EARTH, GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF

evolution of the continents, oceans, atmosphere, and biosphere. The layers of rock at the Earth's surface contain evidence of the evolutionary processes undergone by these components of the terrestrial environment during the times at which each layer was formed. By studying this rock record from the very beginning, it is thus possible to trace their development and the resultant changes through time. Brian Frederick Windley Additional reading Reviews of Earth history based on information provided by the record of geologic processes include Preston Cloud, Oasis in Space: Earth History from the Beginning (1988); L.R.M. Cocks (ed.), The Evolving Earth (1981); Kent C. Condie, Plate Tectonics & Crustal Evolution, 3rd ed. (1989); L.A. Frakes, Climates Throughout Geologic Time (1979), a survey of all glaciations in Earth history; W.B. Harland et al., A Geologic Time Scale (1982), a well-documented account with many time charts; Harold L. Levin, The Earth Through Time, 3rd ed. (1988), with emphasis on sediments and fossils; R.J. O'Connell and W.S. Fyfe (eds.), Evolution of the Earth (1981); Carl K. Seyfert and Leslie A. Sirkin, Earth History and Plate Tectonics: An Introduction to Historical Geology, 2nd ed. (1979), with emphasis on the Phanerozoic Eon; Steven M. Stanley, Earth and Life Through Time, 2nd ed. (1989); and Brian F. Windley, The Evolving Continents, 2nd ed. (1984). Summaries of the geologic history of individual continents and countries include Derek V. Ager, The Geology of Europe: A Regional Approach (1980); L. Cahen and N.J. Snelling, The Geochronology and Evolution of Africa (1984); Arthur Escher and W. Stuart Watt (eds.), Geology of Greenland (1976); Charles S. Hutchison, Geological Evolution of South-East Asia (1989); D.V. Nalivkin, Geology of the U.S.S.R. (1973; originally published in Russian, 1962); A.J. Tankard et al., Crustal Evolution of Southern Africa: 3.8 Billion Years of Earth History (1982); and Yang Zunyi, Cheng Yugi, and Wang Hongzhen (Tsun-i Yang, Y-ch'i Che'ng, and Hung-chen Wang), The Geology of China (1986). Brian Frederick Windley