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Life on Earth can be traced back over 3,000 million years. Many examples of the Earth's past inhabitants are to be found in rocks, preserved as beautiful and fascinating fossils. The earliest life forms were bacteria and algae, which produced the oxygen that enabled more complex life forms to develop. About 600 million years ago, multi-cellular organisms appeared on Earth, some of which could protect themselves with hard parts, such as shells. Many of these life forms were readily fossilized and are used to subdivide geological time. Numerous species then evolved and most are now extinct. Lineages can be traced and extinctions explained as a consequence of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial e...
This volume addresses the most influential Victorian building in the city of Dublin and explores the new standard which it set in the use of Irish decorative stone, the employment of native craftsmen and the unprecedented eclecticism of its design. The geology, quarrying, building, carving and architectural design which created this spectacular structure are explored in a series of papers by established scholars and experts in the field. The book is richly illustrated in full colour to capture the sumptuous polychromy of the building and the profuse detail of its carved ornament.
Four Centuries of Geological Travel: The Search for Knowledge on Foot, Bicycle, Sledge and Camel focuses on the complexities of geological exploration and will be of particular interest to earth scientists, historians of science and to the general reader interested in science.
Heritage stones are building and ornamental stones that have special significance in human culture. The papers in this volume discuss a wide variety of such materials, including stones from Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Australia. Igneous (basalt, porphyry, granite), sedimentary (sandstone, limestone) and metamorphic (marble, quartzite, gneiss, soapstone, slate) stones are featured. These have been utilized over long periods of time for a wide range of uses contributing to the historic fabric of the built environment. Many of these stones are of international significance, and so are potential Global Heritage Stone Resources, that is stones that have the requisite qualities for international recognition by the Heritage Stones Subcommission of the International Union of Geological Sciences. The papers bring together diverse information on these stones ranging from their geological setting and quarry locations to mechanical properties, current availability, and uses over time. As such the papers can serve as an entry into the literature on these important stones.
The debate over the age of the Earth has been ongoing for over two thousand years, and has pitted physicists and astronomers against biologists, and religious philosophers against geologists. The Chronologers' Quest tells the fascinating story of our attempts to determine the age of the Earth. This book investigates the many novel methods used in the search for the Earth's age, from James Ussher and John Lightfoot examining biblical chronologies, and from Comte de Buffon and Lord Kelvin determining the length of time for the cooling of the Earth, to the more recent investigations of Arthur Holmes and Clair Patterson into radioactive dating of rocks and meteorites. The Chronologers' Quest is a readable account of the measurement of geological time. It will be of great interest to a wide range of readers, from those with little scientific background to students and scientists in a wide range of the Earth sciences.
Refinement and enrichment of surfaces in stone, wood and plaster is a fundamental aspect of early modern architecture which has been marginalised by architectural history. Enriching Architecture aims to retrieve and rehabilitate surface achievement as a vital element of early modern buildings in Britain and Ireland. Rejected by modernism, demeaned by the conceptual ‘turn’ and too often reduced to its representative or social functions, we argue for the historical legitimacy of creative craft skill as a primary agent in architectural production. However, in contrast to the connoisseurial and developmental perspectives of the past, this book is concerned with how surfaces were designed, ac...
Bryozoan Studies 2022 contains nineteen papers presented at the 19th International Conference of the International Bryozoology Association held at Trinity College Dublin in August 2022. Bryozoans are complex and fascinating colonial organisms that range from Cambrian to the present day and which are found in marine and freshwater environments from pole to pole and subtidal to abyssal. Recent tomographic techniques have revolutionised the study of modern and fossil taxa where internal structures are revealed through non-destructive methodologies. Here the internal structure of some Ordovician and Eocene taxa is illustrated through these methods. Phylogenetic studies of bryozoans question the ...