Cambridge Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences

Description

The enormous escalation of interest in space and the cosmoshas resulted in a corresponding enormous escalation ofinterest in the Earth. Just what is the planet Earth ? How didit come to be? What may happen to it? What can we hopeto gain from the Earth? Which of its resources will beexhausted, and when?For years a group of professors at Cambridge University,in collaboration with professors at M.I.T.. Oxford, theUniversity of California and elsewhere, have been supervisingthe preparation of a full-scale authoritative encyclopediacovering the current knowledge of the Earth and the sciencesrelated to it. Now The Cambridge Encyclopedia of EarthSciences is ready. A companion volume to The CambridgeEncyclopedia of Astronomy and The Cambridge Encyclopedia ofArchaeology, it contains a full complement of illustrations,maps and diagrams — 500 — of which 250 are in full color,250 in monochrome.This encyclopedia covers a number of sciences - geology,mineralogy, oceanography, the physics and chemistry of theEarth, seismology, as well as weather, gravity, energy, theenvironment, and the Earth's relation to the solar systemand the cosmos.Beginning with a historical survey of the Earth Sciences,the introductory section sets the Earth in its context in thesolar system and beyond. This is followed by accounts of theEarth's physics and chemistry, areas in which recent researchhas provided some of the most fundamental insights into theway the whole Earth has evolved from a cloud of dust andnow behaves. Because our lives, and the lives of all the peopleof the world, are crucially dependent on these things, it isvitally important for us to know the basic factors that affectthe Earth.The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences is lucid,intriguing and easily understood. It represents a trulymonumental undertaking by internationally respectedscientists and scholars under the guidance of American,Canadian and British experts.