Cataclysms: a new geology for the twenty-first century

Introduction

Catastrophism versus gradualism

Lyell's laws

The Alvarez hypothesis

Mass extinctions

Kill curves and Strangelove oceans

Catastrophism and natural selection : Charles Darwin versus Patrick Matthew

Impacts and extinctions : do they match up?

The great dying : the end-Permian extinctions

Catastrophic volcanic eruptions and extinctions

Ancient glaciers or impact-related deposits?

The Shiva hypothesis : comet showers and the galactic carousel

Geological upheavals and dark matter

Epilogue : what does it all mean? : a new geology.