Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World Book

Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I. The Astronomical Planet: 1. An introductory tour of Earth's cosmic neighbourhood; 2. Largest and smallest scales; 3. Forces and energy; 4. Fusion, fission, sunlight, and element formation; Part II. The Measurable Planet: Tools to Discern the History of Earth and the Planets: 5. Determination of cosmic and terrestrial ages; 6. Other uses of isotopes for Earth history; 7. Relative age dating of cosmic and terrestrial events: the cratering record; 8. Relative age dating of terrestrial events: geologic layering and geologic time; 9. Plate tectonics: an introduction to the process; Part III. The Historical Planet: Earth and Solar System through Time: 10. Formation of the solar system; 11. The Hadean Earth; 12. The Archean eon and the origin of life: i. Properties of and sites for life; 13. The Archean eon and the origin of life: ii. Mechanisms; 14. The first greenhouse crisis: the faint early sun; 15. Climate histories of Mars and Venus, and the habitability of planets; 16. Earth in transition: from the Archean to the Proterozoic; 17. The oxygen revolution; 18. The Phanerozoic: flowering and extinction of complex life; 19. Climate change across the Phanerozoic; 20. Toward the age of humankind; Part IV. The Once and Future Planet: 21. Climate change over the past 100,000 years; 22. Human-induced global warming; 23. Limited resources: the human dilemma; 24. Coda: the once and future Earth; References; Index.