Best of
Geology

2015

Geology: A Complete Introduction


David A. Rothery - 2015
    It covers the key areas that students are expected to be confident in, outlining the basics in clear English, and then providing added-value features like a glossary of the essential jargon terms, links to useful websites, and even examples of questions you might be asked in a seminar or exam.The book uses a structure chosen to cover the essentials of most school and university courses on Geology. Topics covered include the Earth's structure, earthquakes, plate tectonics, volcanoes, igneous intrusions, metamorphism, weathering, erosion, deposition, deformation, physical resources, past life and fossils, the history of the Earth, Solar System geology, and geological fieldwork. There are useful appendices of minerals, rock names and geological time.

John Muir Ultimate Collection: Travel Memoirs, Wilderness Essays, Environmental Studies & Letters (Illustrated): Picturesque California, The Treasures ... Redwoods, The Cruise of the Corwin and more


John Muir - 2015
    Table of Contents: Picturesque California The Mountains of California Our National Parks My First Summer in the Sierra The Yosemite Travels in Alaska Stickeen: The Story of a Dog The Cruise of the Corwin A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf Steep Trails Studies in the Sierra Articles and Speeches: The National Parks and Forest Reservations Save the Redwoods Snow-Storm on Mount Shasta Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park A Rival of the Yosemite The Treasures of the Yosemite Yosemite Glaciers Yosemite in Winter Yosemite in Spring Edward Henry Harriman Edward Taylor Parsons The Hetch Hetchy Valley The Grand Cañon of the Colorado Autobiographical: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth Letters to a Friend Tribute: Alaska Days with John Muir by Samuel Hall Young John Muir (1838-1914) was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is a prominent American conservation organization.

Gemstone Crystal Properties


Jennifer Billock - 2015
    Scientific and metaphysical properties of each gemstone plus significant meanings or historical uses, or how it is formed. Suggested uses: o Buying Guide – identify metaphysical or historical uses of stones for you personally or as a meaningful gift o Collectors – handy identification and properties reference o Jewelry & Art – know the structure and durability of your materials for mounting or carving

Surf, Sand, and Stone: How Waves, Earthquakes, and Other Forces Shape the Southern California Coast


Keith Heyer Meldahl - 2015
    Over the last several million years, movements of these plates have dramatically reshuffled the Earth’s crust to create rugged landscapes and seascapes riven with active faults. Movement along these faults triggers earthquakes and tsunamis, pushes up mountains, and lifts sections of coastline. Over geologic time, beaches come and go, coastal bluffs retreat, and the sea rises and falls. Nothing about Southern California’s coast is stable.Surf, Sand, and Stone tells the scientific story of the Southern California coast: its mountains, islands, beaches, bluffs, surfing waves, earthquakes, and related phenomena. It takes readers from San Diego to Santa Barbara, revealing the evidence for how the coast's features came to be and how they are continually changing. With a compelling narrative and clear illustrations, Surf, Sand, and Stone outlines how the coast will be altered in the future and how we can best prepare for it.

Geology Underfoot in Western Washington


David Tucker - 2015
    Seafloors forced high into the sky. Fossils of a long-extinct, 385-pound flightless bird that roamed subtropical floodplains. From the crest of the Cascades to the Pacific, and from the Columbia River north to the Canadian border, the ghosts of deep time are widely exposed in western Washington. But geology never really dies. It is very much active and alive in the region: volcanoes periodically erupt, showering their surroundings with ash; earthquakes shake Earth�s surface and the constructions of humans, sending tsunamis ashore to wreak havoc; and melting alpine glaciers send forth great floods of water.In Geology Underfoot in Western Washington, the most recent addition to the Geology Underfoot series, author and geoscientist Dave Tucker narrates western Washington�s geologic tales, covering sites from it�s low-lying shorelines to its rugged mountaintops. The book�s 22 chapters, or vignettes, lead you to easily accessible stops along Washington�s highways�and some trails, too. A healthy dose of full-color illustrations and photos compliments the author�s illuminating prose, further demystifying Washington�s geologic wonders. With Geology Underfoot in Western Washington in hand, you�ll soon feel like an Evergreen State geology expert.

Gold Production from Beginning to End: What Gold Companies Do to Get the Shiny Metal into Our Hands


Mariusz Skonieczny - 2015
    Many investors lack a basic understanding of how gold is produced and have unrealistic expectations about how long it actually takes. They are confused when mining companies encounter hurdles that must be overcome. Some seem to think that starting a mine is like turning on a switch. As a result, the prices of gold mining stocks are subject to wide volatility. In this book, you will learn what it takes to produce an ounce of gold from beginning to end. You will read about all four stages of gold production, from exploration and mining to processing and refining. The topics covered include the different types of gold deposits and how they are found, as well as drilling techniques and how deposits are classified. Other topics include mining methods, such as bulk extraction and sublevel stoping, and an overview of special techniques used to process refractory ore - the most difficult type of ore to process. Finally, you will learn about doré bars, gold purity requirements, and the exchanges that specialize in buying and selling gold.

Discovering the Deep: A Photographic Atlas of the Seafloor and Ocean Crust


Jeffrey A. Karson - 2015
    They remain largely unexplored, yet are critical to our survival on this planet. This magnificent, full-color volume transports you to bizarre landscapes hosting exotic life forms that rival the most imaginative science fiction. Starting with a historical summary of seafloor exploration and the developing technologies used to study this extreme environment, it then describes the distinctive geologic components of the Earth's ocean floor and the unusual biological communities found along the mid-ocean ridges. This is an indispensable reference for researchers, teachers, and students of marine science, and a visually stunning resource that will enlighten and intrigue oceanographers and enthusiasts alike. A suite of online resources, including photographs and video clips, combine with the book to provide fascinating insights into the hidden world of seafloor geology and biology using the latest deep-sea imaging and geological concepts.

Dirtmeister's Nitty Gritty Planet Earth: All About Rocks, Minerals, Fossils, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Even Dirt!


Steve Tomecek - 2015
    Clear and concise explanations of the various geologic processes reveal the comprehensive science behind each fascinating topic. Fun facts and simple DIY experiments reinforce the concepts while short biographies of important scientists inspire future geo-scientists.

Ancient Wyoming: A Dozen Lost Worlds Based on the Geology of the Bighorn Basin


Kirk R. Johnson - 2015
    The book provides a look back in time at Wyoming, both as it is today and as it was throughout ancient history, at times a vast ocean, a lush rain forest, and a mountain prairie.Kirk Johnson is the Sant Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. He received his PhD in geology and paleobotany from Yale University in 1989, and did postdoctoral research in the rainforests of northern Australia before joining the Denver Museum of Natural History in 1991, where he directed the installation of the museum's Prehistoric Journey exhibit. His research focuses on fossil plants, the environmental effects of the dinosaur-smiting asteroid, and the birth and death of biomes. Johnson lives in Washington, DC.Will Clyde is a Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of New Hampshire. His teaching and research focuses on paleontology and Earth history. In particular, he is interested in understanding the relationship between climate change and mammalian evolution during the Paleogene period of Earth history. Clyde lives in Durham, New Hampshire, with his wife and two children.

Steel: From Mine to Mill, the Metal that Made America


Brooke C. Stoddard - 2015
    Once deciphered, steel began to flow from hearths in increasing amounts for the building of railroads, steel ships, skyscrapers, and bridges, in the process raising to world economic dominance Great Britain, Germany, the United States, Japan, and the Soviet Union. The world's current largest producer is China.While researching this book, author Brooke C. Stoddard descended into Mesabi Iron Range open-pit iron mines, rode with 58,000 tons of iron ore on a 1,000-foot ore boat from Duluth to Cleveland, climbed to the top of the hemisphere's largest blast furnace, interviewed men as they toiled next to their furnaces of liquid steel, and walked the immense rolling mills where steel is pressed into finished products.Along the way, he wrote a narrative of iron and steel from pre-history through the Industrial Revolution and into the present age.Steel is the sinew of modern civilization.

Geofuels: Energy and the Earth


Alan R. Carroll - 2015
    Although these issues are often cast in terms of renewable versus nonrenewable energy, in reality both depend on finite Earth resources. The evolution of the Earth itself therefore offers a uniquely illuminating perspective from which to evaluate alternative pathways toward energy and environmental sustainability. Geofuels: Energy and the Earth systematically develops this perspective using informal, nontechnical language laced with humor. It is well suited to a broad readership, ranging from beginning university students to lifelong learners who are interested in how the Earth's past will influence their own future. It also provides simplified explanations of controversial topics, such as energy return on energy investment, peak oil, and fracking. The focus throughout is on building a sound physical understanding of how natural resources constrain our use of energy.

Earth's Shifting Crust: A Key To Some Basic Problems Of Earth Science


Charles H. Hapgood - 2015
    Includes polar shift, ice ages, ancient climates, extinctions and more.

The Elements 2016 Calendar: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe


Nick Mann - 2015
    Based on the bestselling book and iPad app, The Elements Calendar presents a dozen elements of the periodic table—lithium to zinc, arsenic to silicon—as gorgeous works of art. Each month’s spread showcases a large full-color photograph of the element in its pure form, plus smaller images of compounds and practical applications. Detailed text describes its distinctive characteristics, uses, history, and lore. Packaged with the calendar is a bonus periodic table poster.

The Secrets of Sand: A Journey into the Amazing Microscopic World of Sand


Gary Greenberg - 2015
    Under the microscope, however, it's a completely different story. Looking at sand under extreme magnification, we quickly find ourselves immersed in a new world of brilliant colors, organic shapes, and the stunning patterns of nature.Every grain of sand is a snapshot in time: Each grain originated somewhere and is headed somewhere else. Biogenic sands often contain fragments of the hard tissues from marine organisms such as shells, corals, sponges, sea urchins, forams, and bryozoans. When these organisms die, the hard tissues that are left behind erode into some of the most spectacular grains of sand imaginable. In this book, deep-focus microscope photography, x-ray images, and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy reveal their secrets.The Secrets of Sand is a virtual tour of sands from across North America. It shows their origins, the environmental forces that have acted upon them, and their journey from bedrock or invertebrate shell to the fine particles that, in countless billions, form our familiar beaches and dunes. It then moves on to an exploration of lunar sand, which has been formed under such alien conditions that it has no terrestrial counterpart. The Secrets of Sand is an amazing voyage of discovery in the ancient past--and the dynamic present--of the earth and our nearest neighbor.

Landforms of the World with Google Earth: Understanding our Environment


Anja M. Scheffers - 2015
    It invites you to observe the surface of planet Earth, to appreciate its astonishing beauty and to explore scientific explanations for the form of our landscapes.250 full-colour images from Google Earth enable all types of terrestrial environments and landforms to be appreciated at a glance. Images are explained with scales, coordinates, explanatory text and references, making the landform processes active on our globe easy for the reader to comprehend.See the effects of both sudden and slow forming agents such as the impact of a comet or meteorite, and erosion and deposition processes through wind, flowing water, creeping glacier ice, or frost in the ground. Appreciate how landscapes are shaped by processes such as weathering, transport and erosion and how that erosion enables us to look into endogenic processes (those within the Earth´s crust), called tectonics. These images and the processes that they document show that continents are shifting, mountains are uplifting, and ocean bottoms may sink deeper.This collection will appeal to everyone: researchers, students and non-experts alike can take inspiration from these images, which bring the landforms of the world to life. The scientific discipline of geomorphology becomes accessible through the fascinating insights that these clear, well explained images allow.