Jan Zalasiewicz teaches and researches geology at the University of Leicester, and previously was a field geologist and biostratigrapher at the British Geological Survey. His interests range from the early Palaeozoic world of half a billion years ago to the geology of the present day. He has served with the Palaeontographical Society and the Geological Society of London, and is now Chair of the Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy and Vice-Chair of the International Subcommission of Stratigraphic Classification.

Mark Williams is a palaeontologist who teaches the geological history of climate change at the University of Leicester. He has worked as a field geologist for the British Geological and British Antarctic surveys, and served on the council of the Palaeontographical Society both as an Editor and Vice-President. Currently he is a member of the Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, and the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London.

Together they have co-authored The Goldilocks Planet: The four billion year story of Earth's Climate (OUP, 2012).

• Preface


• 1: Water in the Cosmos


• 2: Ocean Origins on Earth


• 3: Ocean Forms


• 4: The Salt of the Earth


• 5: Moving the Waters


• 6: Life of the Oceans


• 7: Oceans in Crisis


• 8: The End of Earthly Oceans


• 9: Oceans of the Solar System


• 10: Undreamed Shores


• Notes


• References and Further Reading


• Index