Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780691145020)

The remarkable scientific story of how Earth became an oxygenated planet

The air we breathe is twenty-one percent oxygen, an amount higher than on any other known world. While we may take our air for granted, Earth was not always an oxygenated planet. How did it become this way? Donald Canfield--one of the world's leading authorities on geochemistry, earth history, and the early oceans--covers this vast history, emphasizing its relationship to the evolution of life and the evolving chemistry of the Earth. Canfield guides readers through the various lines of scientific evidence, considers some of the wrong turns and dead ends along the way, and highlights the scientists and researchers who have made key discoveries in the field. Showing how Earth's atmosphere developed over time, Oxygen takes readers on a remarkable journey through the history of the oxygenation of our planet.

Author: Donald E. Canfield
ISBN-10: 0691145024
ISBN-13: 9780691145020
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Language: English
Published: 01/19/2014
Pages: 216
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.16lbs
Size: 9.56h x 6.34w x 0.77d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 10/14/2013
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2013
Library Journal 05/01/2014 pg. 95
Choice 06/01/2014