The Abyss of Time: Changing Conceptions of the Earth's Antiquity After the Sixteenth CenturyAccessible, entertaining work addresses Earth's age as it explores the work of Hooke, Buffon, Lyell, Cuvier, Darwin, Agassiz, and others, detailing discoveries that led to knowledge of Earth's astonishing antiquity — from Steno's contemplation of fossilized shark's teeth in 1666 through Holmes' time scales of 1960. Nominated for the American Book Award. 29 black-and-white illustrations. |
Contents
To the Reader | 9 |
Introduction | 17 |
Maltas Cradle | 20 |
Solids within Solids | 30 |
Mr Hooke | 42 |
Hookes illustrations of ammonites | 49 |
A Sacred Theory of the Earth | 58 |
Thomas Burnet | 60 |
A Question of Tempo | 131 |
A Plenitude of Events | 148 |
The Great Tree of Life | 162 |
Kelvin | 175 |
A Numbers Game | 186 |
Radiometric Dating | 200 |
Arthur Holmes | 207 |
World Enough and Time | 214 |
Telliameds Story | 68 |
Benoît de Maillet | 69 |
The Epochs of Nature | 78 |
View from the Brink | 89 |
Father William | 104 |
The Fourdimensional Jigsaw Puzzle | 117 |
Holmes diagrams | 220 |
Notes | 223 |
References | 231 |
| 241 | |
| 247 | |
Other editions - View all
The Abyss of Time: Unraveling the Mystery of the Earth's Age Claude C., Jr. Albritton Limited preview - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
Adam Sedgwick Agassiz animals appeared began beginning bodies Buffon Burnet calculations Cambrian Carboniferous Carozzi catastrophists causes Cenozoic century changes CHAPTER column continents cooling Cuvier Darwin decay deposits earth earth's crust Edinburgh energy erosion essay estimates evidence evolution father figures fishes Floetz Flood formation fossiliferous fossils geologic time scale Geological Society geologists glaciation glaciers granite heat Holmes Hooke Hooke's Hutton idea Jura Mountains Kelvin kinds land later layer lectures living Lyell Maillet marine mathematics million minerals molten Murchison natural history neptunist ocean Ordovician organisms original Paleozoic particles period petrifactions physical plants Playfair present primitive mountains principle published radioactive radiometric dating rocks Sacred Theory Scrope sea level Sedgwick sedimentary sediments sequences of strata shell Siccar Point Silurian Smith solid species Steno strata stratigraphic studies substances succession superposition surface Telliamed temperature thickness Thomson tion Triassic uniformitarians University volcanic Werner William