The stories, myths, and legends that surround the most celebrated gems and jewel-laden artifacts from around the world are revealed, from their journeys in the company of royalty, film stars, and thieves to the curse of the Hope Diamond. For additional reference, an 80-page reference section at the back of the book highlights a variety of other rocks and non-precious stones.Created in association with the Smithsonian Institution, Gem combines stunning photographs with expert knowledge, and its lavish jacket features a debossed and foiled diamond, making it perfect for gift giving.

    During those four decades�which were punctuated by jarring earthquakes and landslides�geologists continued to unravel the complexity of the Golden State, where some of the most dramatic and diverse geology in the world erupts, crashes, and collides. With dazzling color maps, diagrams, and photographs, Roadside Geology of Southern California takes advantage of this newfound knowledge, combining the latest science with accessible stories about the rocks and landscapes visible from winding two-lane byways as well as from the region�s vast network of highways.Join Arthur Sylvester, an award-winning UC Santa Barbara geologist, and Elizabeth O�Black Gans, a geologist-illustrator, as they motor through mountains and deserts to explore the iconic features of the SoCal landscape, from boulder piles in Joshua Tree National Park and brilliant white dunes in the Channel Islands to tar seeps along the rugged coast and youthful cinder cones in the Mojave Desert. Whether you want to find precious gemstones, ponder the mysteries of the Salton Sea, or straddle the boundary between the North American and Pacific Plates, be sure to bring this book along as your tour guide.

    But when he found diamond-filled pot holes in the remote rivers of Guyana, his problems really began. Chasing gold and diamond rushes around the world, Richards worked with local miners in some of the maddest, baddest and most dangerous places on earth. His dramatic journey ranges from the piranha-infested rivers of South America to the blazing deserts of Australia, from the world's biggest mining scam in Indonesia to the war-torn jungles of Laos. To find the gold, first Jim had to find himself. He learned to dig deep and discover the resilience and fortitude needed to overcome isolation, disease, equipment disasters and gun-toting criminals to come out on top. Gold Rush is a blood-and-guts treasure hunt - the ultimate adventure story.

    Explore what specimens look like and how they're used today--readers can use the information to identify rocks and minerals themselves and open up a spectacular new world. Find out all about star stones and cat's eyes, megagems, and phantom quartz. Discover which rocks fluoresce, which mineral once poisoned an emperor, and which gems are the rarest in the world! Features a beautiful cover with special effects!

    Insights from top geologists, highlighted by stunning photographs, provide a memorable guide to these ancient wonders of creation.

    The concept of the Earth's atmosphere, biosphere, oceans, soil, and rocks operating as a closely interacting system has rapidly gained ground in science. This new field, involving geographers, geologists, biologists, oceanographers, and atmospheric physicists, is known as Earth System Science.In this Very Short Introduction, Tim Lenton considers how a world in which humans could evolve was created; how, as a species, we are now reshaping that world; and what a sustainable future for humanity within the Earth System might look like. Drawing on elements of geology, biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, Lenton asks whether Earth System Science can help guide us onto a sustainable course before we alter the Earth system to the point where we destroy ourselves and our current civilisation.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

    Others find refuge and tranquility in the mountains, a place where they can seek their selves, perhaps even God. And over millennia, the mountains have cradled civilization itself and nurtured teeming, irrepressible life.With over fifty essays, this comprehensive volume brings together a dazzling range of voices—among others, Fa-Hsien, Pundit Nain Singh, Heinrich Harrer, Fanny Parkes, Dharamvir Bharati, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Rahul Sankrityayan, Amitav Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru, Frank Smythe, Paul Brunton, Edmund Hillary, Mark Twain, Sarat Chandra Das, Dom Moraes, Manjushree Thapa—and the two editors themselves—in an unparalleled panorama.Here you will find stories of great ascents and descents; The madness of war on the ‘world’s highest battlefield’; Tales of exploratory derring-do in Tibet and elsewhere; A drunken jaunt in Kumaon and even the probable sighting of an 'Abominable Snowman in the Valley of Flowers'. A seeker has an intense spiritual experience on Mount Kailas, another among shamans on a mountaintop in Nepal and looking for the snow leopard in Ladakh, an author finds himself. A resident of a Sherpa village writes a heartfelt account of the aftermath of an avalanche which killed porters and climbers on Everest and residents of Langtang record an oral history of the earthquake which wiped out their village. A matriarch describes her life and family in Almora of a bygone time; A prisoner in Dehra Dun jail draws solace from visits by birds and small animals and the fragrance of lime makes a traveler's night in a remote Garhwal village memorable for all time.Edited by Ruskin Bond, India’s most-loved writer and acclaimed novelist Namita Gokhale, this anthology spans the entire range, from the foothills to the highest peaks and from its easternmost to its westernmost ends. Himalaya will keep you riveted.

    This 15-hour free course, for beginners as well as those with some scientific knowledge, provided an introduction to the study of plate tectonics.

    Through each of this interactive story's pages, the reader is tasked with finding Bigfoot, where he is cleverly hidden. Both child and adult are sure to feel the magic and excitement of a legend as old as time!

    But beneath the quest for order lies the uneasy dread of fundamental disorder. True chaos is hard to imagine and even harder to represent. In this book, Martin Meisel considers the long effort to conjure, depict, and rationalize extreme disorder, with all the passion, excitement, and compromises the act provokes.Meisel builds a rough history from major social, psychological, and cosmological turning points in the imagining of chaos. He uses examples from literature, philosophy, painting, graphic art, science, linguistics, music, and film, particularly exploring the remarkable shift in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from conceiving of chaos as disruptive to celebrating its liberating and energizing potential. Discussions of Sophocles, Plato, Lucretius, Calderon, Milton, Haydn, Blake, Faraday, Chekhov, Faulkner, Wells, and Beckett, among others, are matched with incisive readings of art by Brueghel, Rubens, Goya, Turner, Dix, Dada, and the futurists. Meisel addresses the revolution in mapping energy and entropy and the manifold effect of thermodynamics. He then uses this chaotic frame to elaborate on purpose, mortality, meaning, and mind.

    With this book as your guide, you can find limestone caves, billion-year-old gneiss, glacial moraines, petrified forests, fossilized palm leaves, upside-down sandstone beds, and ancient landslides. Or you can explore the mind-boggling canyons, waterfalls, and scabland carved by the torrential Missoula Floods, check out the glacially carved granite of the North Cascades, or watch sea stacks erode in the pounding surf of the Pacific Ocean.Washington Rocks! is part of the state-by-state Geology Rocks! series that introduces readers to some of the most compelling and accessible geologic sites in each state. The 57 sites in this book are scattered throughout the state, from Steptoe Butte in the southeast, the namesake of the steptoe geologic feature, to trilobite-bearing limestone in Box Canyon in the northeast, and from glacial gouges on Iceberg Point in the San Juan Islands to ghost forests in Willapa Bay, trees killed during the last great earthquake. Colorful photographs and instructive diagrams make this book a must-have for rockhounds, students, tourists, and residents alike.

    It is the only state with all three types of plate boundaries, an extraordinary history of earthquakes and volcanoes, and it has many rocks and minerals found nowhere else. The Golden State includes both the highest and lowest point in the continental US and practically every conceivable geological feature known. This book discusses not only the important geologic features of each region in California, but also the complex geologic four-dimensional puzzle of how California was assembled, beginning over 2 billion years ago. The author provides up-to-date and authoritative review of the geology and geomorphology of each geologic province, as well as recent revelations of tectonic history of California s past. There are separate chapters on some of California s distinctive geologic resources, including gold, oil, water, coastlines, and fossils. An introductory section describes basic rock and mineral types and fundamental aspects of plate tectonics, so that students and other readers can make sense of the bizarre, wild, and crazy jigsaw puzzle that is California's geological history."

    

    In over 140 brilliant photos and evocative, informative text, Rivers of Oregon captures the life, the beauty, and the magic of Oregon’s remarkable array of waterways. The book’s engaging essays address the nature and ecology of flowing waters, the joy of travel on these lifelines of the planet, and the historic saga of Oregonians’ commitment to preserve, protect, and restore the best of their state for future generations.  Rivers of Oregon captures the beauty and the intrinsic qualities of the state’s irresistible riverscapes like no other book has done. From the underwater view and from the refuge of riparian forests, from the seat of a canoe or raft and from distant mountain summits, readers will gain new perspectives on the extraordinary features that provide us with water, with life, and with scenes whose loss would leave us deeply impoverished. Join this celebrated photographer, author, conservationist, and river guide on a journey of discovery that will change the way you think about flowing water and the alluring paths it makes across our land.