The Story Of Earth And Life: A Southern African Perspective on a 4.6-Billion-Year Journey (review)

Earth and Life is an unusual textbook in several respects. The coverage includes not only geology but also prehistory, the text includes contributions from no fewer than eighteen scholars, and the volume is subsidized by Kumba Resources, a South African mining company. This felicitous partnership brings the price of a full-color book down to an affordable level for students, which will help guarantee its widespread use in the classroom.

After a brief summary of the history of research and of basic methods, the book follows a logical progress through time, beginning with the formation of the earth from a global perspective. From broad processes, we move on to the formation of the continents and the oldest geological formations in southern Africa, which date to over 3600 million years ago. Here, as throughout the book, the graphics, maps, tables, and photographs are carefully designed, graphically stunning, and beautifully reproduced. "Route Maps" at the beginning of each chapter provide signposts to the topics that follow as well as chronological information. Chapter 4 describes the rich mineral deposits of the Kaapvaal Craton, part of the world's oldest continent, and the formation of the most extensive gold and platinum deposits anywhere from the collision of small continents and massive sediment accumulation. Then came Panagea and the ancestors of the present continents—the life and death of the supercontinents. Chapter 7 provides a description of the geology of Gondwana, as revealed in southern African strata, the remains of the supercontinent that supplies over 60 percent of the world's minerals, including evidence for a mass extinction of 251 million years ago that exterminated 96 percent of then-living species. The next chapter turns to paleontology and describes the life of Gondwana, known from major fossil discoveries in southern Africa, with occasional excursions further afield.

This is no provincial geological textbook, for the authors realize that developments such as the evolution of reptiles and mammals can be understood only in a global context. The text is well illustrated with both fossil specimens and reconstructions of creatures like the large dinosaur, Massospondylus. Chapter 9, "The Modern World Takes Shape," describes the breakup and dispersal of Gondwana 140 million years ago, the formation of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and the aridification of southern Africa, culminating in the Pleistocene, when humans first appeared on earth. A well-illustrated box describes the formation of the diamond-bearing deposits that are one mainstay of the South African economy. Chapter 10, "The Arrival of Humans," provides a succinct account of human evolution that places South African hominins in a wider context and also emphasizes the importance of southern Africa to the origins of modern humans. It is certainly refreshing to see the long prehistory of the region placed in its appropriate geological and evolutionary context. A final chapter looks forward and touches briefly on such issues as anthropogenic global warming, earthquakes, and meteoric impacts.

Geological textbooks abound, but few of them are as clearly written and beautifully illustrated as this one. The editors and authors have taken great pains to link the chapters, to ensure a clear, uniform style, and to design the graphics and other pictures to amplify the text. Add a glossary, well thought-out boxes, and plenty of fascinating information—did you know that grasses are only thirty million years old?—and you have the makings of a classic. This beautiful and modestly priced book is destined to introduce many generations of potential geologists, and indeed general readers, to the unique and profoundly fascinating deep past of South Africa. And we owe a debt of gratitude to Kumba Resources for their far-sighted subsidizing of this book.