or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
27 used & new from £7.50

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Earth After Us: What legacy will humans leave in the rocks?
 
 

The Earth After Us: What legacy will humans leave in the rocks? (Hardcover)

by Jan Zalasiewicz (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.99
Price: £10.47 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £4.52 (30%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Temporarily out of stock.
Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

21 new from £7.50 6 used from £14.99

Special Offers and Product Promotions


Frequently Bought Together

The Earth After Us: What legacy will humans leave in the rocks? + The World without Us + Life After People - As seen on Channel 4 [DVD] [2008]
Price For All Three: £28.08

Some of these items are dispatched sooner than the others. Show details

  • This item: The Earth After Us: What legacy will humans leave in the rocks? by Jan Zalasiewicz

    Temporarily out of stock.
    Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • The World without Us by Alan Weisman

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Life After People - As seen on Channel 4 [DVD] [2008]

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Eternity: Our Next Billion Years: Humanity's Next Billion Years

Eternity: Our Next Billion Years: Humanity's Next Billion Years

by Michael Hanlon
4.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £11.68
The World without Us

The World without Us

by Alan Weisman
3.9 out of 5 stars (30)  £6.73
Life After People - As seen on Channel 4 [DVD] [2008]

Life After People - As seen on Channel 4 [DVD] [2008]

4.0 out of 5 stars (4)  £10.88
Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet

Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet

by Oliver Morton
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £6.97
The Emerald Planet: How plants changed Earth's history

The Emerald Planet: How plants changed Earth's history

by David Beerling
4.7 out of 5 stars (6)  £5.82
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: OUP Oxford; First Edition edition (25 Sep 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0199214972
  • ISBN-13: 978-0199214976
  • Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.6 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 279,137 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #68 in  Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Earth Sciences > Palaeontology
  • See Complete Table of Contents

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
   Write your own Legal Will opens new browser window
www.legalwills.co.uk  -  Better than all forms and kits Lawyer approved online service 
   Life After People opens new browser window
History.co.uk  -  Watch What Happens Moments After People Disappear-Videos at HISTORY™ 
  
 

Product Description

Review

A fascinating and thought provoking read. (Adventure Travel )

A wonderfully thought-provoking and fascinating look at the impression we're leaving on our planet. Zalasiewicz...does a fantastic job. (Chris Turney, www.Nature.com )

'The Earth After Us' is a thoroughly inspirational book. (Chris Turney, www.nature.com )

A fantastic introduction to the world around us taken from a highly original angle. (Chris Turney, www.Nature.com )

Zalasiewicz presents an elegant and authoritative primer on the earth sciences....this book is beautifully written. (Times Higher Education Supplement. )

This is a wonderful, elegant, short book. (Michael Benton, Times Higher Education Supplement )

A delightful retelling of how Earth's geoscientists reconstructed its history. (Nature Geoscience. )

I highly recommend this book for geoscientists in general. (William R Ruddiman. Nature Geoscience. )

Elegantly written book, one of the best of recent geology popularisations. (New Scientist. )


Product Description

Geologist Jan Zalasiewicz takes the reader one hundred million years into the future, long after the human race became extinct, to explore what will remain of humanity's brief but dramatic sojourn on planet Earth. He tells how geologists in the far future - perhaps an alien species re-discovering Earth - might piece together the history of the planet, and slowly decipher the fact of humanity's existence, activities, and ultimate extinction from the traces we will leave impressed in the rock strata. The Earth After Us takes this novel approach to show how geologists unravel the information in the rocks. As the alien scientists start investigating the strata, what story will they tell of us? What kind of fossils will humans leave behind? What will happen to cities, cars, and plastic cups? How thick a layer will the 'human stratum' be? And will it be obvious which species dominated the planet? It reveals a story of an environmental crisis similar in scale to even earlier mass extinction events, yet puzzlingly different: a crisis where extinctions were accompanied by a bizarre global merry-go-round of organisms and by sharp perturbations of climate. The trail leads finally to the bones of the inhabitants of petrified cities that have lain deep underground for many millions of years. As thought-provoking as it is engaging, this book simultaneously explains both the geological mechanisms that shape our planet, and also offers a perspective on humanity and its actions that may prove to be more objective than any other. For our final legacy, Zalasiewicz argues, will provide the ultimate verdict on our species and on our relationship to planet Earth.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Earth After Us: What legacy will humans leave in the rocks?
83% buy the item featured on this page:
The Earth After Us: What legacy will humans leave in the rocks? 4.7 out of 5 stars (3)
£10.47
The World without Us
8% buy
The World without Us 3.9 out of 5 stars (30)
£6.73
Bad Science
2% buy
Bad Science 4.5 out of 5 stars (204)
£3.58
The Road
1% buy
The Road 4.2 out of 5 stars (391)
£2.96

 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars deserves wider readership than Geology students, 5 Oct 2008
By A. J. Martyr (Inkberrow England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
A wide range of readers with some scientific knowledge and anyone concerned about the effects of climate change should find interest and stimulation from this well written book.
The presently short span of life on earth of our species and the record of the changes we are responsible for are put into the geological context.
I bought this book as a geology student but found it very much more thought provoking than any text book.
Never before have I felt moved to give 5 stars to a book on Amazon but this is the one I would recommend.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Looking Ahead, 9 April 2009
By J. Gibson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is a thought-provoking book. On the one hand it reduces the human span of life to its rightful place in the universe, ie. a passing phase.
The subject is tackled in a logical manner and also attempts to instruct the non-geologist in a way that leads to an understanding of what has happened to the earth in the past and linking that to likely events in the, for most people, distant future. It reinforced my decision to have my cremated ashes tossed into the sea; in that way my bits and pieces will make it up the geological elevator that much quicker. I would not say it is an easy read, but certainly interesting and worthy of the 5-star rating.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars More for the technical and scientifically minded, 14 Oct 2009
By LXIX (scotland) - See all my reviews
'The Earth After Us' is an interesting scenario about an intelligent alien species finally encountering Planet Earth in one hundred million years time and examines how they would use scientific methods and reasoning to explore the history of the planet and, in particular, any trails of evidence of human activity.

The book is well written and researched by a knowledgeable author and educator, however it's not oriented to the layman (although it is rather quirky in places). Suffice to say that some higher education background study of geography or geology would be a definite asset when going through this.

One overarching feature of the book is how humans have impacted upon earth within a very short period of time and how old the planet really is (compared to the short human experience here). You're also reminded about how comparatively insignificant our existencies are in the grand scheme of things (even the shape of the continents will look radically different in one hundred million years).

Overall, this is an interesting and worthwhile read, but if you're looking for a book about how the earth will gradually evolve when humans have gone (and the evidence they'll leave behind) in a much shorter timeframe then you would probably enjoy 'The World Without Us' by Alan Weisman.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.