A geological history of Earth's early years is revealed through a study of its natural wonders, including such sites as the Alps, Icelandic hot springs, the ocean floor, the rocky Newfoundland coast, the salt flats of Oman, Mt. Vesuvius, and the San Andreas Fault. Reprint.
A geological history of Earth's early years is revealed through a study of its natural wonders, including such sites as the Alps, Icelandic hot springs, the ocean floor, the rocky Newfoundland coast, the salt flats of Oman, Mt. Vesuvius, and the San Andreas Fault.
The face of the earth, crisscrossed by chains of mountains like the scars of old wounds, has changed and changed again over billions of years, and the testament of the remote past is all around us. In this book Richard Fortey teaches us how to read its character, laying out the dominions of the world before us. He shows how human culture and natural history - even the shape of cities - are rooted in this deep geological past.
The acclaimed author of Trilobite! and Life takes us on a grand tour of the earths physical past, showing how the history of plate tectonics is etched in the landscape around us. "Absorbing.... Cinematic.... The ultimate travel book, a guidebook that should be read by every person who wants to really know and understand the place we live on." The New York Times
Beginning with Mt. Vesuvius, whose eruption in Roman times helped spark the science of geology, and ending in a lab in the West of England where mathematical models and lab experiments replace direct observation, Richard Fortey tells us what the present says about ancient geologic processes. He shows how plate tectonics came to rule the geophysical landscape and how the evidence is written in the hills and in the stones. And in the process, he takes us on a wonderful journey around the globe to visit some of the most fascinating and intriguing spots on the planet.
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