The history of a single pebble can carry us into the depths of time. Imagine pools of magma gathering deep in the Earth and rising to erupt a billion years ago on a continent that later disappeared. Worn down across geological ages, sediment particles wash across the bottom of an ancient sea filled with creatures whose remains imprint into the sediment layers that will create the pebble. Deep in the Earth’s crust, the pebble is compressed and restructured before it slowly ascends to the surface, where it is eroded and sculpted by waves in the geological instant that is now. Yet the pebble’s history is not finished, a small but eloquent part of Earth’s never-ending story.

Through the story of a pebble, Jan Zalasiewicz, professor emeritus of paleobiology at the University of Leicester, illuminates a complex history that begins in the farthest reaches of space and continues on Earth with volcanic eruptions, extinct animals and plants, long-vanished oceans, and transformations deep underground. The pebble’s story shows how geologists reach deep into the Earth’s past by forensic analysis of even the tiniest amounts of mineral matter crammed into every pebble.

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