Earth: An Intimate History

In answer to a time-related statement from another, such as "I turn 57 next month", have you ever answered, "Rocks don't live that long"? In EARTH, British paleontologist-author Richard Fortey reminds the reader that the globe is theorized to be 4.5 billion years young, and the oldest rock datable by current technology, a zircon crystal from Australia, registers at 4.4 billion years. Is your mother-in-law that old? I've always been fascinated, when flying over or driving through the deserts of the western U.S., by the myriad of different rock formations unclothed by vegetation and naked for all to see. I've wished that I had a geologist by my side to explain how they came to be. Fortey may be the next best thing. In EARTH, the theme is "plate tectonics", and it's a tribute to the author's writing talent that he can make so esoteric a subject supremely interesting. The book is, at times, hard to put down. To illustrate the observable effects of past movements of the Earth's crust - movement that will continue long past the habitation of the Earth by the human species, Fortey has selected several spots on our world as exhibits: Pompei, Hawaii, the Swiss Alps, Newfoundland, Scotland, India, Kenya, California, and the Grand Canyon. The narrative is, of course, about the evolution of tectonic plate theory, but also about proto-continents, lost oceans, volcanoes, mountain ranges, upthrusts, downthrusts, subduction zones, deep ocean trenches, mid-ocean ranges, lava, basalt, granite, gneisses, fossils, fault lines, schists, nappes, magnetic fields, limestone, ice sheets, diamonds, gold, coral reefs, green sand, "hot spots", tin mines, magma, marble, polar wandering, rubies, tors, and a mule named "Buttercup". Fortey's gift is to make the mix wonderfully engaging for the average reader, though strict adherents to Creationism will likely see their beliefs threatened. Did you know, for example, that the Appalachians were once one end of a mountain chain that stretched across an ancient continent, and the remains of which, after continental drift, are now in such widely separated locales as Newfoundland, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and the length of western Scandinavia? Or that mid-European miners have long recognized the panicked streaming of cockroaches, which are extremely sensitive to changes in rock pressure, as the harbinger of impending rockfalls? The author occasionally waxes philosophic. After noting that a 1.5 billion-year old granite slab serves as the counter of a bar in London's Paddington Station, he muses: "If you have just missed your train, you can at least lean on a bar that is 1500 million years old and reflect that perhaps half an hour is not that serious a delay." I did, however, spot one egregious error in the narrative that is otherwise erudite and above reproach. On page 278, while recalling a trip through Nevada, he writes: "Carson City used to be the state capital. Now it is an endearingly ramshackle collection of wooden houses

This book is an ode to the imagination, flowing equally into scientific and literary channels. Endlessly instructive regarding the geology of the earth, it is also a pure literary delight. Fortey rivals such other nature writers as Thoreau and Muir in his ability to depict nature in a manner that weds descriptive power with evocative expression. It could have used for the sake of the geologically unsophisticated reader a few more illustrations. Perhaps in the next edition?

I have totally changed my mind about this book. At first I thought it was a disorganized ramble through earth's geological history, but I found I could not put this book down. As I worked my way thorugh this book, I came to appreciate the writer's skill and insight. This book is a delightful read, and in some ways you feel you are right there with him chipping away at some pre-cambrian volcanic intrusion. I can easily imagine that Fortey would be a most entertaining traveling companion on one of his many forays into the field. Not only is this an entertaining book, but it is informative also. It lacks the dry style of a textbook, but instead it brings you into the field. The author has also managed to pepper his account with innumerable insights and asides that I had never heard of before. I heartily endorse this book and regret the previous, premature, review I wrote (I penned it when I had the flu).

"This is where things get really interesting." This sentiment, from a chapter on the Alps in _Earth: An Intimate History_ (Knopf) by Richard Fortey, describes how geological layers, normally oldest at the bottom and newest at the top, can get flipped by one mass of rock being thrust upon another. It might just as well apply to hundreds of ideas in these pages. The book is a fascinating summary of where geology stands now, as a relatively new science which has been completely remade on the foundation of plate tectonics, just as biology has only recently been founded on evolution. "It is not faith that moves mountains; it is tectonics," Fortey insists. He does not directly confront those who would misuse science to "prove" an Earth less than 10,000 years old; the real science from real geologists, of course, overwhelmingly indicates an age of billions, not thousands, of years. But he understands the impulse: "Let the time go into the millions, and beyond, and the insignificance of our own sector becomes patent." Somehow, this is an insignificant insignificance. Billions of years of continental plates shoving each other around on our planet did eventually bring forth a creature that could understand that process. The history of how that understanding came about, as told here, is a proud one, full of human errors and pride, but powered by that admirable human trait of curiosity. "Rocks do not lie," Fortey tells us. "They do, however, dissemble as to their true meaning." Demonstrating the meaning, and clearing away the dissembling, is what this book expertly accomplishes. One of the sacred locales of the science of geology mentioned here is the Temple of Serapis near Naples. It now consists of three huge columns, each composed of one single piece of marble. They are discolored about four meters above their pedestals, and the discoloring comes from the boring of a destructive type of mollusk. This means that the temple (actually a marketplace) was constructed and then was somehow lowered into the sea, whence it arose again. It was Charles Lyell who realized that the columns could be read to understand the movement of the Earth and that rocks reflected changes by fire, water, ice, and animals. Lyell's _Principles of Geology_ changed the way people thought of the age of the Earth and how the lands were formed, and it profoundly influenced the ideas of the young Charles Darwin. Fortey takes us to the temple, up Vesuvius, along the San Andreas Fault, to the Grand Canyon, and more, at each point showing the stones and layers and describing how they got there. He includes fascinating details, like the work of researchers who are, in a minuscule way, reproducing the enormous heat and pressure of the inner Earth to examine the extraordinary physics and chemistry there. He tells of the streets of Kalgoorlie, Australia, which were literally paved with gold; the miners who dug up the shiny yellow metal didn't realize that the waste rock they

Studying geology can be fun. Trips across the world, meeting new people, sharing insights and resolving mysteries of Earth's processes. There is, of course, the downside. Lava flows that shred boots, impossibly complex rock formations and bays that simply disappear during a seven-year interval between visits. If you have a writing gift, as Richard Fortey does, you can impart all these aspects of the science to a wide audience. This book does that admirably - and Fortey's not even a geologist! Fortey's study of fossil trilobites has led him far afield. Since those bizarre creatures persisted for over three hundred million years, their remains are well distributed in both time and space. In studying them, Fortey has made the entire planet his backyard. That intimacy and his wide vision combine to produce this matchless work. From the opening pages he combines human history and the Earth's antics in an evocative theme. Vesuvius, that town killer, becomes a symbol of the dynamics of the world beneath our feet. Volcanoes also produce rich soils, luring humans up their slopes to plant crops. That juxtaposition typifies how geology has driven human society.Geology, Fortey reminds us, is a young science, as active as the world it studies. He traces the thoughts of investigators over the past centuries. Through that time, two aspects of the Earth's dynamics eluded them. How fast was the planet cooling and what caused the bizarre formations they studied? It took physics, not geology, to solve the first - radioactive elements kept the interior hot. The second, plate tectonics, resolved most of the second. The notion that the crust "floats" on a sea of magma led to better understanding of deep processes. Plate tectonics, in Fortey's view, is the key to unlock nearly all geology's basic question. It explains "suspect terrain" and anomalous mountain formation. It also demonstrates why some areas are earthquake and volcano prone. Charles Lyell's "uniformitarianism", Fortey stresses, is basically correct. We can't observe directly many of the forces shaping the world.What shapes the world, Fortey, continues, shapes our lives as well. How much of our history is due to Africa's pushing northward into Europe? What forced the ancient peoples of the Western Hemisphere to create their unique societies? Is the landscape of Southern Asia a foundation for the famous Silk Road? Tilting landscapes give us our rivers and the communities established on their banks. How many times has the Mississippi drowned towns, or abandoned them to isolation? Fortey keeps us aware of how our existence is shaped by the rocks beneath us. With sets of stunning colour photographs and drawings to enhance the finely crafted text, this book's worthy of your attention. Fortey is always a compelling read, and this book stands among his best. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]