Helpful Score: 1
This book is the first book in a series on geology and geologists, presenting a cross section of North America along the fourtieth parallel. A trip west is an intro to plate Tectonics probably the most readable summary extant. Geologists will fingd it sound ,others will find it illuminating.
This is a wonderful book. I've read a few that cover some of the same ground (figuratively speaking), like Assembling California, and you can get some of the same insights there. A lot of explanation of the history of Geology, and the Plate Tectonic Revolution of the 1960s. He can combine the sublime and ridiculous in one sentence sometimes.
Good primer on geology of mountain ranges and plate tectonics.
Lovely writing, as Mr. McPhee is known for. This is from his series in The New Yorker, circa 1980, and deals with the ideas stemming from plate tectonics when discussing the Far West, especially Nevada. My copy, kindly supplied by a PBS comrade, is from the 12th printing.
No index, maps, bibliography, illustrations, etc. It would have been a better book if he had bothered to add such.
No index, maps, bibliography, illustrations, etc. It would have been a better book if he had bothered to add such.
