Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 … Suddenly
Evolution works suddenly · Natura non facit saltum · Nature does take leaps · Geomagnetic reversals · Geologic time scale · Squishy blobs · The Cambrian Explosion · Why haven’t sharks evolved? · Insect life exploded · The Coal Age
Chapter 2 … Life of a Soldier
New kinds of ammonites · Twiddling their evolutionary thumbs · Abominable angiosperms · The Fern Spike · No known ancestors · Gordian Knot of Geology · A half-inch-thick layer of clay · Newcomers arrived fully developed · Bigger animals savaged
Chapter 3 … A Deadly Mistake
Seventy-five percent of all species go extinct · Tree pollen almost disappeared · Sea dwellers almost decimated · Ocean temperatures shot upward · Black muds · Larger animals at risk · Iridium · Reversed magnetic polarity
Chapter 4 … The Irony
Radiation and mutation · Geomagnetic reversals · Magnetism and the Curie temperature · Magnetic excursions aborted reversals? · Strontium · Dramatic spikes in radioactivity · Beryllium-10 · A layer of black carbon
Chapter 5 … Half a Wing
Top predators at risk · Sluggards slipped across the boundary · Living in the fast lane · How to avoid the duckbill’s fate · What good is half a wing? · Mutant monsters · Babies in the womb much more sensitive
Chapter 6 … Oops
It’s not evolution, it’s creation · Dinosaurs just looked different · Five horns on its ugly face · Ears emblazoned on their rears · Some dinosaurs had gizzards · We showed up on this planet fully developed · No intermediate forms · A million years with no change · Geomagnetic reversals played an important role · Apes and humans branch apart
Chapter 7 … Ruler of the Universe
Magnetic star · Solar flares · Northern Lights · Sunspots Sunspots and magnetic reversals · Electrified particles rain to the earth · The magnetosphere protects us · Converting energy to matter · Accelerating atomic particles to the speed of light · Carbon-14 · Sunspots colder than the Sun
Chapter 8 … Pacemaker of Creation
Radioactivity and our galactic orbit · Radioactivity and our celestial orbit · Ice ages and equinoctial precession · Precession of the equinoxes · Geomagnetic field strength is falling · When will the reversal occur? · Upcoming magnetic reversal · It could reverse tomorrow
Chapter 9 … Magnetic Reversal Cycle
Laschamp magnetic reversal · Gothenburg magnetic excursion · Mono Lake magnetic excursion · Lake Mungo magnetic excursion · Magnetic reversal/excursion chart · Geomagnetic reversals and ice ages · Catastrophes in sync with equinoctial precession
Chapter 10 … Tunguska
1,000 Hiroshima bombs · Exploding meteorite? · Tektites Chicxulub Crater · Iridium at other extinctions · Iridium at the base of a layer of coal · Excess osmium · Strontium spike at the K-T extinction · Carbon forms in the sky · Beryllium-10 · Atomic bombs release carbon-14
Chapter 11 … Hundreds of Thousands of Tunguskas
Underwater explosions · Explosions in the sky · Einstein’s theory applied · Creating new matter · Ten thousand times more carbon than normal · Tremendous oil catastrophe · Carbon from the sky · Standing trees · Radioactivity and oil · Natural nuclear explosions · Creation · Electricity ruled the world · Dinosaurs and uranium
Chapter 12 … Carbon Rain
Rivers of oil · Bitumen raining from the sky · Why not here? · Black shales laced with carbon · Carbon from the sky · Black shales are highly radioactive · Natural nuclear reactions
Chapter 13 … Dinosaur Tombstones
Miniature dinosaur tombstones · Diamonds produced in the sky · Diamonds in the sky 12,000 years ago · Nuclear irradiation · Big Eloise · Iron balls from the sky · Radioactivity 2,000 times normal · Moving 4,000 miles per hour · Buckyballs · The Carolina Bays · A magnetic excursion · THEMIS · Magnetic ropes · Giant paw prints · What are diamonds made of? · Diamonds are produced with explosives · Dinosaurs buried in coal · Z coal
Chapter 14 … What now?
The proof lies all around us · Will barrels of oil rain on my head? · It’s not all doom and gloom · What can we do to prepare? · Fall-out shelters? · Our ancestors made it through
Bibliography
Index