Cataclysms - Michael Rampino

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Résumé :
In 1980, the science world was stunned when a maverick team of researchers proposed that a massive meteor strike had wiped the dinosaurs and other fauna from the Earth 66 million years ago. Scientists found evidence for this theory in a crater of doomon the Yucatan Peninsula that showed our planet has been the target in a galactic shooting gallery. Seeking to develop neocatastrophism even further, Michael R. Rampino adds to this exciting field in Cataclysms, building on the latest findings from leading geoscientists. Rampino recounts his conversion to the impact hypothesis, describing his visits to meteor-strike sites and his review of the existing geological record. His story enables a richer understanding of the science behind major planetary upheavals and extinction events. The new geology he outlines explicitly rejects nineteenth-century uniformitarianism, which casts planetary change as gradual and driven by processes we can see at work today. Rampino's new geology offers a cosmic context for Earth's geologic evolution, in which cataclysms from above in the form of comets and asteroid impacts and from below in the form of huge outpourings of lava in flood-basalt eruptions have led to severe changes in the Earth's surface. The new geology sees Earth's position in our solar system and galaxy as the keys to understanding our planet's geology and history of life. The author concludes with a fascinating take on dark matter's potential as a triggering mechanism, considering its role in heating Earth's core and spurring massive volcanism throughout geologic time.

Biographie:
Michael R. Rampino is a professor of biology and environmental studies at New York University. He has been a consultant for NASA and is the coauthor of Origins of Life in the Universe (2008) and editor of Climate: History, Periodicity, and Predictability (1988).

Sommaire:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Catastrophism Versus Gradualism
2. Lyell's Laws
3. The Alvarez Hypothesis
4. Mass Extinctions
5. Kill Curves and Strangelove Oceans
6. Catastrophism and Natural Selection: Charles Darwin Versus Patrick Matthew
7. Impacts and Extinctions: Do They Match Up?
8. The Great Dying: The End-Permian Extinctions
9. Catastrophic Volcanic Eruptions and Extinctions
10. Ancient Glaciers or Impact-Related Deposits?
11. The Shiva Hypothesis: Comet Showers and the Galactic Carousel
12. Geological Upheavals and Dark Matter
Epilogue: What Does It All Mean? A New Geology
Sources and Further Reading
Index