For generations, the ground beneath the feet of our ancestors seemed
solid and unchanging. Around 30 years ago, two things happened that were
to revolutionize the understanding of our home planet. First, geologists
realized that the continents themselves were drifting across the surface
of the globe and that oceans were being created and destroyed. Secondly,
pictures of the entire planet were returned from space. As the astronomer
Fred Hoyle had predicted, this 'let loose an idea as powerful as any in
history'. Suddenly, the Earth began to be viewed as a single entity;
a dynamic, interacting whole, controlled by complex processes we scarcely
understood. It began to seem less solid. As one astronaut put it, 'a blue
jewel on black velvet; small, fragile and touchingly alone'. Geologists
at last were able to see the whole as well as the detail; the wood as well
as the trees. This book brings their account up to date with the latest
understanding of the processes that govern our planet.

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