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The Earth Book: From the Beginning to the End of Our Planet, 250 Milestones in the History of Earth Science
A beautifully illustrated presentation of 250 milestones in the history of our home planet, from celebrated geologist and planetary scientist Jim Bell.
Spanning Earth’s entire history, from its birth 4.6 billion years ago to its inevitable destruction billions of years into the future, this stunning volume chronicles the life of our home planet in 250 well-chosen milestones. Jim Bell leads us on a tour of the events, processes, people, and places that have shaped our growing knowledge of Earth, from the oceans’ formation and the first perilous polar expeditions to deadly volcanoes and Earth “selfies” from space. He covers relevant topics in a range of fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, geology, mineralogy, planetary science, life science, public policy, atmospheric/climate science, and engineering, along with notes on key scientists and inventors. At a time when it's crucial to understand Earth as a complex interdependent system, and our role in that system, The Earth Book will enhance your appreciation of our home.
Spanning Earth’s entire history, from its birth 4.6 billion years ago to its inevitable destruction billions of years into the future, this stunning volume chronicles the life of our home planet in 250 well-chosen milestones. Jim Bell leads us on a tour of the events, processes, people, and places that have shaped our growing knowledge of Earth, from the oceans’ formation and the first perilous polar expeditions to deadly volcanoes and Earth “selfies” from space. He covers relevant topics in a range of fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, geology, mineralogy, planetary science, life science, public policy, atmospheric/climate science, and engineering, along with notes on key scientists and inventors. At a time when it's crucial to understand Earth as a complex interdependent system, and our role in that system, The Earth Book will enhance your appreciation of our home.
528 pages, Hardcover
Published April 2, 2019
96 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Jim Bell
61 books32 followersJames (Jim) F. Bell III (born July 23, 1965) is a Professor of Astronomy at Arizona State University, specializing in the study of planetary geology, geochemistry and mineralogy using data obtained from telescopes and from various spacecraft missions.
Dr. Bell's active research has involved the NASA Mars Pathfinder, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR), Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR), 2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Mars Science Laboratory missions. His book Postcards from Mars includes many images taken by the Mars rovers. Dr. Bell is currently an editor of the space science journal Icarus and president of The Planetary Society.
He has served as the lead scientist in charge of the Panoramic camera (Pancam) color imaging system on Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
Dr. Bell's active research has involved the NASA Mars Pathfinder, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR), Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR), 2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Mars Science Laboratory missions. His book Postcards from Mars includes many images taken by the Mars rovers. Dr. Bell is currently an editor of the space science journal Icarus and president of The Planetary Society.
He has served as the lead scientist in charge of the Panoramic camera (Pancam) color imaging system on Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 25, 2025
The Earth Book is built out of 250 single-page essays describing the history of earth to its future and eventual demise in billions of years. It is laid out such that each essay has the text on the left hand side, and a related image on the right hand side. It's a beautiful book.
Because each page is self contained, I used this as my 'breakfast cereal' book - in the morning, if I wasn't managing kids, I'd read two or three pages of this while I ate my breakfast cereal. It worked great for this purpose, allowing me to learn a little in a short period of time.
There were a lot of things in this book that I already knew, and I lot that I didn't. Typically even in the things that I already knew something about, the perspective of the book would shine a new light on them.
My only complaint with this book is that probably half of the book takes place in the last two thousand years. The book covers nearly ten billion years, yet it's overwhelmingly about the period of time when humans have been here. And obviously that makes sense, because humans know more about the stuff we've lived through and recorded than the stuff we haven't. But knowing about two or three different volcanic explosions in the last 100 years, then almost the same amount over the remaining 10 billion years of earths existence - I don't know, felt off.
This may have been fixed if some of the 'discoveries' had been laid out over earths history, rather than when humans figured them out - like 'plate tectonics', which obviously occurs continuously but which the author had (IIRC) somewhere in the 20th century, when we discovered it as a species.
Still, an interesting book, and my favourite parts were the parts both before and after the human era. I really enjoy the experience of thinking of things in geologic timescales, and seeing the theories that exist for how earth has evolved over time. Perhaps as the clustering of content in this book makes clear, even though we have some big theories, we know so much less about the period of time predating us. It's fascinating to imagine.
Because each page is self contained, I used this as my 'breakfast cereal' book - in the morning, if I wasn't managing kids, I'd read two or three pages of this while I ate my breakfast cereal. It worked great for this purpose, allowing me to learn a little in a short period of time.
There were a lot of things in this book that I already knew, and I lot that I didn't. Typically even in the things that I already knew something about, the perspective of the book would shine a new light on them.
My only complaint with this book is that probably half of the book takes place in the last two thousand years. The book covers nearly ten billion years, yet it's overwhelmingly about the period of time when humans have been here. And obviously that makes sense, because humans know more about the stuff we've lived through and recorded than the stuff we haven't. But knowing about two or three different volcanic explosions in the last 100 years, then almost the same amount over the remaining 10 billion years of earths existence - I don't know, felt off.
This may have been fixed if some of the 'discoveries' had been laid out over earths history, rather than when humans figured them out - like 'plate tectonics', which obviously occurs continuously but which the author had (IIRC) somewhere in the 20th century, when we discovered it as a species.
Still, an interesting book, and my favourite parts were the parts both before and after the human era. I really enjoy the experience of thinking of things in geologic timescales, and seeing the theories that exist for how earth has evolved over time. Perhaps as the clustering of content in this book makes clear, even though we have some big theories, we know so much less about the period of time predating us. It's fascinating to imagine.
November 14, 2024
The author was very repetitive; I read the same concept and facts over and over again. He also discussed irrelevant topics. That said, the book gave a good history of the Earth starting from its formation and contemplated its far future fate.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews