How to read a rock Our planet's hidden stories

From under the sea to volcanoes, what stories can rocks tell us about the earth's past and how might it forecast the future? Zalasiewicz, a field geologist and stratigrapher, addresses this question and more in this highly visual introduction to the many different kinds of rocks, how they are formed, and what they convey about the earth's history. Also examined are human impacts on rocks through climate change, the production of plastics, and other means. One chapter is devoted to human-made rocks such as concrete, bricks, and new kinds of plastic rocks created by the abundance of plastics in the environment. (One new kind of plastic rock is plastiglomerate, formed when melted plastic from beach bonfires has glued pebbles together.) The content is not limited solely to rocks that are found on earth; in the final chapter Zalasiewicz also discusses comets, asteroids, and rocks found on other planets in our solar system and beyond. Readers will gain a deeper knowledge of this ubiquitous material that makes up many of the things they use and depend on.