Earth Cycles: A Historical Perspective

Humans have tried to figure out what formed the landscape of the earth for thousands of years. How were mountains created? Where did lakes and rivers come from? What lies under the surface of the earth? And one concept that greatly aided the scientific advance of the earth sciences was that of geological cycles. Once scientists understood that many geological actions are cyclic, the scientific knowledge of the earth exploded. These ideas are central to the nature of the earth sciences, and appreciating how scientists arrived at these ideas is essential for understanding the nature of the earth sciences.

Earth Cycles: A Historical Perspective, a volume in the Greenwood Guides to Great Ideas in Science, traces the history of this tremendously powerful concept from the ancient philosophers to the present day.

The volume covers:

Ancient beliefs about the nature of the earth and the myth of the Eternal Return.

James Hutton, Charles Lyell, and the other founders of the science of geology, who based the history of the earth on the notion that there is no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.

Theories about the cycles of volcanic eruptions.

The history of the recurrence of ice ages.

The idea of the recurrence of catastrophic episodes in earth history due to interaction with objects in space.

Jargon and mathematics is kept to a minimum, and the volume includes a timeline, a glossary, and a bibliography, making Earth Cycles an ideal resource for students researching the earth sciences and the history and nature of the scientific understanding of the world around us.