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I Background: Concepts and field evidence -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Geochronology and other uses of isotopic analysis -- 3 Archaean terrains: the available geological evidence -- II Reconstructing the Archaean Earth -- 4 The beginnings of life -- 5 Archaean continents -- 6 Archaean volcanism -- 7 Mineral deposits in Archaean rocks -- 8 Models of the early Earth -- Glossary of geological terms for non-geologists -- References -- Author Index
'What are we going to do with a parcel of old stones?' wrote the director of an African museum a century and a half ago, when one of my ancestors presented him with a splendid collection of fossils of mammal-like reptiles. Old stones, however intriguing, are difficult to interpret, dusty, and do not fit well in the neatly ordered contents of a house of learning. Archaean geology, which is the study of the Earth's history in the period from after 9 the end of planetary accretion (4.5-4.4 x 10 years ago) up to the beginning 9 of the Proterozoic (2.5 x 10 years ago) is much the same - a parcel of old stones seemingly impossible to understand. Yet these stones contain the history of our origins: they can tell us a story that is interesting not just to the geologist (for whom this book is primarily written) but instead addresses the human condition in general