Earth Sciences / 87The Holocene: An Environmental History. Neil Roberts. 1989. Basil Blackwell, Oxford. Describes briefly the
history of the last 10000 years, with details of the methods used to interpret the past.
Principles of Physical Geology. Arthur Holmes. 2nd edn 1965. Nelson, Walton-on-Thames. Old, but still possibly
the most approachable introduction to the earth sciences.
The Study of Landforms. R.J.Small. 1970. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Provides a broad general
introduction to geomorphology.
Water. Michael Allaby. 1992. Facts on File, New York. A popular science book with useful explanations of
climate and weather.
Notes
1 These are outlined in Hutchison, R. 1981. ‘The origin of the Earth’, in Cocks, L.R.M. (ed.) Evolving
Earth: Chance, change and challenge. British Museum (Natural History) and Cambridge Univ. Press,
London, pp. 5–16.
2 There is a brief outline of the current ideas of the mechanism underlying movements in the mantle in
‘Making waves’, by Sarah Simpson, Scientific American, August 1999, p. 10.
3 There is a brief description of the wildlife on Surtsey in Helfferich, Carla. 1993. ‘Sandwort, Seabirds, and
Surtsey’, Article 1132, Alaska Science Forum. http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF11/1132.html.
4 For a rather technical explanation see Thorpe, Richard and Brown, Geoff. 1985. The Field Description of
Igneous Rocks. Geological Society of London Handbook. Open Univ. Press, Milton Keynes (published by
John Wiley and Sons in the US and Canada).
5 The formation of Britain is described fairly simply in Dunning, F.W., Mercer, I.W., Owen, M.P., Roberts,
R.H., and Lambert, J.L.M. 1978. Britain Before Man. HMSO for the Institute of Geological Sciences,
London.
6 For a guide to the interpretation of sedimentary rocks, see Tucker, Maurice E. 1982. The Field Description
of Sedimentary Rocks. Geological Society of London Handbook. Open Univ. Press, Milton Keynes
(published by John Wiley and Sons in the US and Canada).
7 See Fry, Norman. 1984. The Field Description of Metamorphic Rocks. Geological Society of London
Handbook. Open Univ. Press, Milton Keynes (published by John Wiley and Sons in the US and Canada).
8 These are described in Angel, Heather, Duffey, Eric, Miles, John, Ogilvie, M.A., Simms, Eric, and Teagle,
W.G. 1981. The Natural History of Britain and Ireland. Michael Joseph, London, pp. 108–110.
9 Stefan’s law is expressed as: E=σT^4 , where E is the amount of radiation emitted, T is the temperature, and
s is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, which is the amount of radiant energy released by a black body. It is
represented by s and is equal to 5.67×10-8 W m-2 K-4 (watts per square meter per kelvin to the fourth
power). The temperature is in kelvins and the energy units are watts per square meter (W m-2). The law
(and constant) were discovered in 1879 by the Austrian physicist Josef Stefan (1835–93), and at first they
were known as Stefan’s law and constant. In 1884, the Austrian physicist Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann
(1844–1906), Stefan’s former student, showed that the law holds only for black bodies and his name was
added to that of the law and constant.10 Wien’s law can be stated as λmax=C/T, where λmax is the wavelength of maximum emission, C is Wien’s
constant, and T is the temperature in kelvins. Wien’s constant is 2897×10-6m (2897 μm), so the law becomes:
λmax=(2897/T)×10-6m. It is valid only for radiation at short wavelengths. The law was discovered in 1896
by the German physicist Wilhelm Wien (1864–1928) and for it he was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize for
physics.
References
Adams, Peter. 1977. Moon, Mars and Meteorites. HMSO for the British Geological Survey.
Allaby, Ailsa and Michael (eds) 1999. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 2nd edition. Oxford
University Press, Oxford.
Allaby, Michael. 1992. Elements: Air. Facts on File, New York.
——. 1992a. Elements: Water. Facts on File, New York.