Daniel Nahon is emeritus professor at the Université Paul-Cézanne d’Aix-en-Provence and honorary professor at the Institut universitaire de France. Recognized as one of the foremost French specialists of soil in warm countries, he was president of the CIRAD (Centre de coopération internationale pour le développement - the French agricultural research and cooperation organization working for the sustainable development of tropical and Mediterranean regions) from 1999 to 2003.

What did the Earth look like when it was born 4.6 billion years ago? When were the continents formed, and with them the first chains of mountains and volcanos? How was life born?

This book invites the reader on a long march through time, from the infancy of our planet to the appearance of sedentary humans. Without useless jargon, in language that is both full of imagery and precise, Daniel Nahon brings his experience as a soil geochemist to present his own hypotheses on this incredible adventure. Thus, for example, the decisive role of clay that guided the appearance of life in the seas. Or, a view that favored the dynamic evolution of the Earth through catastrophic cosmic events. And finally, the importance of climate variations that created a large part of this story.