The Planet in a Pebble

• Tells the story of the history of the Earth's past from a single pebble
• Provides insights into the forensic approach of the Earth scientist today, demonstrating the impressive methods they use to discover our history
• Demonstrates how a simple object can contain evidence of many phenomena; of vanished oceans, ancient climate extinct life-forms, the cooling of magma underground, and the building of mountain belts

Readership: Popular science readers interested in the Earth, its natural history and in geology/palaeontology, as well as university students and teachers.

Jan Zalasiewicz, Senior Lecturer in Geology, University of Leicester

Jan Zalasiewicz is a Lecturer in Geology at the University of Leicester, before that working at the British Geological Survey. A field geologist, palaeontologist and stratigrapher, he teaches various aspects of geology and Earth history to undergraduate and postgraduate students, and is a researcher into fossil ecosystems and environments across over half a billion years of geological time. He has published over a hundred papers in scientific journals and is the author of The Earth After Us: What legacy will humans leave in the rocks? (OUP, 2008).

"A mind-expanding, awe inducing but friendly scientific exploration of the history" - Holly Kyte, The Sunday Telegraph

Prologue
1: Stardust
2: From the Depths of the Earth
3: Distant Lands
4: To the Rendezvous
5: The Sea
6: Ghosts Observed
7: Ghosts in Absentia
8: Where on Earth?
9: Gold!
10: The Oil Window
11: Making Mountains
12: Breaking the Surface
13: Futures