Cataclysms

Michael R. Rampino is a professor of biology and environmental studies at New York University. He has been a consultant for NASA and is the editor of Climate: History, Periodicity, and Predictability (1988) and coauthor of Origins of Life in the Universe (2008).Michael R. Rampino is a professor of biology and environmental studies at New York University. He has been a consultant for NASA and is the editor of Climate: History, Periodicity, and Predictability (1988) and coauthor of Origins of Life in the Universe (2008).

Paul E. Olsen, Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University:
In this fast-moving, eminently readable first-hand narrative, Rampino paints a stark contrast between conventional gradualist interpretations of earth history and a new fusion of earth science and astronomy in which powerful forces shape our planet's history with periodic catastrophes from above and within. Highly controversial, Rampino persuasively ties together seemingly unrelated empirical geological discoveries and astrophysical theory into a scientific adventure accessible to nonspecialists as well as experienced scientists.

Dennis Kent, Rutgers University:
A very readable and broad-ranging inquiry from a personal perspective into the philosophical underpinnings of historical geology. Rampino advances the argument that catastrophism, rather than being dismissible as an arbitrary explanation of major events in the story of life on Earth, is a predictable consequence of the galactic pacing of impacts of large extraterrestrial objects, producing periodic bouts of mass extinctions.

James Powell, author of Four Revolutions in the Earth Sciences: From Heresy to Truth:
As late as 1964, it was hard to find a scientist who believed that crashing meteorites, rather than volcanism, had caused craters on the moon and the earth. In this provocative book, Michael Rampino tantalizes us with his examination of the relationship between astronomy and geology, which he argues could become truly predictive of the past and future. Cataclysms takes us far out, indeed. But if there is one lesson from the history of geology, it is that we should listen to those like Rampino who think outside the box—or even outside the solar system.

Niles Eldredge, author of Eternal Ephemera: Adaptation and the Origin of Species from the Nineteenth Century Through Punctuated Equilibria and Beyond:
Cataclysms is the most useful, well-written, and not overly technical summary of neocatastrophism since the Alvarez team published their initial work in the early 1980s. Rampino paints a lively picture of how work in the area of geoscience is actually done—aided and abetted to good purpose by copious illustrations.