The Young Earth : An Introduction to Archaean Geology

'What are we going to do with a parcel of old stones?' wrote the director of an African museum a century and a half ago, when one of my ancestors presented him with a splendid collection of fossils of mammal-like reptiles. Old stones, however intriguing, are difficult to interpret, dusty, and do not fit well in the neatly ordered contents of a house of learning. Archaean geology, which is the study of the Earth's history in the period from after 9 the end of planetary accretion (4.5-4.4 x 10 years ago) up to the beginning 9 of the Proterozoic (2.5 x 10 years ago) is much the same - a parcel of old stones seemingly impossible to understand. Yet these stones contain the history of our origins: they can tell us a story that is interesting not just to the geologist (for whom this book is primarily written) but instead addresses the human condition in general. Front Matter....Pages iii-xvii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction....Pages 3-11 Geochronology and other uses of isotopic analysis....Pages 12-35 Archaean terrains: the available geological evidence....Pages 36-97 Front Matter....Pages 99-99 The beginnings of life....Pages 101-145 Archaean continents....Pages 146-197 Archaean volcanism....Pages 198-248 Mineral deposits in Archaean rocks....Pages 249-305 Models of the early Earth....Pages 306-354 Back Matter....Pages 355-402