Table of Contents

Introduction 8

Acknowledgments 13

c. 4.5 Billion BCE Earth Is Born 14

c. 4.5 Billion BCE Earth's Core Forms 16

c. 4.5 Billion Birth of the Moon 18

c. 4.5 Billion BCE Earth's Mantle and Magma Ocean 20

c. 4.5-4 Billion BCE The Hadean 22

c. 4.1 Billion BCE Late Heavy Bombardment 24

c. 4.5 Billion BCE Continental Crust 26

c. 4 Billion BCE Earth's Oceans 28

c. 4-2.5 Billion BCE The Archean 30

c. 4-23 Billion BCE? Plate Tectonics 32

c. 3.8 Billion BCE? Life on Earth 34

c. 3.7 Billion BCE Stromatolites 36

c. 3.5 Billion BCE Greenstone Belts 38

c. 3.4 Billion BCE Photosynthesis 40

c. 3-1.8 Billion BCE Banded Iron Formations 42

c. 2.5 Billion BCE The Great Oxidation 44

c. 2 Billion BCE Eukaryotes 46

c. 1.2 Billion BCE The Origin of Sex 48

c. 1 Billion BCE Complex Multicellular Organisms 50

c. 720-635 Million BCE Snowball Earth? 52

c. 550 Million BCE Cambrian Explosion 54

c. 500 Million BCE Roots of the Pyrénées 56

c. 480 Million BCE The Appalachians 58

c. 470 Million BCE First Land Plants 60

c. 450 Million BCE Mass Extinctions 62

c. 375 Million BCE First Animals on Land 64

c. 320 Million BCE The Ural Mountains 66

c. 320 Million BCE Reptiles 68

c. 300 Million BCE The Atlas Mountains 70

c. 300 Million BCE Pangea 72

c. 252 Million BCE The Great Dying 74

c. 220 Million BCE Mammals 76

c. 200 Million BCE Triassic Extinction 78

c. 200-65 Million BCE Age of the Dinosaurs 80

c. 160 Million BCE The First Birds 82

c. 155 Million BCE The Sierra Nevada 84

c. 140 Million BCE The Atlantic Ocean 86

c. 130 Million BCE Flowers 88

c. 80 Million BCE The Rockies 90

c. 70 Million BCE The Himalayas 92

c. 66 Million BCE Deccan Traps 94

c. 65 Million BCE The Alps 96

c. 65 Million BCE Dinosaur-Killing Impact 98

c. 60 Million BCE Primates 100

c. 35 Million BCE Antarctica 102

c. 30 Million BCE East African Rift Zone 104

c. 30-20 Million BCE Advanced C4 Photosynthesis 106

c. 30-10 Million BCE Cascade Volcanoes 108

c. 28 Million BCE Hawaiian Islands 110

c. 10 Million BCE The Andes 112

c. 10 Million BCE First Horninids 114

c. 7 Million BCE Sahara Desert 116

c. 6-5 Million BCE The Grand Canyon 118

c. 6-5 Million BCE The Mediterranean Sea 120

c. 5.5 Million BCE The Caspian and Black Seas 122

c. 5 Million BCE Galápagos Islands 124

c. 3.4 Million BCE to 3300 BCE The Stone Age 126

c. 3 Million BCE The Dead Sea 128

c. 2 Million BCE Death Valley 130

c. 400,000 BCE Lake Victoria 132

c. 200,000 BCE Homo sapiens Emerges 134

c. 70,000 BCE The San People 136

c. 50,000 BCE Arizona Impact 138

c. 40,000 BCE The First Mines 140

c. 38,000 BCE La Brea Tar Pits 142

c. 30 000 BCE Domestication of Animals 144

c. 10,000 BCE Invention of Agriculture 146

c. 10,000 BCE End of the East "Ice Age" 148

c. 9000 BCE Beringia Land Bridge 150

c. 8000 BCE The Great Lakes 152

c. 7000 BCE Fermentation of Beer and Wine 154

c. 6000 BCE fertilizer 156

c. 3300-1200 BCE The Bronze Age 158

c. 3200 BCE Synthetic Pigments 160

c. 3000 BCE Oldest Living Trees 162

c. 3000 BCE Stonehenge 164

c. 3000 BCE The Spice Trade 166

c. 2500 BCE The Pyramids 168

c. 2000 BCE Magnetite 170

c. 1200-500 BCE The Iron Age 172

c. 800 BCE Aqueducts 174

c. 600 BCE First World Maps 176

c. 500 BCE The Earth Is Round! 178

c. 500 BCE Madagascar 180

c. 300 BCE Quartz 182

c. 300 BCE Great Library of Alexandria 184

c. 280 BCE A Sun-Centered Cosmos 186

c. 250 BCE Size of the Earth 188

79 Pompeii 190

c. 700-1200 Polynesian Diaspora 192

c. 1000 Mayan Astronomy 194

c. 1370-1640 Great Wall of China 196

c. 1400 Native American Creation Stories 198

c. 1500 The Little Ice Age 200

c. 1500 Civil Engineering 202

1519 Circumnavigating the Globe 204

1541 Amazon River 206

1600 Many Earths? 208

1600 Iluaynaputina Eruption 210

1619 Laws of Planetary Motion 212

1669 Foundations of Geology 214

1686 Tides 216

1687 Gravity 218

1747 Feldspar 220

1769 Transit of Venus 222

1788 Unconformities 224

1789 Olivine 226

1791 Desalination 228

1794 Rocks from Space 230

1798 Population Growth 232

1802-1805 Platinum Croup Metals 234

1804 Charting North America 236

1811 Reading the Fossil Record 238

1814 Sunlight Deciphered 240

1815 Mount Tambora Eruption 242

1815 Modern Geologic Maps 244

1830 Uniformitarianism 246

c. 1830 Industrial Revolution 248

1837 Discovering Ice Ages 250

1845 Birth of Environmentalism 252

1851 Proof that the Earth Spins 254

c. 1855-1870 Deforestation 256

1858-1859 Natural Selection 258

1858 Airborne Remote Sensing 260

1859 Solar Marcs and Space Weather 262

1862 The Age of the Earth 264

1864 (Geo) Science Fiction 266

1869 Exploring the Grand Canyon 268

c. 1870 The Anthropocene 270

1870 Soil Science 272

1872 National Parks 274

1879 The US Geological Survey 276

1883 Krakaloa Eruption 278

1892 The Sierra Club 280

1896 The Greenhouse Effect 282

1896 Radioactivity 284

1896 Structure of the Atmosphere 286

1896 Women in Earth Science 288

1900 Galveston Hurricane 290

1902 Controlling the Nile 292

1906 San Francisco Earthquake 294

1906 Hunting for Meteorites 296

1908 The Tunguska Explosion 298

1909 Reaching the North Pole 300

1910 Big Burn Wildfire 302

1911 Reaching the South Pole 304

1911 Machu Picchu 306

1912 Continental Drift 308

1913 The Ozone Layer 310

1914 The Panama Canal 312

1915 Exploring Katmai 314

1921 Russian Famine 316

1925 Tri-State Tornado 318

1926 Liquid-Fueled Rockets 320

1926 Exploration by Aviation 322

1933 Angel Falls 324

1934 Geology of Corals 326

1935 Dust Bowl 328

1936 The Inner Core 330

1937 Landfills 332

1943 Exploring the Oceans 334

1943 Sky Islands 336

1945 Geosynchronous Satellites 338

1946 Cloud Seeding 340

1947 Weather Radar 342

1948 Tracing Human Origins 344

1949 Island Arcs 346

1953 Ascending Everest 348

1954 Nuclear Power 350

1957 Mapping the Seafloor 352

1957 Sputnik 354

1957-1958 International Geophysical Year (IGY) 356

1958 Earth's Radiation Belts 358

1960 Weather Satellites 360

1960 Understanding Impact Craters 362

1960 Mariana Trench 364

1960 Valdivia Earthquake 366

1961 Humans in Space 368

1961 Terraforming 370

1963 Reversing Magnetic Polarity 372

1966 Endosymbiosis 374

1966 Earth Selfies 376

1967 Extremophiles 378

1968 Leaving Earth's Gravity 380

1970 Meteorites and Life 382

1970 Earth Day 384

1972 Earth Science Satellites 386

1972 Geology on the Moon 388

1973 Seafloor Spreading 390

1973 Tropical Rain/Cloud Forests 392

1973 Global Positioning System 394

1975 Insect Migration 396

1975 Magnetic Navigation 398

1976 Temperate Rainforests 400

1977 Voyager Golden Record 402

1977 Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents 404

1978 Wind Power 406

1979 A World Wide Web 408

1980 Mount St. Helens Eruption 410

1980 Extinction Impact Hypothesis 412

1981 Great Barrier Reef 414

1982 Genetic Engineering of Crops 416

1982 Basin and Range 418

1982 Solar Power 420

1982 Volcanic Explosivity Index 422

1983 Gorillas in the Mint 424

1983 Plant Genetics 426

1984 The Oscillating Magnetosphere 428

1985 Underwater Archaeology 430

1986 Chernobyl Disaster 432

1987 California Condors 434

1987 Yucca Mountain 436

1988 Light Pollution 438

1988 Chimpanzees 440

1991 Biosphere 2 442

1991 Mount Pinatubo Eruption 444

1992 Tundra 446

1993 Boreal Forests (Taiga) 448

1993 Oceanography from Space 450

1994 Hydroelectric Power 452

1995 Earthlike Exoplanets 454

1997 Large Animal Migrations 456

1998 Ocean Conservation 458

1999 Earth's Spin Slows Over Time 460

1999 Torino Impact Hazard Scale 462

1999 Vargas Landslide 464

2004 Sumatran Earthquake and Tsunami 466

2004 Grasslands and Chaparral 468

2007 Carbon Footprint 470

2008 Global Seed Vault 472

2010 Eyjafjallajökull Eruption 474

2011 Building Bridges 476

2011 Temperate Deciduous Forests 478

2012 Lake Vostok 480

2013 Savanna 482

2013 Rising CO₂ 484

2016 Long-Duration Space Travel 486

2017 North American Solar Eclipse 488

2029 Apophis Near Miss 490

˜2050 Settlements on Mars? 492

˜2100 End of Fossil Fuels? 494

˜50,000 Next Ice Age? 496

˜100,000 Yellowstone Supervolcano 498

˜100,000-200,000 Loihi 500

˜500,000 Next Big Asteroid Impact? 502

˜250 Million Pangea Proxima 504

˜600 Million Last Total Solar Eclipse 506

˜1 Bullion Earth's Oceans Evaporate 508

˜2-3 Billion Earths Core Solidifies 510

˜5 Billion The End of the Earth 512

GSA Geologic Timescale 514

Notes and Further Reading 516

Index 524

Photo Credits 528