Earth's surface shows features that clearly testify to some kind of catastrophic event, or series of events, that operated on a vastly larger scale than today's geologic processes. Whatever happened had a devastating impact on living creatures large and small, terrestrial and marine.

The blindsnake, a small subsurface burrower, is not often seen, but when it is many mistake it for a worm.¹ Researchers have constructed an evolutionary history for these creatures, partly from biological data and partly from evolutionary assumptions.

The Great Rift Valley extends some 4,000 miles southward from Syria north of Israel, through the Gulf of Aqaba, through Ethiopia, and all the way to Mozambique in southeast Africa. It harbors a giant fault, which has been under investigation as a model for sea floor spreading. A recent geologic event rent a gaping crack through the desert of Ethiopia, causing safety concerns for locals.