The history of the earth's crust

Emphasizes modern understanding of the changing geography and environments of the earth's crust -- the outermost skin of rock in which the panorama of earth history is most clearly recorded. The treatment is chronological, beginning with our planet's origin at the birth of the solar system almost 5 billion years ago, and ending with the rise of modern humanity amid the fluctuating glacial climates of the last few hundred thousand years.