Origins: The Evolution of Continents, Oceans and Life Book

Origins: the Evolution of Continents, Oceans and Life is a big book (270 x 295 mm with 360 pages) and suits its enormous subject. And just as the Earth's landscapes and rocks are a remarkable visual feast, so is this book with its lavish and beautiful illustrations, literally hundreds of stunning photographs, diagrams, maps and artwork. But this is not just a picture book. Ron Redfern knows his rocks and geology and so the accompanying text is an accurate, up-to-date and very well written life story of "Mother Earth" and the scientists who have investigated her "intimate" details, full of fascinating characters and surprising stories. Redfern is a remarkable man, by profession a consultant in the food and pharmaceutical industry and yet also a landscape photographer of a high professional standard and an award-winning science writer with several best-selling books to his credit (Corridors of Time, The Making of a Continent).Origins' 13 chapters cover the whole range of the Earth's extraordinarily dynamic history. From the mechanism of plate tectonics whereby oceans have been created and destroyed and continents shuffled about over the last 4 billion and more years, the reader is taken on a long journey through the evolution of life, the formation and destruction of mountain ranges to the human occupation of Earth's landscapes. We hear the extraordinary stories of the scientists, like Alfred Wegener who pioneered the theory of continental drift; scientists and explorers who lived and died for their ideas. Accompanied by an extensive glossary, bibliography and index, Origins is a must for anyone interested in Earth's wonderful geological history. --Douglas Palmer.Read More