Lamb, Simon

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LAMB, Simon

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Office—St. Anne's College, Oxford University, Oxford OX2 6HS, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Professor and author. St. Anne's College, Oxford, Oxford, England, lecturer in earth sciences.

AWARDS, HONORS: St. Anne's College fellowship; Best Books for Junior High and High School Readers designation, Science Books and Film Online, 1999, for Earth Story.

WRITINGS:

(With David Sington) Earth Story: The Shaping of Our World, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1998.

Contributor to scientific journals, such as Earth and Planetary Science Letters and Nature.

ADAPTATIONS: Earth Story was adapted to an eight-part documentary mini-series by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

SIDELIGHTS: Simon Lamb is a lecturer and a fellow of St. Anne's College, Oxford and the author, with David Sington, of Earth Story: The Shaping of Our World. The volume is the companion book to an eight-part British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) series that aired beginning in September of 1998. Gloria Maxwell, in Library Journal, called the book "a noteworthy addition to any library." The authors explore how our planet was formed, the connection between volcanoes and the creation of continents, the causes of ice ages, and the effects of mountains on climate. They show how seemingly unrelated earthquakes, glaciers, volcanoes, and weather are very connected. Earth is a complex, balanced system because of its unique atmosphere that sustains liquid water. To date, no other planet has been discovered to contain the geological activity of Earth. The book covers the geology of Mars and Venus and the evolution of the solar system.

Lamb and Sington demonstrate with photographs, illustrations, and graphics how Earth's layers of crust, mantle, and outer and inner cores are continually changing. They discuss how, through cracks in mid-ocean ridges, new surfaces emerge and how the resulting heated waters create currents that impact weather. Plate tectonics are linked to the geological activity of Earth, and geological activity was crucial to the beginning of life on the planet and to its continuing evolution. The authors demonstrate how the balance of tectonic plates, atmosphere, water, and living organisms has sustained Earth as a living planet for nearly four billion years. Booklist reviewer Gilbert Taylor wrote that in describing how plate tectonics became the accepted theory in explaining the history of the Earth, the authors "offer a splendidly concise presentation." A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Earth Story a "compelling and accessible account."

Lamb's research as a professor includes work on the deformation process in the Peruvian Andes. He also has supervised students studying geological formations in the Andes.