Earth as an Evolving Planetary System

by Kent C. Condie

Earth as an Evolving Planetary System, Fourth Edition discusses key topics dealing with the evolution and interaction through time of Earth’s crust, mantle, core, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. It addresses the questions of why Earth is unique among planets of the solar system, and how the various subsystems in the planet have interacted over 4.6 billion years in the habitable planet that we live on. This new edition includes over 100 new pages of material, data, and images and is a key reference for students and researchers in Earth and planetary sciences. Earth as an Evolving Planetary System, Fourth Edition includes new material that has become available since the third edition, including new sections on the Mid-lithosphere discontinuity, geoneutrinos, mantle oxidation, continental emergence, Earth cycles (new chapter) and recycling processes, the evolution of Earth from a stagnant lid to a plate tectonic regime, the controversy over how the continents have grown, when plate tectonics began, and exoplanets.

406 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2004

Reviews

[Mike Parkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dense, but information-packed history of the long history of our planet, focused on the geology and interactions with the biosphere.

If you read Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and want more, maybe try "The Earth" by Richard Fortey or Prothero's textbook "Evolution of the Earth". If you read those, and still want to go deeper, than this might just be the book for you. Try to find a larger-dimension version - the version I own is a seriously shrunken edition that loses some of the value of the extensive graphics.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good title for this book would be "Introductory Advanced Macrogeology"