Table of Contents
Introduction 8
Acknowledgments 13
c. 4.5 Billion BCE Earth Is Born 14
c. 4.5 Billion BCE Earth's Core Forms 16
c. 4.5 Billion Birth of the Moon 18
c. 4.5 Billion BCE Earth's Mantle and Magma Ocean 20
c. 4.5-4 Billion BCE The Hadean 22
c. 4.1 Billion BCE Late Heavy Bombardment 24
c. 4.5 Billion BCE Continental Crust 26
c. 4 Billion BCE Earth's Oceans 28
c. 4-2.5 Billion BCE The Archean 30
c. 4-23 Billion BCE? Plate Tectonics 32
c. 3.8 Billion BCE? Life on Earth 34
c. 3.7 Billion BCE Stromatolites 36
c. 3.5 Billion BCE Greenstone Belts 38
c. 3.4 Billion BCE Photosynthesis 40
c. 3-1.8 Billion BCE Banded Iron Formations 42
c. 2.5 Billion BCE The Great Oxidation 44
c. 2 Billion BCE Eukaryotes 46
c. 1.2 Billion BCE The Origin of Sex 48
c. 1 Billion BCE Complex Multicellular Organisms 50
c. 720-635 Million BCE Snowball Earth? 52
c. 550 Million BCE Cambrian Explosion 54
c. 500 Million BCE Roots of the Pyrénées 56
c. 480 Million BCE The Appalachians 58
c. 470 Million BCE First Land Plants 60
c. 450 Million BCE Mass Extinctions 62
c. 375 Million BCE First Animals on Land 64
c. 320 Million BCE The Ural Mountains 66
c. 320 Million BCE Reptiles 68
c. 300 Million BCE The Atlas Mountains 70
c. 300 Million BCE Pangea 72
c. 252 Million BCE The Great Dying 74
c. 220 Million BCE Mammals 76
c. 200 Million BCE Triassic Extinction 78
c. 200-65 Million BCE Age of the Dinosaurs 80
c. 160 Million BCE The First Birds 82
c. 155 Million BCE The Sierra Nevada 84
c. 140 Million BCE The Atlantic Ocean 86
c. 130 Million BCE Flowers 88
c. 80 Million BCE The Rockies 90
c. 70 Million BCE The Himalayas 92
c. 66 Million BCE Deccan Traps 94
c. 65 Million BCE The Alps 96
c. 65 Million BCE Dinosaur-Killing Impact 98
c. 60 Million BCE Primates 100
c. 35 Million BCE Antarctica 102
c. 30 Million BCE East African Rift Zone 104
c. 30-20 Million BCE Advanced C4 Photosynthesis 106
c. 30-10 Million BCE Cascade Volcanoes 108
c. 28 Million BCE Hawaiian Islands 110
c. 10 Million BCE The Andes 112
c. 10 Million BCE First Horninids 114
c. 7 Million BCE Sahara Desert 116
c. 6-5 Million BCE The Grand Canyon 118
c. 6-5 Million BCE The Mediterranean Sea 120
c. 5.5 Million BCE The Caspian and Black Seas 122
c. 5 Million BCE Galápagos Islands 124
c. 3.4 Million BCE to 3300 BCE The Stone Age 126
c. 3 Million BCE The Dead Sea 128
c. 2 Million BCE Death Valley 130
c. 400,000 BCE Lake Victoria 132
c. 200,000 BCE Homo sapiens Emerges 134
c. 70,000 BCE The San People 136
c. 50,000 BCE Arizona Impact 138
c. 40,000 BCE The First Mines 140
c. 38,000 BCE La Brea Tar Pits 142
c. 30 000 BCE Domestication of Animals 144
c. 10,000 BCE Invention of Agriculture 146
c. 10,000 BCE End of the East "Ice Age" 148
c. 9000 BCE Beringia Land Bridge 150
c. 8000 BCE The Great Lakes 152
c. 7000 BCE Fermentation of Beer and Wine 154
c. 6000 BCE fertilizer 156
c. 3300-1200 BCE The Bronze Age 158
c. 3200 BCE Synthetic Pigments 160
c. 3000 BCE Oldest Living Trees 162
c. 3000 BCE Stonehenge 164
c. 3000 BCE The Spice Trade 166
c. 2500 BCE The Pyramids 168
c. 2000 BCE Magnetite 170
c. 1200-500 BCE The Iron Age 172
c. 800 BCE Aqueducts 174
c. 600 BCE First World Maps 176
c. 500 BCE The Earth Is Round! 178
c. 500 BCE Madagascar 180
c. 300 BCE Quartz 182
c. 300 BCE Great Library of Alexandria 184
c. 280 BCE A Sun-Centered Cosmos 186
c. 250 BCE Size of the Earth 188
79 Pompeii 190
c. 700-1200 Polynesian Diaspora 192
c. 1000 Mayan Astronomy 194
c. 1370-1640 Great Wall of China 196
c. 1400 Native American Creation Stories 198
c. 1500 The Little Ice Age 200
c. 1500 Civil Engineering 202
1519 Circumnavigating the Globe 204
1541 Amazon River 206
1600 Many Earths? 208
1600 Iluaynaputina Eruption 210
1619 Laws of Planetary Motion 212
1669 Foundations of Geology 214
1686 Tides 216
1687 Gravity 218
1747 Feldspar 220
1769 Transit of Venus 222
1788 Unconformities 224
1789 Olivine 226
1791 Desalination 228
1794 Rocks from Space 230
1798 Population Growth 232
1802-1805 Platinum Croup Metals 234
1804 Charting North America 236
1811 Reading the Fossil Record 238
1814 Sunlight Deciphered 240
1815 Mount Tambora Eruption 242
1815 Modern Geologic Maps 244
1830 Uniformitarianism 246
c. 1830 Industrial Revolution 248
1837 Discovering Ice Ages 250
1845 Birth of Environmentalism 252
1851 Proof that the Earth Spins 254
c. 1855-1870 Deforestation 256
1858-1859 Natural Selection 258
1858 Airborne Remote Sensing 260
1859 Solar Marcs and Space Weather 262
1862 The Age of the Earth 264
1864 (Geo) Science Fiction 266
1869 Exploring the Grand Canyon 268
c. 1870 The Anthropocene 270
1870 Soil Science 272
1872 National Parks 274
1879 The US Geological Survey 276
1883 Krakaloa Eruption 278
1892 The Sierra Club 280
1896 The Greenhouse Effect 282
1896 Radioactivity 284
1896 Structure of the Atmosphere 286
1896 Women in Earth Science 288
1900 Galveston Hurricane 290
1902 Controlling the Nile 292
1906 San Francisco Earthquake 294
1906 Hunting for Meteorites 296
1908 The Tunguska Explosion 298
1909 Reaching the North Pole 300
1910 Big Burn Wildfire 302
1911 Reaching the South Pole 304
1911 Machu Picchu 306
1912 Continental Drift 308
1913 The Ozone Layer 310
1914 The Panama Canal 312
1915 Exploring Katmai 314
1921 Russian Famine 316
1925 Tri-State Tornado 318
1926 Liquid-Fueled Rockets 320
1926 Exploration by Aviation 322
1933 Angel Falls 324
1934 Geology of Corals 326
1935 Dust Bowl 328
1936 The Inner Core 330
1937 Landfills 332
1943 Exploring the Oceans 334
1943 Sky Islands 336
1945 Geosynchronous Satellites 338
1946 Cloud Seeding 340
1947 Weather Radar 342
1948 Tracing Human Origins 344
1949 Island Arcs 346
1953 Ascending Everest 348
1954 Nuclear Power 350
1957 Mapping the Seafloor 352
1957 Sputnik 354
1957-1958 International Geophysical Year (IGY) 356
1958 Earth's Radiation Belts 358
1960 Weather Satellites 360
1960 Understanding Impact Craters 362
1960 Mariana Trench 364
1960 Valdivia Earthquake 366
1961 Humans in Space 368
1961 Terraforming 370
1963 Reversing Magnetic Polarity 372
1966 Endosymbiosis 374
1966 Earth Selfies 376
1967 Extremophiles 378
1968 Leaving Earth's Gravity 380
1970 Meteorites and Life 382
1970 Earth Day 384
1972 Earth Science Satellites 386
1972 Geology on the Moon 388
1973 Seafloor Spreading 390
1973 Tropical Rain/Cloud Forests 392
1973 Global Positioning System 394
1975 Insect Migration 396
1975 Magnetic Navigation 398
1976 Temperate Rainforests 400
1977 Voyager Golden Record 402
1977 Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents 404
1978 Wind Power 406
1979 A World Wide Web 408
1980 Mount St. Helens Eruption 410
1980 Extinction Impact Hypothesis 412
1981 Great Barrier Reef 414
1982 Genetic Engineering of Crops 416
1982 Basin and Range 418
1982 Solar Power 420
1982 Volcanic Explosivity Index 422
1983 Gorillas in the Mint 424
1983 Plant Genetics 426
1984 The Oscillating Magnetosphere 428
1985 Underwater Archaeology 430
1986 Chernobyl Disaster 432
1987 California Condors 434
1987 Yucca Mountain 436
1988 Light Pollution 438
1988 Chimpanzees 440
1991 Biosphere 2 442
1991 Mount Pinatubo Eruption 444
1992 Tundra 446
1993 Boreal Forests (Taiga) 448
1993 Oceanography from Space 450
1994 Hydroelectric Power 452
1995 Earthlike Exoplanets 454
1997 Large Animal Migrations 456
1998 Ocean Conservation 458
1999 Earth's Spin Slows Over Time 460
1999 Torino Impact Hazard Scale 462
1999 Vargas Landslide 464
2004 Sumatran Earthquake and Tsunami 466
2004 Grasslands and Chaparral 468
2007 Carbon Footprint 470
2008 Global Seed Vault 472
2010 Eyjafjallajökull Eruption 474
2011 Building Bridges 476
2011 Temperate Deciduous Forests 478
2012 Lake Vostok 480
2013 Savanna 482
2013 Rising CO2 484
2016 Long-Duration Space Travel 486
2017 North American Solar Eclipse 488
2029 Apophis Near Miss 490
˜2050 Settlements on Mars? 492
˜2100 End of Fossil Fuels? 494
˜50,000 Next Ice Age? 496
˜100,000 Yellowstone Supervolcano 498
˜100,000-200,000 Loihi 500
˜500,000 Next Big Asteroid Impact? 502
˜250 Million Pangea Proxima 504
˜600 Million Last Total Solar Eclipse 506
˜1 Bullion Earth's Oceans Evaporate 508
˜2-3 Billion Earths Core Solidifies 510
˜5 Billion The End of the Earth 512
GSA Geologic Timescale 514
Notes and Further Reading 516
Index 524
Photo Credits 528