Earth as an Evolving Planetary System

Earth as an Evolving Planetary System, Second Edition, examines the various subsystems that play a role in the evolution of the Earth. These subsystems include such components as the crust, mantle, core, atmosphere, oceans, and life.
The book contains 10 chapters that discuss the structure of the Earth and plate tectonics; the origin and evolution of the crust; the processes that leave tectonic imprints in rocks and modern processes responsible for these imprints; and the structure of the mantle and the core. The book also covers the Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere; crustal and mantle evolution; the supercontinent cycle; great events in Earth history; and the Earth in comparison to other planets.
This book is meant for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in Earth Sciences, with a basic knowledge of geology, biology, chemistry, and physics. It also may serve as a reference tool for specialists in the geologic sciences who want to keep abreast of scientific advances in this field.

• Slides of all figures in the book can be downloaded on the companion site: http://www.elsevierdirect.com/companion.jsp?ISBN=9780123852274
• Kent Condie's corresponding interactive CD, Plate Tectonics and How the Earth Works, can be purchased from Tasa Graphic Arts here: http://www.tasagraphicarts.com/progptearth.html
• Two new chapters on the Supercontinent Cycle and on Great Events in Earth history
• New and updated sections on Earth's thermal history, planetary volcanism, planetary crusts, the onset of plate tectonics, changing composition of the oceans and atmosphere, and paleoclimatic regimes
• Also new in this Second Edition: the lower mantle and the role of the post-perovskite transition, the role of water in the mantle, new tomographic data tracking plume tails into the deep mantle, Euxinia in Proterozoic oceans, The Hadean, A crustal age gap at 2.4-2.2 Ga, and continental growth

Kent Condie is professor of geochemistry at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM where he has taught since 1970. Prior to that time he was at Washington University in St. Louis, MO (1964-1970). Textbook, Plate Tectonics and Crustal Evolution, which is widely used in upper division and graduate courses in the Earth Sciences, was first published in 1976 and has gone through four previous editions. In addition Condie has written a beginning historical geology textbook with coauthor Robert Sloan, Origin and Evolution of Earth (Prentice-Hall, 1998), an advanced textbook, Mantle Plumes and Their Record in Earth History (Cambridge University Press, 2001), and a research treatise, Archean Greenstone Belts (Elsevier, 1981). His most recent book, written as an upper division/graduate textbook, is Earth as an Evolving Planetary System (Elsevier, 2005; second edition 2011). He also has edited two books, Proterozoic Crustal Evolution (Elsevier, 1992) and Archean Crustal Evolution (Elsevier, 1994). His CD ROM, Plate Tectonics and How the Earth Works is widely used in upper division Earth Science courses in the United States and Europe. Condie's research, primarily dealing with the origin and evolution of continents and the early history of the Earth, has over the years been sponsored chiefly by the U. S. National Science Foundation. He is author or co-author of over 750 articles published scientific journals.