Strata
Stories from Deep Time
-
- £9.99
Publisher Description
Finalist for the 2026 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
One of NPR's "Books We Love" for 2025
A Scientific American Staff Favorite for 2025
A revelatory journey through four moments in Earth’s deep past, and their lessons for our future.
The epic stories of our planet’s 4.54-billion-year history are written in strata—ages-old remnants of ancient seafloors, desert dunes, and riverbeds striping landscapes around the world. In this brilliantly original debut work, science writer Laura Poppick decodes strata to lead us on a journey through four global transformations that made our lives on Earth possible: the first accumulations of oxygen in the atmosphere; the deep freezes of "Snowball Earth"; the rise of mud on land and accompanying proliferation of plants; and the dinosaurs’ reign on a hothouse planet
Poppick introduces us to the researchers who have devoted their careers to understanding the events of deep time, including the world’s leading stegosaur scientist. She travels to sites as various as a Minnesotan iron mine that runs half a mile deep and a corner of the Australian Outback where glacial deposits date from the coldest times on Earth. Ultimately, she demonstrates that the planet’s oceans, continents, atmosphere, life, and ice have always conspired to bring stability to Earth, even if we are only just beginning to understand how these different facets interact.
A work in the tradition of John McPhee, Strata allows us to observe how the planet has responded to past periods of environmental upheaval, and shows how Earth’s ancient narratives could hold lessons for our present and future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The striped "layers of sand, silt, and clay" comprising Earth's geologic record offer "wisdom that we may carry into our own lives, so long as we know how to read them," according to journalist Poppick's solid debut. She covers four periods: around 2.4 billion years ago when oxygen began to appear on Earth; the ice ages scientists believe spanned between 717 million and 635 million years ago; when newly evolved plants transformed the land by creating mud approximately 458 million years ago; and the rise of the dinosaurs as the planet warmed significantly around 252 million years ago. Making a convincing argument that understanding strata can help scientists better respond to climate change, Poppick movingly describes these layers of rock and sediment as "love letters left behind by an aging Earth" that is rapidly changing: "Even as the planet ages and grows sick, its stories persist as constant reminders that return us home." Throughout, she memorably recounts assisting in geological research in the Arctic and the Australian outback, and provides an impressive look at how scientific ideas take shape and evolve as new data enters the picture, explaining that "stratigraphy offers drafts of stories that must remain open to revisions." Poetic and passionate, this is science writing with flair.
