Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth
Marcia Bjornerud
Jun 2023 · Hachette Audio · Narrated by Alma Cuervo
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8 hr 9 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
From the author of Turning to Stone, a mediation on the stories that rock can tell us about the deep history of our planet
To many of us, the Earth’s crust is a relic of ancient, unknowable history. But to a geologist, the Earth’s crust, and every stone within it, is a richly illustrated narrative, telling gothic tales of cataclysm and reincarnation. How can we decode these stories?
In Reading the Rocks, geologist Marcia Bjornerud shows us. Taking the reader on an eye-opening tour of Deep Time, Bjornerud explains in elegant prose what we see and feel beneath our feet. Both scientist and storyteller, she reminds us that our home is a living thing with lessons to teach. She shows how our planet has long maintained a delicate balance between creation and destruction, and how the global give-and-take has sustained life on Earth through eons of upheaval.
Today, however, with the rapidly escalating effects of human beings on the planet, that great balance is being threatened—and the consequences may be catastrophic. Reading the Rocks reveals how heeding the messages in rocks can help us correct our course.
To many of us, the Earth’s crust is a relic of ancient, unknowable history. But to a geologist, the Earth’s crust, and every stone within it, is a richly illustrated narrative, telling gothic tales of cataclysm and reincarnation. How can we decode these stories?
In Reading the Rocks, geologist Marcia Bjornerud shows us. Taking the reader on an eye-opening tour of Deep Time, Bjornerud explains in elegant prose what we see and feel beneath our feet. Both scientist and storyteller, she reminds us that our home is a living thing with lessons to teach. She shows how our planet has long maintained a delicate balance between creation and destruction, and how the global give-and-take has sustained life on Earth through eons of upheaval.
Today, however, with the rapidly escalating effects of human beings on the planet, that great balance is being threatened—and the consequences may be catastrophic. Reading the Rocks reveals how heeding the messages in rocks can help us correct our course.
About the author
Marcia Bjornerud is a professor of environmental studies and geosciences at Lawrence University. She is a contributing writer to The New Yorker, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times, and the author of Timefulness, Geopedia, and Turning to Stone.
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