Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass ExtinctionsOUP Oxford, 14 июл. 2005 г. - Всего страниц: 274 This is a book about the dramatic periods in the Earth's history called mass extinctions - short periods (by geological standards) when life nearly died out on Earth. The most famous is the mass extinction that happened about 65 million years ago, and that caused the death of the dinosaurs. But that was not the worst mass extinction: that honour goes to the extinction at the end of the Permian Period, about 250 million years ago, when over 90% of life is thought to have becomeextinct.What caused these catastrophes? Was it the effects of a massive meteorite impact? There is evidence for such an impact about 65 million years ago. Or was it a period of massive volcanic activity? There is evidence in the rocks of huge lava flows at periods that match several of the mass extinctions. Was it something to do with climate change and sea level? Or was it a combination of some or all of these?The question has been haunting geologists for a number of years, and it forms one of the most exciting areas of research in geology today. In this book, Tony Hallam, a distinguished geologist and writer, looks at all the different theories and also what the study of mass extinctions might tell us about the future. If climate change is a key factor, we may well, as some scientists have suggested, be in a period of mass extinction of our own making. |
Содержание
In search of possible causes of mass extinctions | 1 |
Historical background | 8 |
Evidence for catastrophic organic changes in the geological record | 19 |
Impact by comets and asteroids | 39 |
Sealevel changes | 65 |
Oxygen deficiency in the oceans | 91 |
Climate change | 108 |
Volcanic activity | 130 |
Pulling the strands together | 148 |
The evolutionary significance of mass extinctions | 167 |
The influence of humans | 184 |
Notes and suggestions for further reading | 203 |
Bibliography | 208 |
Glossary | 214 |
221 | |
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Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions Anthony Hallam,Tony Hallam Ограниченный просмотр - 2005 |
Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions Anthony Hallam Просмотр фрагмента - 2004 |
Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions Anthony Hallam Недоступно для просмотра - 2004 |
Часто встречающиеся слова и выражения
Alvarez ammonites anoxia anoxic became extinct benthic benthos bivalves black shales bolide bolide impact Cambrian carbon isotope catastrophic cause Cenozoic climatic change continental cooling corals correlation crater Cretaceous deposits Devonian dinosaurs dioxide diversity dysoxic early Earth ecosystems effect end-Cretaceous end-Permian end-Triassic environment environmental Eocene episodes eruptions evidence evolutionary extinction events extinction rates facies faunas flood basalts foraminifera fossil record geological geologists global habitat Hallam human hypothesis increase indicate iridium anomaly isotope isotope ratio Jurassic K-T boundary late limestones Lyell major mammals marine mass extinctions mass-extinction events Mesozoic methane million ocean organisms oxygen isotope palaeontologists Palaeozoic period Permian Permian-Triassic Phanerozoic plankton plants predators Quaternary Raup reefs region regression result rise rock sea level sea-level changes sedimentary sediments Sepkoski shocked quartz significant species strata stratigraphic stratigraphic record succession survived taxa tectonic temperature terrestrial Tertiary timescale tion transgression Triassic tropical vertebrates volcanic Wignall zone