Cataclysms : A New Geology for the Twenty-First Century / Michael Rampino.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rampino, Michael, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comets--Collisions with Earth.

Comets.

Natural disasters--Environmental aspects.

Natural disasters.

Volcanic eruptions.

Extinction (Biology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (222 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In 1980, the science world was stunned when a maverick team of researchers proposed that a massive meteor strike had wiped the dinosaurs and other fauna from the Earth 66 million years ago. Scientists found evidence for this theory in a “crater of doom” on the Yucatán Peninsula, showing that our planet had once been a target in a galactic shooting gallery. In Cataclysms, Michael R. Rampino builds on the latest findings from leading geoscientists to take “neocatastrophism” a step further, toward a richer understanding of the science behind major planetary upheavals and extinction events.Rampino recounts his conversion to the impact hypothesis, describing his visits to meteor-strike sites and his review of the existing geological record. The new geology he outlines explicitly rejects nineteenth-century “uniformitarianism,” which casts planetary change as gradual and driven by processes we can see at work today. Rampino offers a cosmic context for Earth’s geologic evolution, in which cataclysms from above in the form of comet and asteroid impacts and from below in the form of huge outpourings of lava in flood-basalt eruptions have led to severe and even catastrophic changes to the Earth’s surface. This new geology sees Earth’s position in our solar system and galaxy as the keys to understanding our planet’s geology and history of life. Rampino concludes with a controversial consideration of dark matter’s potential as a triggering mechanism, exploring its role in heating Earth’s core and spurring massive volcanism throughout geologic time.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Catastrophism Versus Gradualism

2. Lyell’s Laws

3. The Alvarez Hypothesis

4. Mass Extinctions

5. Kill Curves and Strangelove Oceans

6. Catastrophism and Natural Selection: Charles Darwin Versus Patrick Matthew

7. Impacts and Extinctions: Do They Match Up?

8. The Great Dying: The End-Permian Extinctions

9. Catastrophic Volcanic Eruptions and Extinctions

10. Ancient Glaciers or Impact-Related Deposits?

11. The Shiva Hypothesis: Comet Showers and the Galactic Carousel

12. Geological Upheavals and Dark Matter

Epilogue

Sources and Further Reading

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 13. Sep 2017)

ISBN:

9780231544870

0231544871

OCLC:

984688192