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The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them
Every rock is a tangible trace of the earth’s past. In The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks, Donald R. Prothero tells the fascinating stories behind the discoveries that shook the foundations of geology. In twenty-five chapters—each about a particular rock, outcrop, or geologic phenomenon—Prothero recounts the scientific detective work that took us from the unearthing of exemplary specimens to tectonic shifts in how we view our planet and history.
Prothero follows in the footsteps of the scientists who asked—and answered—geology’s biggest questions: How do we know how old the earth is? What happened to the supercontinent Pangea? How did ocean rocks end up at the top of Mount Everest? What can we learn about our planet from meteorites and moon rocks? The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks answers these questions through expertly chosen case studies, such as Pliny the Elder’s firsthand account of the eruption of Vesuvius; the granite outcrops that led a Scottish scientist to theorize that the landscapes he witnessed were far older than Noah’s Flood; the gypsum deposits under the Mediterranean Sea that indicate that it was once a desert; and how trying to date the age of meteorites revealed the dangers of lead poisoning. Each of these breakthroughs filled in a piece of the puzzle that is the earth, with scientific discoveries dovetailing with each other to offer increasingly solid evidence of the geologic past. Summarizing a wealth of information in an entertaining, approachable style, The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks is essential reading for the armchair geologist, the rock hound, and all who are curious about the earth beneath their feet.
Prothero follows in the footsteps of the scientists who asked—and answered—geology’s biggest questions: How do we know how old the earth is? What happened to the supercontinent Pangea? How did ocean rocks end up at the top of Mount Everest? What can we learn about our planet from meteorites and moon rocks? The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks answers these questions through expertly chosen case studies, such as Pliny the Elder’s firsthand account of the eruption of Vesuvius; the granite outcrops that led a Scottish scientist to theorize that the landscapes he witnessed were far older than Noah’s Flood; the gypsum deposits under the Mediterranean Sea that indicate that it was once a desert; and how trying to date the age of meteorites revealed the dangers of lead poisoning. Each of these breakthroughs filled in a piece of the puzzle that is the earth, with scientific discoveries dovetailing with each other to offer increasingly solid evidence of the geologic past. Summarizing a wealth of information in an entertaining, approachable style, The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks is essential reading for the armchair geologist, the rock hound, and all who are curious about the earth beneath their feet.
368 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2017
81 people are currently reading
589 people want to read
About the author
Donald R. Prothero
54 books146 followersDonald R. Prothero is a Professor of Geology at Occidental College and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. He teaches Physical and Historical Geology, Sedimentary Geology, and Paleontology. His specialties are mammalian paleontology and magnetic stratigraphy of the Cenozoic. His current research focuses on the dating of the climatic changes that occurred between 30 and 40 million years ago, using the technique of magnetic stratigraphy. Dr. Prothero has been a Guggenheim and NSF Fellow, a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and in 1991 received the Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society for outstanding paleontologist under the age of 40, the same award won by the renowned paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. He has authored or co-edited numerous books, including Horns, Tusks, Hooves and Flippers: The Evolution of Hoofed Mammals, the best-selling textbook from McGraw-Hill, Evolution of the Earth, Evolution: What the Fossils Say & Why it Matters, Bringing Fossils to Life, After the Dinosaurs, and the textbook Sedimentary Geology. He is also a Technical Editor of the Journal of Paleontology.
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October 14, 2019For whatever reason, geology in modern times has not received the attention of, say, astronomy, particle physics, or biology. This is not only because those fields have blockbuster breakthroughs like the Big Bang and exoplanets, quantum physics and relativity, or evolution and DNA to grab people's attention. The story of how plate tectonics came to be understood (and believed) is easily as interesting. In the middle of the 20th century, most geologists still did not accept that something as apparently immovable as the rocks beneath our feet, could float about like icebergs on the sea, but by the mid 1960's they did. This is actually more recent than several of those other scientific revolutions, and considerably easier to comprehend than most 20th century physics. Moreover, the discovery of the asteroidal impact that led to the extinction of dinosaurs, was really more about geology than biology, as it was rocks (and the elements found in them) that solved the mystery.
For whatever reason, though, there are probably 10 or 20 popular science books on astronomy, or physics, or biology, for every one on geology. Donald Prothero proves here that this need not be for reasons of a lack of interesting topics to discuss. Prothero is a researcher in both geology and biology; he has written a book on extinct North American rhinoceroses, and is listed as one of the earliest developers of the technique of paleomagnetism, wherein one can determine which way the earth's magnetic field was pointing at the time when a rock cooled from liquid lava to stone. He is clearly both knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects, and also practiced at how to explain them to an audience of interested but inexpert listeners. He must be a great lecturer.
In this book, in each chapter Prothero tells us the story of a rock. A few of them, such as the "moon rocks" or coal, we have heard of before. Others, such as cassiterites or messinian evaporites, I cannot claim to have heard of before. Yet, in every case, with a minimum of jargon and a healthy dose of discussion of the humans involved, we find out what the rocks in question are, how they are formed, how where and when they were discovered, and what it added to the sum of human knowledge. Like, the discovery that parts of Scotland and Canada were once touching. Or, the fact that our planet was once a "Snowball Earth", covered almost entirely with ice and snow.
Prothero uses a goodly number of pictures and maps, to good effect. The best, though, is the cartoonish picture at the front of the book, by someone named Ray Troll, showing all of the ages of the earth in the first format in which I have ever been able to easily comprehend them.
Prothero's book reminds me that we are living, right now, in the Golden Age of Popular Science Writing. It has never been easier to find a readable, entertaining, accurate guide to a field of science (in this case, geology), and Prothero has packed 25 good stories (each worthy of a book of their own) into one reasonably-sized volume. Check it out.
For whatever reason, though, there are probably 10 or 20 popular science books on astronomy, or physics, or biology, for every one on geology. Donald Prothero proves here that this need not be for reasons of a lack of interesting topics to discuss. Prothero is a researcher in both geology and biology; he has written a book on extinct North American rhinoceroses, and is listed as one of the earliest developers of the technique of paleomagnetism, wherein one can determine which way the earth's magnetic field was pointing at the time when a rock cooled from liquid lava to stone. He is clearly both knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects, and also practiced at how to explain them to an audience of interested but inexpert listeners. He must be a great lecturer.
In this book, in each chapter Prothero tells us the story of a rock. A few of them, such as the "moon rocks" or coal, we have heard of before. Others, such as cassiterites or messinian evaporites, I cannot claim to have heard of before. Yet, in every case, with a minimum of jargon and a healthy dose of discussion of the humans involved, we find out what the rocks in question are, how they are formed, how where and when they were discovered, and what it added to the sum of human knowledge. Like, the discovery that parts of Scotland and Canada were once touching. Or, the fact that our planet was once a "Snowball Earth", covered almost entirely with ice and snow.
Prothero uses a goodly number of pictures and maps, to good effect. The best, though, is the cartoonish picture at the front of the book, by someone named Ray Troll, showing all of the ages of the earth in the first format in which I have ever been able to easily comprehend them.
Prothero's book reminds me that we are living, right now, in the Golden Age of Popular Science Writing. It has never been easier to find a readable, entertaining, accurate guide to a field of science (in this case, geology), and Prothero has packed 25 good stories (each worthy of a book of their own) into one reasonably-sized volume. Check it out.
June 11, 2020
Although I do have some interest in geology, I am also NOT in any way an expert (and do in my humble opinion not really even possess all that much of a basic background of knowledge on rocks, minerals and the like, except for of course being aware of what plate tectonics represent, that many volcanoes and earthquakes actually occur due to this and that there are three main types of rocks, igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic). Therefore, with Donald R. Prothero's The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them, I do have to admit that unfortunately, much if not even the majority of my reading experience (and yes, even though I was both interested and engaged) was made rather annoyingly confusing and difficult due to the fact that I very often encountered large amounts of geology specific scientific jargon (which I naturally then needed to look up online to verify and check, but which also really tended to catapult me right out of Donald R. Prothero's text and to certainly wish that he had either used less geology specific words or had at the very least provided a necessary glossary at the back of The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them, for indeed, much of my reading impressions were of confusion, of being rather majorly lost at times).
However, even with my textual frustrations regarding Donald R. Prothero's tendency in The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them to hit his readers over the head with too much confusion and too much geology specific jargon, I definitely would still have ranked The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them with three stars had there also not been so many instances of pretentious name dropping, authorial asides and in particular Donald R. Prothero constantly verbally acting as though he and the geologists he kept mentioning were somehow the proverbial greatest thing since sliced bread, as for one, the constant listing of one geologist after another started to become pretty tedious pretty quickly and for two, well, I was interested in reading about the story of the earth and her rocks and not being constantly accosted by the life stories of and I quote "famous" geologists (as this really started to wear me out and to finally have me only consider but two stars for The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them, actually two and a half stars, but there is no way that I could possibly consider three stars this time).
However, even with my textual frustrations regarding Donald R. Prothero's tendency in The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them to hit his readers over the head with too much confusion and too much geology specific jargon, I definitely would still have ranked The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them with three stars had there also not been so many instances of pretentious name dropping, authorial asides and in particular Donald R. Prothero constantly verbally acting as though he and the geologists he kept mentioning were somehow the proverbial greatest thing since sliced bread, as for one, the constant listing of one geologist after another started to become pretty tedious pretty quickly and for two, well, I was interested in reading about the story of the earth and her rocks and not being constantly accosted by the life stories of and I quote "famous" geologists (as this really started to wear me out and to finally have me only consider but two stars for The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them, actually two and a half stars, but there is no way that I could possibly consider three stars this time).
July 16, 2018
I started out liking this book and enjoyed reviewing topics I have not covered since my college days. However, half way through, I realized I just wanted to be finished. I did not like the name dropping, the many side notes on the author’s experience, the unwanted interjection of the author’s opinion, and unfocused chapters. All of these are ill suited for a science book. Also, despite the Preface indicating this book is for a variety of audiences, I do not recommend this for the lay person, because many geologic terms are not defined or are so quickly covered, this would be a difficult book to read without prior knowledge of geology.
March 17, 2021
This is the second of three books by Donald Prothero with the title The Story of X in 25 Y. The Story of Life in 25 Fossils came out in 2015; The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks in 2018, and The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries in 2019. I enjoyed the one about fossils, so I decided to read this one, and I will probably also read the one about dinosaurs. Using specific items to tell the story works well in the book on fossils, but less well for this one, which takes a more scattershot approach and in the last third of the book becomes a history of geologists and their discoveries. Some of the chapters stray far from what a reader would expect in a book with this title; for instance, the chapter about tin is mostly about the history and social aspects of tin mining, such as the lives of miners and tin’s importance to trade. It only adds a couple of paragraphs about the element tin at the very end.
When it stays focused on the subject of geology it has many interesting facts to present, such as
The chapters on zircons and Banded Iron Formations are excellent, explaining what they are, how they were formed, and what they tell us about the early Earth. Zircons are among the most durable minerals, and scientists use them to measure radioactive decay and to give a fairly precise age of the Earth and the solar system. The Banded Iron Formations tell us a great deal about the early Earth and the chemistry of its oceans, and the point when the atmosphere finally had enough oxygen to sustain complex life.
There is a good discussion of how the shifting tectonic plates make, break, and combine continents. I used to go hiking in the gentle, rolling Appalachian mountains, and it amazed me to think that that they had once been as high and jagged as the Himalayas.
In the last third of the book the story shifts from the elements themselves and their role in the planet’s history to the geologists and paleontologists who made the key discoveries. These stories are interesting but the focus is on the people rather than the history of the earth. Thus we learn about continental drift through the story of its discoverer, a meteorologist who was ridiculed by geologists for forty years until, long after his death, he was found to be right. Readers are then introduced to the rifts at the edges of the plates, how they were discovered and who managed to put all the pieces together to make sense of the sequence of subduction zones and the formation of new crust.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and learned some interesting things from it, but it did not stick closely to the subject as one would expect from its title.
When it stays focused on the subject of geology it has many interesting facts to present, such as
In nearly all rocks younger than the Archean, the most common sandstones are largely made of the durable mineral quartz, the most common mineral on the earth’s surface. This is because most other minerals (such as feldspars, which make up the bulk of most kinds of igneous rocks) are broken down quickly by chemical weathering. Quartz, on the other hand, is chemically inert (it’s just silicon dioxide, SiO2), plus it has no cleavages to break it into fragments, as feldspars do.
The chapters on zircons and Banded Iron Formations are excellent, explaining what they are, how they were formed, and what they tell us about the early Earth. Zircons are among the most durable minerals, and scientists use them to measure radioactive decay and to give a fairly precise age of the Earth and the solar system. The Banded Iron Formations tell us a great deal about the early Earth and the chemistry of its oceans, and the point when the atmosphere finally had enough oxygen to sustain complex life.
There is a good discussion of how the shifting tectonic plates make, break, and combine continents. I used to go hiking in the gentle, rolling Appalachian mountains, and it amazed me to think that that they had once been as high and jagged as the Himalayas.
The final event was the collision of the African portion of Gondwana with the East Coast to crumple up the Appalachians in the Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian). This event also closed the predecessors of the Atlantic for good, and joined Laurentia or North America to the supercontinent of Pangea. The Appalachians were formed in this huge Himalayan-style collision over 300 millions of years ago and have been slowly eroding ever since.
In the last third of the book the story shifts from the elements themselves and their role in the planet’s history to the geologists and paleontologists who made the key discoveries. These stories are interesting but the focus is on the people rather than the history of the earth. Thus we learn about continental drift through the story of its discoverer, a meteorologist who was ridiculed by geologists for forty years until, long after his death, he was found to be right. Readers are then introduced to the rifts at the edges of the plates, how they were discovered and who managed to put all the pieces together to make sense of the sequence of subduction zones and the formation of new crust.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and learned some interesting things from it, but it did not stick closely to the subject as one would expect from its title.
January 15, 2018
Interesting book, but the constant name-dropping (“I knew so-and-so who proposed this theory when I was at Such-and-such university”; “I was at this particular meeting too, but I was focused on other research problems.”) are not only irrelevant to the story being told, but rather off-putting.
September 24, 2019
I’m not sure I would recommend this book to anyone without education in the geologic sciences. I have a background in geology and I enjoyed and was educated by the stories in this book. I especially enjoyed the diagrams and illustrations. However the book could have been much more enjoyable if the author had not constantly name dropped and overused the word “famous“ or other such superlative‘s. The word “famous” and “Geologist“ are not tacked together for most of us, but the author uses this combination to a laughable degree and it became very irritating for me. This is really unfortunate because the author is a good storyteller of these histories on the development of the concepts of earth science. It is yet another book written by scientist that could’ve used a good editor to control many storytelling faux pas. In this case, it’s sad because there’s a lot of great earth science history and information in this book.
I recommend reading the short review by “Kelly“.
I recommend reading the short review by “Kelly“.
June 29, 2018
Having had my interest in geology piqued by an introductory geosystems course, I was given this book as a present by a family member. In the early chapters I wasn't sure that I would like the book, as I found it to be more related to human history than I expected. However, as it progressed and focused more on how rocks were used to solve geologic mysteries, I came to enjoy it a lot. I would definitely recommend this to anyone with an interest in earth science, the history of science, or geology.
March 28, 2019
Rock Music
Enjoyed reading this immensely. Wonderful, informative and thought-provoking summaries of a vast body of geological research written for anyone with even a casual interest in the earth sciences. Should be part of any middle and high school science curriculum. This old lady found it fascinating! in spite of the fact that my photo appears beside this book and purports to be my review, Michael Earney did not review this book.
Enjoyed reading this immensely. Wonderful, informative and thought-provoking summaries of a vast body of geological research written for anyone with even a casual interest in the earth sciences. Should be part of any middle and high school science curriculum. This old lady found it fascinating! in spite of the fact that my photo appears beside this book and purports to be my review, Michael Earney did not review this book.
October 3, 2018
A book full of fascinating tidbits that is perfect for dipping in and out of. I read it in order, with a couple of fiction books thrown in to break things up. Isaac, on the other hand, is reading chapters as they pique his interest. There's no through-narrative to the chapters, so either method works. I found each chapter quite informative and learned something, even when I felt like I knew what the chapter was about.
One odd thing I notice was the author did a fair bit of name-dropping. If he was talking about modern geologists, he often mentioned how he was intellectually related to that individual. Perhaps he was establishing his credentials, but I found it annoying. I also found it interesting that 90% of the images used in the book were from Wikimedia Commons, and most of the rest of the images were from the author. The images fit the chapters perfectly. It was just odd to see a Wikimedia Commons attribution on nearly all of them.
One odd thing I notice was the author did a fair bit of name-dropping. If he was talking about modern geologists, he often mentioned how he was intellectually related to that individual. Perhaps he was establishing his credentials, but I found it annoying. I also found it interesting that 90% of the images used in the book were from Wikimedia Commons, and most of the rest of the images were from the author. The images fit the chapters perfectly. It was just odd to see a Wikimedia Commons attribution on nearly all of them.
May 16, 2019
Minus points for not having color photos and maps - a huge deficit for a geology book!!
Also minus points for the author’s annoying habit of self-dropping himself into the story by inserting parentheticals that he knew this or that person or had been to this or that conference. Who cares?
Also minus points for the author’s annoying habit of self-dropping himself into the story by inserting parentheticals that he knew this or that person or had been to this or that conference. Who cares?
July 11, 2022
Prothero successfully conveys the essence of geological science by telling the stories of the principle scientists who made the key discoveries. It reads like a good history in easily accessible language, not technical. Each chapter tells about a particularly vexing problem or mystery by describing the observations and ideas at the time, and then leads us through additional observations (rocks!) from the point of view of the scientists who solved the problem, so we discover the answer along with them much like a mystery novel except true. Although I majored in geology, I was not familiar with many of these people and it gave me new insights into the science. I rated it 4 because it is not a life-altering revelation, but it may be the most readable geology book you’ll ever come across. The biggest deficiency in my opinion is that the photos, charts, graphs, and maps are all black and white, and many are too small scale to see clearly. I suppose the trade off was to keep the price down. Another weakness is a tendency to overdramatize. For example, he repeats the mantra that Wegener’s theory of continental drift was rejected until the 1960s, but later references several publications by eminent scientists in the 1930s - 1950s that seem to embrace all the key components of plate tectonics. In spite of the weaknesses, I highly recommend this book to people who enjoy history and science.
October 6, 2020
This was a very nice book by Donald Prothero that is a detailed and comprehensive tour around some of the most important foundational concepts in geoscience, and one which covers some of the latest advances. Prothero has a no-BS and powerful style of prose that lays all the facts down, and focuses on the scientific outlook, albeit with a mildly scathing skeptical attitude towards science denial. I’d recommend this for folks who have already done a bit of introductory geoscience readings.
November 30, 2025
Ik had gehoopt dat het meer over gesteenten zelf zou gaan, maar het ging meer over de mensen die de ontdekkingen deden, de omstandigheden van de tijd en voornamelijk hoe eigenwijs geologen waren. Dit was uiteindelijk een best prima boek, ook al was het niet wat ik had verwacht.
September 27, 2024
Fascinating and extremely well written. Honestly considering using several of the chapters in my science course as examples of how the scientific process progresses. And, I learned a lot of new information on how we know what we know about the earth.
June 8, 2024
Fabulous mix of science and history. Author’s nerdy interest in the subject is contagious!
June 16, 2018
Interesting series of vignettes on geological topics. Fairly light reading, which is about as much as I am up for these days.
November 29, 2018
An excellent, well written and illustrated book about earth’s geology and how we have figured out what we know so far. I learned a lot.
October 15, 2025
This book rocks!
Sadly, my number one want for any non-fiction book ~ a PDF accompaniment ~ does not exist for this title.
If you preview the Kindle book on Amazon, you will see there are diagrams and photographs included. From the few I was able to see, most are sourced as Wikipedia Commons, so presumably Googling while you listen will bring up at least some visuals. In fact, the narration provides helpful tips for this exact purpose. For example, in Chapter 2, he suggests typing “pillow lava eruption” into any search engine to see what he is talking about.
Fortunately, the chapters are well labelled in the audiobook version, you can move around with relative ease.
Now, to the content…
Overall, I really enjoyed the book, the author’s approach and how interesting he made material I admittedly thought would be on the boring side.
Here a few fun things I learned:
• Meteorites are normally named after the nearest post office.
• All biologically important molecules, except certain sugars, are left handed (I have no idea what this means, I just thought it was cool)
• If you are in British Columbia (which I am), you’re actually in Fiji and Indonesia.
You are sure to find plenty of your own fun facts!
Below is a listener’s guide I created for my own reference while listening. The chapter references are still there… it’s just an alternate way to organize your thinking. It works for my brain, so I’m sharing it with others.
EARTH’S ORIGINS AND COSMIC MATERIALS
Chondritic Meteorites — Fragments unchanged since the solar system’s birth (Ch. 9)
Iron-Nickel Meteorites — The metallic hearts of shattered planets (Ch. 10)
Moon Rocks — What lunar samples revealed about our shared origin (Ch. 11)
Zircons — Tiny crystals preserving evidence of early oceans (Ch. 12)
EARLY EARTH AND THE BEGINNING OF LIFE
Angular Unconformity — Hutton’s cliffs at Siccar Point reveal deep time (Ch. 4)
Banded Iron Formation — Red layers marking Earth’s first oxygen (Ch. 14)
Diamictites — Proof of glaciers reaching the equator (Ch. 16)
Stromatolites — Microbial structures built by ancient cyanobacteria (Ch. 13)
PLATE TECTONICS, CONTINENTS, AND MOUNTAINS
Blueschists — Deep-formed rocks from subduction zones (Ch. 22)
Exotic Terranes — Pieces of crust that traveled across oceans (Ch. 17)
Igneous Dikes — Frozen veins of molten rock (Ch. 5)
Jigsaw-Puzzle Bedrock — Wegener’s early vision of continental drift (Ch. 18)
Lodestones — Magnetic clues that recorded shifting poles (Ch. 21)
Transform Faults — Earthquakes along California’s restless seam (Ch. 23)
CLIMATE, SEAS, AND GLOBAL CHANGE
Chalk — Soft white rock made of countless fossil shells (Ch. 19)
Glacial Erratics — Boulders carried far from home by ice (Ch. 25)
Messinian Evaporites — When the Mediterranean nearly vanished (Ch. 24)
Turbidites — Underwater landslides forming rhythmic layers (Ch. 15)
HUMAN CIVILIZATION AND GEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY
Cassiterite — Tin that fueled the Bronze Age (Ch. 3)
Coal — The rock that powered the Industrial Revolution (Ch. 6)
Jurassic World — William Smith’s map that changed geology (Ch. 7)
Native Copper — The Iceman’s metal, shaped before smelting (Ch. 2)
Radioactive Uranium — Holmes’s clocks for dating the Earth (Ch. 8)
The Iridium Layer — The smoking gun of dinosaur extinction (Ch. 20)
Volcanic Tuff — Vesuvius and the buried city of Pompeii (Ch. 1)
Edition details below refer to the Audible audiobook I listened to:
The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them
Written by: Donald R. Prothero
Narrated by: Tom Parks
RELEASE DATE 2020-05-05
FORMAT Unabridged Audiobook
LENGTH 11 hrs and 2 mins
PUBLISHER Tantor Audio
©2018 Donald R. Prothero (P)2020 Tantor
Sadly, my number one want for any non-fiction book ~ a PDF accompaniment ~ does not exist for this title.
If you preview the Kindle book on Amazon, you will see there are diagrams and photographs included. From the few I was able to see, most are sourced as Wikipedia Commons, so presumably Googling while you listen will bring up at least some visuals. In fact, the narration provides helpful tips for this exact purpose. For example, in Chapter 2, he suggests typing “pillow lava eruption” into any search engine to see what he is talking about.
Fortunately, the chapters are well labelled in the audiobook version, you can move around with relative ease.
Now, to the content…
Overall, I really enjoyed the book, the author’s approach and how interesting he made material I admittedly thought would be on the boring side.
Here a few fun things I learned:
• Meteorites are normally named after the nearest post office.
• All biologically important molecules, except certain sugars, are left handed (I have no idea what this means, I just thought it was cool)
• If you are in British Columbia (which I am), you’re actually in Fiji and Indonesia.
You are sure to find plenty of your own fun facts!
Below is a listener’s guide I created for my own reference while listening. The chapter references are still there… it’s just an alternate way to organize your thinking. It works for my brain, so I’m sharing it with others.
EARTH’S ORIGINS AND COSMIC MATERIALS
Chondritic Meteorites — Fragments unchanged since the solar system’s birth (Ch. 9)
Iron-Nickel Meteorites — The metallic hearts of shattered planets (Ch. 10)
Moon Rocks — What lunar samples revealed about our shared origin (Ch. 11)
Zircons — Tiny crystals preserving evidence of early oceans (Ch. 12)
EARLY EARTH AND THE BEGINNING OF LIFE
Angular Unconformity — Hutton’s cliffs at Siccar Point reveal deep time (Ch. 4)
Banded Iron Formation — Red layers marking Earth’s first oxygen (Ch. 14)
Diamictites — Proof of glaciers reaching the equator (Ch. 16)
Stromatolites — Microbial structures built by ancient cyanobacteria (Ch. 13)
PLATE TECTONICS, CONTINENTS, AND MOUNTAINS
Blueschists — Deep-formed rocks from subduction zones (Ch. 22)
Exotic Terranes — Pieces of crust that traveled across oceans (Ch. 17)
Igneous Dikes — Frozen veins of molten rock (Ch. 5)
Jigsaw-Puzzle Bedrock — Wegener’s early vision of continental drift (Ch. 18)
Lodestones — Magnetic clues that recorded shifting poles (Ch. 21)
Transform Faults — Earthquakes along California’s restless seam (Ch. 23)
CLIMATE, SEAS, AND GLOBAL CHANGE
Chalk — Soft white rock made of countless fossil shells (Ch. 19)
Glacial Erratics — Boulders carried far from home by ice (Ch. 25)
Messinian Evaporites — When the Mediterranean nearly vanished (Ch. 24)
Turbidites — Underwater landslides forming rhythmic layers (Ch. 15)
HUMAN CIVILIZATION AND GEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY
Cassiterite — Tin that fueled the Bronze Age (Ch. 3)
Coal — The rock that powered the Industrial Revolution (Ch. 6)
Jurassic World — William Smith’s map that changed geology (Ch. 7)
Native Copper — The Iceman’s metal, shaped before smelting (Ch. 2)
Radioactive Uranium — Holmes’s clocks for dating the Earth (Ch. 8)
The Iridium Layer — The smoking gun of dinosaur extinction (Ch. 20)
Volcanic Tuff — Vesuvius and the buried city of Pompeii (Ch. 1)
Edition details below refer to the Audible audiobook I listened to:
The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them
Written by: Donald R. Prothero
Narrated by: Tom Parks
RELEASE DATE 2020-05-05
FORMAT Unabridged Audiobook
LENGTH 11 hrs and 2 mins
PUBLISHER Tantor Audio
©2018 Donald R. Prothero (P)2020 Tantor
February 9, 2020
Prothero presents the geological history of the earth by examining 25 different types of rock. For each, he describes the history of our understanding of the rock and what it has told us about the past. Each of these rocks is really a lead-in to a bigger story, such as radium becoming the basis for dating rocks and the age of the earth, and the banded iron formations providing an understanding of the development of the atmosphere.
Much geological understanding is surprisingly recent. The true nature of the San Andreas fault was not understood until the 1960's.
Plate tectonics was originally proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1915. The key to the acceptance of this theory was that many geological features only made sense once one realized that the continents had moved in location. These included the distribution of coal beds, glacial till, desert sand deposits and fossils. Most importantly, magnetometers towed around the ocean bottoms revealed the seafloor spreading resulting from continental drift.
In 1980, Luiz Alvarez discovered the iridium layer at the K-T boundary and proposed that this showed that the Cretaceous extinction was due to the impact of an asteroid. While most sources indicate that this is now generally accepted, the volcanism that formed the Deccan Traps occurred at about the same time. The fossil record is mixed - while the big dinosaurs appear to have died out at the time of the impact, many other animal groups died out at times after the impact. Prothero points out that this is hardly a closed subject. It is discussed at each Geological Society of America annual meeting, with the tide turning towards the Deccan volcanism in recent years.
Milutin Milankovitch published his work on the three sun cycles that affect Earth's climate in the 1940's. A confirming land record of the regular ice ages was not available because of erosion processes. However, in the 1970's deep sea cores revealed that more than 20 ice ages have occurred in the past 2 million years.
The book provides a refreshing approach to presenting geological knowledge.
Much geological understanding is surprisingly recent. The true nature of the San Andreas fault was not understood until the 1960's.
Plate tectonics was originally proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1915. The key to the acceptance of this theory was that many geological features only made sense once one realized that the continents had moved in location. These included the distribution of coal beds, glacial till, desert sand deposits and fossils. Most importantly, magnetometers towed around the ocean bottoms revealed the seafloor spreading resulting from continental drift.
In 1980, Luiz Alvarez discovered the iridium layer at the K-T boundary and proposed that this showed that the Cretaceous extinction was due to the impact of an asteroid. While most sources indicate that this is now generally accepted, the volcanism that formed the Deccan Traps occurred at about the same time. The fossil record is mixed - while the big dinosaurs appear to have died out at the time of the impact, many other animal groups died out at times after the impact. Prothero points out that this is hardly a closed subject. It is discussed at each Geological Society of America annual meeting, with the tide turning towards the Deccan volcanism in recent years.
Milutin Milankovitch published his work on the three sun cycles that affect Earth's climate in the 1940's. A confirming land record of the regular ice ages was not available because of erosion processes. However, in the 1970's deep sea cores revealed that more than 20 ice ages have occurred in the past 2 million years.
The book provides a refreshing approach to presenting geological knowledge.
July 17, 2021
I’ll run the risk of repeating myself. This rant though is going to be short, I promise.
This is not a book for those who know and work in the field and for those college student who look for some technical treatise. Look elsewhere if you need anything of the sort. On the other hand, if you look for a likeable narrative about the history of geology and how we came to understand what we do today, well, this is the right title for you.
Along the lines of the other books from the same author, there are 25 chapters which describe the marvel of men for natural phenomena, followed by the painstaking list of acts and jumps of the intellect which eventually helped to solve each mistery.
Personally I appreciate this approach in storytelling since it puts the reader at the same level of those men that struggled to think and test their hypotheses and then to convince the world that they were right.
In conclusion, this is another book about the history of science, of its protagonists, of their efforts and their spendid imagination.
This is not a book for those who know and work in the field and for those college student who look for some technical treatise. Look elsewhere if you need anything of the sort. On the other hand, if you look for a likeable narrative about the history of geology and how we came to understand what we do today, well, this is the right title for you.
Along the lines of the other books from the same author, there are 25 chapters which describe the marvel of men for natural phenomena, followed by the painstaking list of acts and jumps of the intellect which eventually helped to solve each mistery.
Personally I appreciate this approach in storytelling since it puts the reader at the same level of those men that struggled to think and test their hypotheses and then to convince the world that they were right.
In conclusion, this is another book about the history of science, of its protagonists, of their efforts and their spendid imagination.
February 29, 2024
Peccato per le foto in bianco e nero.
Semplice e per tutti ma crescendo di "geologicita" con l'avanzare dei capitolo, su argomenti via via meno pop. Nonostante questo i capitolo sono comunque più "cronostorici" che tecnici.
Molto molto scorrevole, però non entusiasmante se non ti interessa la geologia. Lo trovo utile per avvicinare il pubblico ma se già si hanno preferenze (fossili, vulcani ecc...) si possono trovare libri per tutti già su quegli argomenti. Questo qui è più un modo per capire cosa potrebbe piacerti, un po' come il senso di una laurea triennale.
meriterebbe mezza stella in più per il significato extra-letterario che ha per me
Semplice e per tutti ma crescendo di "geologicita" con l'avanzare dei capitolo, su argomenti via via meno pop. Nonostante questo i capitolo sono comunque più "cronostorici" che tecnici.
Molto molto scorrevole, però non entusiasmante se non ti interessa la geologia. Lo trovo utile per avvicinare il pubblico ma se già si hanno preferenze (fossili, vulcani ecc...) si possono trovare libri per tutti già su quegli argomenti. Questo qui è più un modo per capire cosa potrebbe piacerti, un po' come il senso di una laurea triennale.
meriterebbe mezza stella in più per il significato extra-letterario che ha per me
June 18, 2019
I finished this way back in October. I loved the format of this book. Each chapter is its own narrative but the narratives build on each other, concept by concept and event by event. I had to take notes in places because it was a library book and I wanted to be able to reference back to some of the info and I made a huge list of more books to read from the citations. Prothero does a pretty good job of making what might be a fairly dry topic a bit more readable. If your brain is not in "on" mode though I don't think it is much a page-turner.
February 5, 2020
Awesome overview of geology with 25 short chapters each focusing on a specific rock or rock type that helped us learn something new about our world and the Earth’s history (e.g. glacial erratic boulders as evidence for Ice Ages, the iridium layer as evidence for a meteorite eliminating the dinosaurs, Hutton’s angular unconformity between rock layers as evidence for the immensely long lifespan of the Earth). Prothero is excellent at writing about geology clearly without unnecessary jargon. I immediately went to pick up his related book on fossils as soon as I finished this one.
March 4, 2025
I borrowed the audio book from Audible Plus, finished it in 3 days at higher speed, and enjoyed it so much I bought a hardbound book of it. The writer gives an interesting and concise history of geology which is fun to read. In fact, it explained so many missing gaps in my education as a high school science teacher that I was excited. The science overlapped into many other disciplines and explained the puzzles that scientists had to overcome to come up with a theory.
I enjoyed the book and the author so much I bought two more of his books and I would highly recommend him.
I enjoyed the book and the author so much I bought two more of his books and I would highly recommend him.
August 31, 2022
I wanted a book on the science of geology and instead I felt like I was reading a book about European History. I don’t care about Tin Miners in Cornwall. I don’t care about some Cyprus and Vesuvius and all that. The few pages of hard science were good but short lived - I didn’t understand the science because they didn’t spend enough time on it. Instead the book just focuses on random stories of people I do not care about.
This is not a science book, it is just pop.
This is not a science book, it is just pop.
May 23, 2024
Really nice overview of a lot of important events and topics in geology, intermingled with the history of how that knowledge came to light. Chapters are bite sized and include IMO the right amount of detail that goes deeper than popular science but short of an academic review. Lots of images/figures make the content easier to understand, although some of the figures could definitely be improved (including more comprehensive legends). I would love to have seen a color version of this book.
August 29, 2019
Don Prothero has given us a well-researched, tightly worded and very readable work. Its a history of earth, and a history of science - and since a lot of what we know about geology has been learned rather recently, the author knows many of personalities personally.
A very enjoyable and educational book. Highly recommended.
A very enjoyable and educational book. Highly recommended.
July 13, 2020
A geological smörgåsbord of 25 courses, celebrating some of the most remarkable intellectual achievements in the earth sciences. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2019...
August 1, 2023
Scrivere 400 pagine parlando di rocce è sicuramente possibile, rendere queste 400 pagine assolutamente avvincenti è molto meno scontato!
Libro molto piacevole, che presenta numerosi dettagli storici che hanno portato alla formulazione di nuove teorie. Consigliato anche a chi come me ha poche conoscenze specifiche in questo campo.
Libro molto piacevole, che presenta numerosi dettagli storici che hanno portato alla formulazione di nuove teorie. Consigliato anche a chi come me ha poche conoscenze specifiche in questo campo.
December 27, 2019
I love learning about earth's history and it's amazing what you can figure out by studying rocks. Some of the 25 stories were more interesting than others but they were all worth reading. I also liked learning about the people who did the work.
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