Major enrichments for the “All Cosmic Bodies” poster

Books on Space Law (back to 1959!) and Space War (back to 1962!) posted in “My Library is for Sale”

The Astronomy Garage podcast interviewed me about Astroscans, 1h 37m! https://youtu.be/7WXJMSK3F1c

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—> Formatted for desktop screens; server scrambles segments for mobile devices. <—

Smarts and smiles! This website rewards time and thought with original ideas and products. Everything here is by and for real humans. Nothing here is mentioned in, or described by, Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification. Not for “tl;dr” simpletons; suckers seeking instant oversimplifications should retreat back to the rest of the Internet. No artificial intelligence hallucinations, no loyalty bribe, no app.

Email: normsperling@gmail.com Postal: 2625 Alcatraz Avenue #235, Berkeley, California 94705 USA.

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Touch Deep Time™

Rocks From Every Epoch of Earth

© 2025 Norman Sperling

Nobody on Earth has this now.

I’ve been collecting specimens for this cross-section of Earth’s crust since 2013.  I should find the last few in 2026.

The “Geological Column” of rocks formed during every epoch in Earth’s history has always been imaginary.  A specimen is labeled with such-and-such epoch, but you always had to imagine its context.

This is the first Geological Column of rocks formed during every epoch in Earth’s history. You can buy a very rare complete sequence and feel every layer! And buy a very unusual book about this unique project.

THE  CHALLENGE  OF  EARTH’S  LAYERS

The layers of the “Geological Column” are pages of Earth’s diary, with the oldest on the bottom, newest on top. Epochs are somewhat like chapters.

Earth’s turbulent history leaves a jumbled collage.  There isn’t a continuous story in any single place.  Cross-sections skip most layers because conditions often erode rock rather than depositing it.  You can see layers from some epochs, but nowhere near all, in a hike down the Grand Canyon.  Its “Great Unconformity” skips 1,200,000,000 years: ¼ of the Earth’s age!  Different layers eroded away in different places.

52  LAYERS

I collect specimens from each of the 

  • 38 epochs, Cambrian to Holocene,

  • Plus all 10 Precambrian periods in the Proterozoic Eon, 

  • Plus all 3 accessible eras before that, in the Archean Eon,

  • Plus the unofficial Anthropocene Epoch.

That’s 4 times more layers than the Grand Canyon’s 13.  

As of June 2025, 49 out of 52 accessible layers are already in hand.  >90% of those specimens are pictured on The 4.5-Billion-Year-Long Page.  I should complete collecting, and my book about it, in 2026, 13 years after starting.  (Other jobs and projects intrude, as did Covid and its recession.)

MY  CRITERIA

All but the 2 oldest time periods outcrop somewhere in the United States.  Locating layers is this project’s biggest challenge.  There’s no central source to look them up in.  (Scholars: that’s a hint.)  

Epoch boundaries, and ages determined for layers, change from time to time.  Epochs get re-named.  I painstakingly seek the best research available, to find where layers are exposed.

  • I drive throughout the United States to the exposed rock layers.  Road-cuts are great.

  • I collect only where that is legal and proper — never in National Parks.

  • I walk and climb to the layer, though I’m no longer nimble.

  • I collect 5 softballish-size specimens, and 5 golfballish-size specimens.

  • Specimens must be tough, not crumbly.

  • Specimens must not be intrinsically valuable — so I avoid fossils or gems.

These rocks don’t require any special security. The public can handle them as much as they please. Seeing the whole sequence together turns ordinary rocks into an extraordinary experience.

THE 2 OLDEST LAYERS

Rocks over 3,600,000,000 years old are very rare because Earth’s crust was barely starting to solidify, and many events have intervened since then.  Rare, valuable specimens have been recovered by researchers from remote non-US outcrops far beyond my range.  They merit protection.  The only 2 layers I can’t collect myself:

  • Eoarchean Era.  

  • While I can’t collect Hadean Eon rocks from Earth, other planetesimals condensed at the same time, but didn’t collide with Earth till later.  Pieces of those are chondrite meteorites.  They’re scientifically important, but abundant and therefore affordable.

To fill those gaps, I will acquire specimens from reputable researchers and dealers. 

*  *  *

SEQUENCES FOR SALE

A cool, memorable, novel, and “few-nique” attraction

*  *  * 

Handle Earth’s rocks in order of age.  Feel a rock formed when Earth was a snowball.  Hold another from just after an asteroid crash wiped out many species.  Others became rocks when dominant life forms were algae … or Tyrannosaurus rex … or mastodons.

Sequences are great for museums and universities and collectors.  Long walls, aisles, or staircases make impressive settings.  A spiral around a pillar could save space with the smaller specimens.

Out of the total of 10 sequences, at least 5 sequences must be put on public display, such as in museums or universities. This page will link to them.

I’ve decided to allow no more than 5 private collectors to buy sequences.

I’m keeping the last sequence as long as I feel like.  I will not collect more, or in other places, or other variations.

•       5 sequences of 54 specimens, roughly the size of softballs: $15,000 each sequence.

•       5 sequences of 54 specimens, roughly the size of golf balls: $10,000 each sequence.

Product code EPOX.

The buyer whose money arrives first gets to select first from each epoch’s picture on The 4.5-Billion-Year-Long Page, which show >90% of rocks in-hand as of March 2025.  Next-paid, next-served.  

Do you know who should buy a sequence?  Please tell them!

*  *  *

Touch Deep Time Compared to its Big Competitor, The Grand Canyon

Touch

Grand Deep

Canyon Time

Scenic grandeur world class! indoors

Of 54 possible epochs, etc. 13 all 54

Convenient to get to no make it so

Specimen sizes       awesomely enormous hand

Specimens in easy reach no yes

Array vertical only fit your space

Sequences 1, in place 10

Price not for sale $10,000 or $15,000

Local hazards heat stroke, make yours safe

plummeting down cliffs,

mule rash

*  *  *

BOOKS AND OTHER  MEDIA

The stories of the rocks, and of collecting them, will be published.  Whether you can get to an exhibit or not, this picture book shows the rocks of every layer.  To echo the Geological Column, this vertical accordion-fold or scroll will show the youngest layers on top, and the oldest on the bottom.

  • Please suggest who can manufacture a scroll or accordion-fold book, preferably in a Print-on-Demand system.

  • To be alerted when book versions go on sale, email normsperling@gmail.com .  Paperback PoD 978-0913399-54-5; Accordion-fold or scroll 978-0913399-55-2; Ebook 978-0913399-53-8; audiobook 978-0913399-56-9. BISAC SCI091000 Earth stratigraphy. Product code DEEP.

Video/TV/articles/podcasts/etc.

The “Touch Deep Time” project would make splendid videos, articles, podcasts, etc.  Who would be the right producer or the right author? Describe what you propose and offer, in an email to normsperling@gmail.com .

BEYOND EARTH

Depth cross-section sampling is also available for asteroids 4 Vesta, 6 Hebe, 8 Flora, and the parent body of the LL meteorites ‘To-be-named-later.’

GRATITUDES

Special thanks to the most helpful geologist: Dr. James St. John, Ohio State University at Newark.  https://www.jsjgeology.net/Home-page.html .  

Thanks to the Earth Sciences Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

Still indispensable despite aging: the 6 Centennial Field Guides of the Geological Society of America, Decade of North American Geology, 1980s.

Wikipedia has conscientiously improved its science entries.  For this project, it seems to be almost always right, though very uneven.  Please improve articles within your expertise and Wikipedia’s standards.