Earth as an Evolving Planetary System

Earth as an Evolving Planetary System is based on Kent Condie’s classic text, Plate Tectonics and Crustal Evolution, which has been revamped and renamed in order to reflect a new emphasis on the evolving interactions of the Earth’s systems. This revised volume synthesizes data from the fields of geophysics, oceanography, planetology, and geochemistry.

It features new chapters on the Earth’s core, biotic systems, and the supercontinent cycle and mantle plume events. It contains expanded treatment of the evolution of the Earth’s crust and mantle, carbon cycle, oxygenation of the atmosphere, and the significance of sulfur isotope fractionation. It also includes new information on mass extinctions and catastrophic events over the last four billion years that have transformed the atmosphere, oceans, and life on Earth. By integrating results from many different disciplines, this important text gives students a broader perspective of the Earth Sciences and shows how specialized data contribute to Earth and planetary history.

This text is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and scientists in other disciplines who want to look at the Earth with a broader perspective.

"What we can find in this book is a snapshot of current knowledge regarding the Earth's components and how these consituent parts challenge Earth scientists to integrate their sub-disciplines into a holistic view of our home. The book is an excellent textbook for either an upper class undergraduate course or a graduate course in Earth history."—Eos (Bulletin of the American Geophysical Union), 2005

"Author Kent Condie synthesizes data from the fields of oceanography, geophysics, planetology, and geochemistry to examine the key topics and questions relating to the evolution of Earth's crust and mantle. This volume provides a substantial update to Condie's established text,Plate Tectonics and Crustal Evolution, Fourth Edition. It emphasizes the interactive nature of various components of the Earth system on timescales of tens to hundreds of millions of years, and how these interactions have affected the history of the atmosphere, oceans, and biosphere."—Linda Chappell, Information and Research Services, Lunar and Planetary Institute