Rare and violent events through geological time are the theme of this readable and thought-provoking view of the Earth's history. The evidence for episodes and rare "catastrophic" happenings have been gleaned from the geological record in the author's travels all over the world. Such events are shown to dominate over the gradual and continuous processes that we see in the record of the history of the Earth. From hurricanes to episodic evolution, from colliding continents to asteroid impacts--the importance of these events are presented with many illustrations, both pictorial and anecdotal.