Snowball Earth The Story of the Great Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life As We Know It |
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| Author:
| Walker, Gabrielle |
| ISBN: | 978-0-7475-6051-7 |
| Publication Date: | Feb 2003 |
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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| Book Format: | Hardback |
| List Price: | AUD $49.95 |
Book Description:
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Did the Earth once undergo a super ice age, one that froze the entire planet? Paul Hoffman, a brilliant and irascible scientist at Harvard, claims that the Earth experienced just such a climate cataclysm 700 million years ago. The consequences of this idea are far-reaching. For Hoffman believes that this global deep freeze triggered the great Cambrian Explosion, the so-far unexplained moment in geological time when a glorious profusion of complex life forms first sprang from the...
More DescriptionDid the Earth once undergo a super ice age, one that froze the entire planet? Paul Hoffman, a brilliant and irascible scientist at Harvard, claims that the Earth experienced just such a climate cataclysm 700 million years ago. The consequences of this idea are far-reaching. For Hoffman believes that this global deep freeze triggered the great Cambrian Explosion, the so-far unexplained moment in geological time when a glorious profusion of complex life forms first sprang from the primordial soup.
In her gripping account, Gabrielle Walker takes us on a journey to some of the most picturesque and formidable places on Earth - from the polar ice cap to the Australian outback and the African desert - as Hoffman and his fellow geologists travel the earth to find supporting evidence for their theories. Not just a tale about geology, or climate, or even evolution, Snowball Earth is the story of a revolution in the making. Intelligent, impassioned, and thrilling, this is science writing at its best.