Because scientific inquires and discoveries are and have always been affected by history, a retrospective view of the historical development of the earth sciences seems a good place to begin our discussion of the planet Earth. While this historical survey is necessarily brief—this is, after all, a Little Book—it will establish the foundations of modern earth science and introduce important thinkers and scholarly developments. <...>

If any proof were needed that the study of prehis-toric life is more than a matter of “old bones,” then this book provides it in ample measure. For here is a natural history of times past, featuring real creatures that lived, breathed, reproduced — then died forever. That they could be brought back to life in such convincing form is a credit to the painstaking scientific detective work of a team of paleontologists, writers and artists.

Our knowledge of the Earth's magnetic field has developed over many centuries, originating from some of the earliest scientific investigations. The first scientific treatise ever written is generally recognized as being the geomagnetic text Epistola de Magnete written by Petrus Peregrinus in 1269. This was followed more than three centuries later by the classical work De Magnete by William Gilbert in 1600.

The approximately 1000 Mt @ 0.6% Cu, 0.3-0.4 g/t Au Majdanpek porphyry copper is the most northerly deposit within the Timok Magmatic Complex (TMC) which also hosts the exploited Bor and producing Veliki Krivelj deposits. Slightly older, but similar magmatic rocks southeast of the region host the significant porphyry-high sulphidation mineralisation at Elatsite and Chelopech in neighbouring Bulgaria. Similar porphyry deposits are also known in Romania, across the Danube river to the north of Majdanpek. The TMC igneous rocks show clear evidence of crustal contamination and thus likely relate to an eastward dipping subduction zone beneath a continental margin located to the west. Mineralisation is related to sparse and narrow north-south trending andesitic dykes dated at 83 Ma. These dykes intrude along a north-south trending fracture zone cutting Proterozoic and Palaeozoic metamorphic rocks, and Jurassic limestones. Extrusive facies of the TMC are rare at Majdanpek, although they are common farther to the south of the region. Mineralisation is typicaly developed as stockworks, the bulk of which are actually within the metamorphic aureole of the andesitic dykes. There are also numerous skarns and replacement bodies flanking the intrusives, while more distal replacement bodies are found in the Jurassic limestones. The highest copper grades relate to K-silicate alteration and zones of strong silicification. Mo grades are very low throughout the deposit, while the Cu%;Au g/t ratio is approximately 2:1. PGEs occur as minor phases accompanying the copper mineralisation and are recovered at the smelter. Significant supergene upgrading is recorded in an oxidation blanket that was 25 m thick in the north and covered the deposit.