Four Billion Years and Counting

DETAILED BREAKDOWN OF CHAPTERS

Part 1: FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 1: On the Rocks
Volcano! — Nuggets of Information — Hot Rocks — Cool Rocks — The Scoop on Dirt — In a Pressure Cooker — In Hot Water — Bending and Breaking, Squeezing and Stretching — Bobbing Up and Down

Chapter 2: Dance of the Continents
The Birth of an Idea — Revelations from the Deep — Flipping Poles and Sea Floor Spreading — An Oceanic Disappearing Act — A New Kind of Fault — The Great Synthesis: Plate Tectonics — Making Mountains — Mountains of Old — Of Supercontinents and the Future

Chapter 3: It’s About Time
The World is to Exist 6,000 Years — Relatively Speaking — Absolutely — The Dating Game — The Fast Track — At Time’s Cutting Edge — Tying it all Together

Chapter 4: Fossils and the Bush of Life
Boneyard — Preserving Body Parts — Preserving Behaviour: Good and Bad! — Darwin’s Radical Notion — Molecules Come to the Plate — From Hand to Bush — A Nuclear Development — Of Mushrooms, Yeast and Truffles — On the Move (Sort Of) — Heading in the Right Direction — Stiffening up — Going Green — Extinctions and the Diversification of Life

Chapter 5: A Sedimentary Journey
The Grand Banks Earthquake and Tsunami — The Present is the Key to the Past: Sometimes — The Role of Fossils — Structures and Textures — The Modern Synthesis — Beyond Rivers and Deltas — Making and Filling Holes — Back and Forth — Geography of the Past — Climate Change: Taking the Long View

Part 2: EVOLUTION OF CANADA

Chapter 6: Canada’s Geological Geography
From Sea to Sea to Sea — The Continental Nucleus — The Platform — Around the Edges — Beyond the Fringe

Chapter 7: Into Deepest Time (Canada 4,600 to 2,500 million years ago)
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Chapter 8: Finishing the Foundations (Canada 2,500 to 1,800 million years ago)
Not yet available

Chapter 9: Breathing Space (Canada 1,800 to 750 million years ago)
Not yet available

Chapter 10: From Icehouse to Hothouse (Canada 750 to 390 Million Years Ago)
No Mistake at Mistaken Point — Setting the Scene — Cool Rocks in Western Canada — Metazoans Burst Forth in the East — The Ediacaran of Western Canada — The Cambrian Explosion — A Sliver and a Bank — Three Exotic Terranes — Trailing Along the Trans-Canada — Farther North — Quiet on the Northern Front — Pearya: Another Chip — Collision Course: Act One — The Laurentian Heartland — Collision Course: Act Two — The Caledonian Ripple Effect — An Exotic Terrane in the West — More Inundations — Plants Land

Chapter 11: Canada Crosses the Equator (Canada 390 to 250 million years ago)
A Nation Founded on Coal — Devonian to Permian Times — Middle Devonian Snapshot — Birth of the Cordillera — Mountains Come and Mountains Go — Fish and “Fishapod” — Basin and Range Down East — Reefs and Salty Seas — Into the Coal Age — Lyell’s “Subterranean Forest” — Slivers off the Western Edge — A New Arctic Passage — Really Exotic Rocks — Far Out — Permian Round Up — The Great Dying

Chapter 12: Pangaea Breaks Up (Canada 250 to 185 million years ago)
Arctic Explorations — Setting the Scene — Recovery — Big Dump up North — Eruptions, Shuffles and Crunches — The Platform’s Edge — Rifts in the East — Clearing the Way for Dinosaur Dominance — A Belch and a Find — Back to the Other Edge — Getting Intimate — The Origin of the East Coast

Chapter 13: Canada Emerges (Canada 185 to 55 million years ago)
A Western Giant — Setting the Scene — A New Ocean — Delta Dawn — Into Ontario — A Facelift in the West — The Sea Intrudes — Birth of the Arctic Ocean — Arctic Cool-Down — A Brief Interlude — A Rich Tapestry of Life — Impact! — A New Era — The Arctic’s Final Push — Wrapping Up

Chapter 14: Canada Shapes Up (Canada 55 to 2 million years ago)
Axel Heiberg’s Mysterious Forest — From New Dawn to More Recent — Land Bridges and Climate Change — Shuffling and Melting in the West — Slip-Sliding Away — The Big Stretch — Life in the Cordillera — Still Drifting — Nurturing an Idea — Rivers of the Plains — The Mammals Multiply — Neogene Eruptions — The Mountains Rise Again — Invasions from West and South — Down East and Up North in the Neogene — The End of the Good Times?

Chapter 15: Deep Freeze and Long Summer
A Mountaineer, a Brickyard and a Bluff — The Ice Age — Some Wonderful Theories — Drifters and Mountaineers — Canada Takes the Lead — Flowing Ice — Glaciers as Bulldozers — The Dirt on Glaciers — When the Ice Melts — Glacial Lakes and Seas — One Glaciation Becomes Many — Early Glaciations in Canada — The Sangamon Interglaciation — The Big Chill — Meltdown — The Sea Has its Ups and Downs — The Long Summer and a Few Cold Snaps — Postglacial Biomes

Chapter 16: Peopling Canada
Historic Meeting — Peopling the World — First Arrivals — Beringia — Moving In — Expanding from Beringia — Extinctions and a Changing Environment — From the East Coast — To the West Coast — On the Plains — And Way up North — Coping with Disaster — From Gathering to Horticulture — From Horticulture to Agriculture — Closing the Loop — Moving In and Settling Down — Incidental Invaders — Canada Today

Chapter 17: The Modern Landscape
Not yet available

Part 3: WEALTH AND HEALTH

Chapter 18: Rocks to Riches
Klondike Gold — Minerals, Metals, and the Forging of a Nation — Ore and More — Mineral Deposits in Space and Time — In Hot Water — Ores from Bowels of the Earth — The Impact of Sudbury — All that Glitters is not Gold — Deep Gold — Oxygen and Ore — Plumbing the Earth for Mineral Deposits — Indispensable Resources

Chapter 19: Energizing Canada
Not yet available

Chapter 20: Building Canada
Calgary: Sandstone City — Building Stone — Fieldstone — Sedimentary Rocks used as Building Stone — Igneous Rocks used as Building Stone — Metamorphic Rocks used as Building Stone — Monuments and Graveyards — Brick and Other Clay Uses — Mineral Aggregate — Cement — Evaporite Minerals — Other Industrial Minerals

Chapter 21: Water: A Clear Necessity
Not yet available

Chapter 22: At the beach
Harris Meisner’s Farm by the Sea — The Ephemeral Coastline — An Icy Inheritance — Balance of Power — The Rise and Fall of Sea Level: It’s All Relative — When Sediment Supply Holds the Balance of Power — Not Enough Sediment: Form an Estuary — Surf’s Up: When Waves Hold the Balance of Power — At the Beach — Back to Meisner Island

Chapter 23: On Dangerous Ground
The Morning the Mountain Fell — The Many Types of Hazards — Shake, Rattle and Roll — Predicting and Preparing for Earthquakes — Killer Waves — Blowing One’s Top — Slipping and Sliding — White Death — Water, Water, Everywhere — A Dry State of Affairs — Living on a Restless Planet

Chapter 24: Environmental Impacts
The Anthropocene: A New Epoch — Humans as a Geologic Agent — Canada’s Urban Future — Threats to Canada’s Water Resources — Going to Waste — Cleaning up the Environment — A Daunting Challenge

Chapter 25: Northern Exposures
A Little Known Concern — Of Cadmium and Caribou — POPs and PAHs — Mercury: Solid, Liquid and Gas! — Arsenic: Tasteless and Odourless - but Toxic — The Dose Makes the Poison — Fluorine, Fluoride and Thresholds — Selenium: Another Threshold Element — Radon: an Airborne Hazard with a Geological Source — Of Dust and Volcanoes — Asbestos — Urban Exposure

Chapter 26: Blowing Hot and Cold
The Norse in Greenland — Arctic Threatened by Climate Change — Climate Shapes National Identity — Climate and Weather — We Live in a Greenhouse — What Causes Climate to Change? — The Link Between Climate and the Biosphere — Climate and the Geosphere — Changes in Earth’s Orbit — The Restless Sun — Volcanic Eruptions — Ocean Currents and the Atmosphere — Humans are Changing Earth’s Climate — What Does This Mean to Canadians?

Part 4: CANADA NOW

Chapter 27: Finale
Not yet available