sure she glossed over some topics in biology, evolution, astrology, paleontology, and physics in ways that might offend experts in those subjects, but she just loves rocks so damn much that she can't help but use them as a bridge to other stuff she finds interesting.
January 9, 2025
3.75 stars actually
I am honored to have been taught by Marcia Bjornerud at Lawrence University. Reading this book brought me back to the classroom (all the Geology field trips around the midwest) and reminded me of the beauty of deep time
the last chapter felt a bit dense to me and out-of-place, but for being published in 2005, this hasn’t aged at all
I am honored to have been taught by Marcia Bjornerud at Lawrence University. Reading this book brought me back to the classroom (all the Geology field trips around the midwest) and reminded me of the beauty of deep time
the last chapter felt a bit dense to me and out-of-place, but for being published in 2005, this hasn’t aged at all
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