The Quest for More Knowledge

This is a passport to unexpected discoveries at all scales and becomes a guide to seeing the world’s longest running rocky picture show. Clearly written and with many times more illustrations than its 300 pages, it offers an accessible, inital overview of what forces created and distributed the crust of the Earth today and the incredibly powerful forces that continue to change it. Although it is recommended for grade 8 students and older, it is also for adults. This can be your starter book at any age to travel through time to distant planets–our Earth–distant in time, not outer space.

The physical world has not always looked as it is today, or for very long, for that matter when these rocks of ages have been measured in millions and billions of years. Much of North America was most recently altered on a colossal scale by the last ice age that retreated a mere 12,000 years ago or so. There have been many versions of the planetary crust we know as our home and there will be many more variations long after us. Find out why that is so through descriptions and explanations encompassing the endless cycle in the dance of Shiva, creating and destroying the face of the Earth. Learn to see evidence of deep time, geological time in your own surroundings. New Yorkers will discover what created the impressive Palisades along the Hudson river. Arizonans will see the remains of ancient volcanoes in addition to the famous forces of weathering that carved the Grand Canyon. Unexpected wonders are everywhere to read about and with this book’s assistance, actually experience in nature. A general understanding is mandatory. By example, if we could drain Lake Michigan, Chicagoans could see an enormous geological surprise deeper, possibly in wonder, than even the Grand Canyon because it lies unexplored and its potential discoveries dormant without our cognizance. This book can describe for the mind what cannot be seen today for a variety of reasons. You will comprehend them nonetheless.

In fact, the distribution of land and water we recognize from childhood memories of our classroom globes has only existed in that specific, temporary manifestation for such a brief period in the history of the planet that it is considered by geologists as merely a blink in time. Mountain ranges and entire oceans have come and gone. Continents coalesced to form a single mega continent only to be eventually pulled apart into large fragments sliding under each other, violently colliding into each other with irresistible force that alters everythimg in their path without plan or purpose.

Ultimately everything is recycled by geological forces that create what the book illustrates, and that are produced as a consequence of astonishing extremes and combinations: of heat, cold, pressure, weight, vulcanism and more subtly by wind and water over the most potent power of all, time. This book is inexpensive and quite adequate in offering an overall picture as well as a brief trip through time regarding geological forces and their continuing consequences. It is not a college textbook nor does it try to be. You will need additional books to identify the huge variety of rocks you will find in the field–literally and figuratively. It also uses drawings instead of color photographs so many people might prefer other books. tNonetheless, this book describes and illustrates geological and chemical forces in action in their endless variations. But without good color photographs it cannot show rocks at all scales as they could appear in nature, whether from the small pebbles of the regolith to its most massive formation of any single rock, Iluru, once known as Ayer’s Rock in central Australia, to the enormous expanses of consolidated rock we know as bedrock. This book’s illustrations are very good but admittedly, it could be illustrated better by professional, color photography. Some readers will demand color to be satisfied. Fair enough. However, color reproductions or more complex details associated with textbooks will cause any book’s price to rise exponentially, so be prepared to pay a lot more.

Other afforable accessory books are highly recommended for your state or possibly natural wonders during your next vacation. You might also want to consider another entry level experience of field geology that you can easily experience traveling by car largely through “digs” illustrating firsthand, geological formations which are often conveniently provided by thousands of road cuts all over the US. These books can be inexpensive interpreters to assist you in becoming more aware of nature’s most fundamental, visible crystal structures. One optional series to look at is the Roadside Geology series like, Roadside Geology of Northern and Central California or Roadside Geology of Connecticut and Rhode Island (Roadside Geology Series) Another good series, includes Geology Underfoot in Northern Arizona, Underfoot: A Geologic Guide to the Appalachian Trail for hikers and Geology Underfoot in Southern Utah.

This is just the beginning of your adventures. You might also enjoy a visit to your local Museum of Natural History to complement your new studies in the field.
Rating: 5 / 5

This is an excellent guide for beginning geology students and a very good review for more advanced students. Should be on all geologist’s shelves.
Rating: 5 / 5