← Back to Articles | Original (German)
Books about planet Earth are classics when it comes to basic knowledge and guarantee multiple editions. They are therefore long sellers, to use the language of the book trade. Bestsellers would be books that sell quickly in large quantities and then disappear.
Roland Walter's book "Earth History" presents the eighth and improved edition with 385 pages. The author, born in 1934, emeritus at the Geological Institute of RWTH Aachen in Germany, has been the author of "Earth History" since 1990, which was published in its fourth edition together with Klaus Schmidt, full professor of geology at the University of Munich. Schmidt (1928 to 1983) wrote the first (246 pages) and two further editions for the de Gruyter publishing house in 1972. The increase in pages alone by more than 50 percent shows that the increase in knowledge over the last 50 years has been taken into account in this standard work.
Before Walter describes the history of the earth in six chronological sections ("time slices"), he gives an introduction to the earth system with its spheres and imparts basic knowledge. This includes, among other things, rocks and fossils (page 19), geological time determination (page 26), and from page 32 on "Seven continents and five oceans". In addition to the running text, there are a total of 36 gray info boxes that outline topics in a condensed form. In the introduction, information boxes about the earth's magnetic field, the climate system, the phylogenetic classification as an explanation of the fossils, as well as three information boxes about the major rock groups should be mentioned.
The first "time slice" is dedicated to the Hadean - Archean era (4,631 to 2,500 million years before today) (from page 39), which deals with the first and oldest rocks, intensive meteorite bombardment of our planet and the formation of the Earth's mantle and core. "Time slice" two deals with the Proterozoic era (2.5 billion to 539 million years before today), while in the subsequent Phanerozoic era the remaining "time slices" (numbers 3 to 6) are combined, which are divided into the well-known major periods of the Early Paleozoic era with the Upper Paleozoic era (number 3) and Upper Paleozoic era (number 4) as well as the Mesozoic era (Mesozoic era, number 5) and from 66 million years ago today in the Neolithic period (Cenozoic, number 6).
In each section, Walter first gives a general overview of the most important developments, before presenting regional developments, which follow a fixed pattern, starting with Europe, followed by America, Africa and Asia. At the end of each section there are color images with landscapes that are typical of these "time slices".
Finally, there is an outlook (page 347ff) where the further development of the earth is shown. We can therefore expect a unification of all continents again in around 250 million years, similar to what we had 250 million years ago at the turn of the Era (time slice 4) to the Mesozoic (time slice 5).
The now 7th edition of "Platten Tectonics" by Frisch and Meschede looks back on a 20-year publication history, starting with the 1st edition in 2005, including publisher changes. The authors are the Austrian-born Wolfgang Frisch (born 1943), Professor Emeritus of Geology at the University of Tübigen for the text and Martin Meschede (born 1957), Professor Emeritus of Regional and Structural Geology at the University of Greifswald for the images, i.e. graphics. As early as 1986, Frisch and Jörg Loeschke had written “Plate Tectonics,” which went through three editions. This makes it clear: Frisch, who looks back on a successful career and has traveled to numerous countries as a geologist, is very knowledgeable and is therefore THE “Mister Plate Tectonics”.
In the introduction (from page 9) historical geodynamic concepts and theories are explained, such as the geosynclinal theory (1873) by James Dana, the undercurrent theory (1906) by Otto Ampferer and the theory of continental drift (1912) by Alfred Wegener. It was not until the 1960s that plate tectonics, which takes its name from the lithospheric plates that cover the surface of planet Earth, became widespread.
Anyone who believes that Wegener would have already recognized this must revise their opinion and read the crucial details on page 12: "A key difference between plate tectonics and Wegener's concept is that the continents do not move as isolated blocks, but are parts of plates that also include oceanic crust and a portion of the Earth's mantle." Accordingly, lithospheric plates can consist of continental crust (approx. 30 to 40 kilometers thick) or oceanic crust (5 to 8 kilometers thick).
The type of plate boundaries is essential, especially for understanding mountain formation. Figure 14 shows a simple diagram: If plates move apart, as in the mid-ocean ridge, this is called a constructive boundary. When one plate is pushed under another, such as the Nazca plate of the eastern Pacific under South America, it is a destructive plate boundary or subduction zone. If two plates move laterally past each other, it is a conservative plate boundary or transform fault.
Since the earth as a whole neither grows nor shrinks due to all the movements mentioned, "the addition of all movements must result in the sum of zero." In other words: "From a global perspective, the drifting apart of the plates at the constructive edges is compensated for by the movement towards each other at the destructive edges."
The example above shows that a generally understandable language and images were found here, which also opens up access to the topic to a broader readership. In a total of 13 chapters, all global aspects related to plate tectonics, such as mid-ocean ridges, deposit formation and the formation of mountain ranges, including the Alps and the Himalayas (page 182), are presented.
Conclusion: "Earth History - The History of Continents, Oceans and Life" is a comprehensive, chronologically structured presentation of the formation of the Earth in the sense of historical geology. "Plate Tectonics - Continent Shift and Mountain Formation" presents the complex relationships in an understandable way and impresses with perfectly executed graphics and block images. It is obvious that both books complement each other. (Thomas Hofmann, September 19, 2025)