YOUNG READERS NATURE LIBRARY:THE EARTH.

Serious study of the earth began in industry's search for raw materials'--coal, oil, metals, building materials and water supplies. From this practical and fairly recent beginning, the earth sciences have matured, providing a far broader understanding of nature and man's place in it.The superb photographs and text of this book make it a fine introduction to the study of the earth and its processes. The story of the earth is both difficult and easy to read. No one can grasp it fully, yet everyone can find rewards in observing the scarps of records that lie everywhere about us. Every rock that crops out along a roadside, every feature of the natural landscape offers clues to its origin. A glacial boulder, an exposure of fossil-bearing limestone, the valley of a river--all will yield a wealth of information about their history.The earth sciences are astir. Geophysics, geochemistry, biochemistry and other disciplines are being brought to bear on old questions about the history of rocks and landscapes, the origin of life, the causes of mountains, continents and oceans, and the earth's place in the universe. Surprising new facts and relationships are being discovered all the time. Some of the old problems are beginning to yield--at least a little. Man, with his passion for meaning and order, illuminates the record, and the story of the earth grows more fascinating every year.