Simon Lamb.
The Oldest Rocks on Earth: a search for the origins of our world.
Columbia University Press. 2026
Geologist Simon Lamb shows that the key to answering the biggest questions
about Earth's history lies in ancient rocks from the days when the planet was young.
He takes readers on a journey of scientific discovery, walking—and sometimes diving—through
landscapes from the time of the earliest documented forms of life.
Looking at some of the oldest known rocks—some more than 3.5 billion years old—Lamb
unearths a violent world of volcanic eruptions, natural disasters,
and profound geological forces in the deep ocean, along ancient shorelines, and amid rising mountains.
In so doing, he shows how geologists work and think,
and how they read rocks and decipher what they tell us about the past.
Finding the foundations of our world, The Oldest Rocks on Earth sheds light on why
Earth is the only planet known to harbor life and what this might tell us about our future.