But how has the earth itself determined our destiny? Our planet wobbles, driving changes in climate that forced the transition from nomadism to farming. Mountainous terrain led to the development of democracy in Greece. Atmospheric circulation patterns later on shaped the progression of global exploration, colonization, and trade. Even today, voting behavior in the south-east United States ultimately follows the underlying pattern of 75 million-year-old sediments from an ancient sea. Everywhere is the deep imprint of the planetary on the human.From the cultivation of the first crops to the founding of modern states, Origins reveals the breathtaking impact of the earth beneath our feet on the shape of our human civilizations.

    

    From diving with manta rays at night in Kona, Hawaii, and swimming with hammerheads of Cocos Island in Costa Rica to exploring caves in Belize's Lighthouse Atoll and diving beneath the ice floes of Antarctica, this exquisite inspirational book is filled with beautiful imagery, marine life guides, trusted travel tips, and expert diving advice from world-famous National Geographic divers and explorers like Brian Skerry, Jessica Cramp, and David Doubilet. Organized by diving experience and certification level--from beginner open water and wreck dives to expert cold water and cave dives--each location offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore the magic of our world's oceans--from your armchair or with your scuba gear in tow.

    Such artworks are widespread in popular culture, appearing in documentaries, museums, books, and magazines, and inspiring depictions of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals in cinema. This book outlines how fossil animals and environments can be reconstructed from their fossils, explaining how paleoartists overcome gaps in fossil data and predict "soft-tissue" anatomies no longer present around fossil bones. It goes on to show how science and art can meet to produce compelling, interesting takes on ancient worlds, and explores the goals and limitations of this popular but rarely discussed art genre.

    My Awesome Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals even comes with a special notebook section to help you record data in the field. So get out there, gather cool looking samples, and figure out what they are!My Awesome Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals includes: Treasure all around—Amaze your friends and family and show them how you can pick up almost any rock or mineral and figure out what it is. Rocking fact sheets—Learn about 150 awesome rocks and minerals with handy fact sheets that are conveniently organized to help with identification. Your own field notebook—Record all your rock-hunting sample data on 50 “Field Notebook” pages that include cut-out numbers for numbering and cataloging! “What’s this rock or mineral?” Now you’ll know with My Awesome Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals!

    Helens when the volcano rumbled to life in March 1980. Throughout that ominous spring, Johnston was part of a team that conducted scientific research that underpinned warnings about the mountain. Those warnings saved thousands of lives when the most devastating volcanic eruption in U.S. history blew apart Mount St. Helens, but killed Johnston on the ridge that now bears his name. Melanie Holmes tells the story of Johnston's journey from a nature-loving Boy Scout to a committed geologist. Blending science with personal detail, Holmes follows Johnston through encounters with Aleutian volcanoes, his work helping the Portuguese government assess the geothermal power of the Azores, and his dream job as a volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Interviews and personal writings reveal what a friend called "the most unjaded person I ever met," an imperfect but kind, intelligent young scientist passionately in love with his life and work and determined to make a difference.

    With detailed art by studio Bomboland, a fact-filled text, and flaps and die-cuts on every spread, this one-of-a-kind novelty book will appeal to readers of all ages.

    The Earth shakes to its foundations, the seas and oceans tremble incessantly, sounds reverberate through land, sea, and air. Beneath the skin, our brains and bodies are awash with waves of their own, and the Universe is filled by a vast spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, of which visible light is the narrowest sliver. Casting the net even wider, there are mechanical waves, quantum wave phenomena, and the now clearly detected gravitational waves. Look closer and deeper and more kinds of waves appear, down to the most fundamental level of reality.This Very Short Introduction looks at all the main kinds of wave, their sources, effects, and uses. Mike Goldsmith discusses how wave motion results in a range of phenomena, from reflection, diffraction, interference, and polarization in the case of light waves to beats and echoes for sound. All waves, however different, share many of the same features, and, as Goldsmith shows, for all their complexities many of their behaviours are fundamentally simple.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.

      Spanning Earth’s entire history, from its birth 4.6 billion years ago to its inevitable destruction billions of years into the future, this stunning volume chronicles the life of our home planet in 250 well-chosen milestones. Jim Bell leads us on a tour of the events, processes, people, and places that have shaped our growing knowledge of Earth, from the oceans’ formation and the first perilous polar expeditions to deadly volcanoes and Earth “selfies” from space. He covers relevant topics in a range of fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, geology, mineralogy, planetary science, life science, public policy, atmospheric/climate science, and engineering, along with notes on key scientists and inventors. At a time when it's crucial to understand Earth as a complex interdependent system, and our role in that system, The Earth Book will enhance your appreciation of our home.

    To the untrained eye, the La Brea Tar Pits seem to be nothing more than simply pools of thick, viscous black sludge, its obsidian-like surface bestrewn with an assortment of autumn leaves and dirt. Gooey methane bubbles spurt up periodically, shattering the glassy veneer of the grease-black lakes, and the shiny bubbles swell to varying sizes and wiggle from side to side before popping, the sticky collapse almost reminiscent of cracking open a chocolate molten lava cake. This black sludge might seem rather unremarkable after a few moments, as it appears to just sit there in its idle state, but in fact, the seemingly innocuous bubbles are symptomatic of the treacly dark substance lurking on the bottom of the pit. The pit’s contents have spelled the doom for a countless number of creatures both large and small, from legions of insects to mighty mastodons, mammoths, and snarling saber-toothed cats from the Pleistocene Era. Of course, this is what makes the area a natural landmark in the first place, and today the La Brea Tar Pits are considered by many scientists to be among the greatest finds in modern history. Technically, these lustrous lakes of ink-black, while branded “tar,” are in actuality pools of asphalt seeps that have remained in place for several millennia, gushing forth from a natural subterranean petroleum spring underneath the city of Los Angeles known as the “Salt Lake Oil Field.” Needless to say, the tar pits are a far cry from the glittering, crystalline ponds cooled by the shade of surrounding palm trees found throughout the City of Angels. Indeed, the pungent reek of asphalt, pulsing methane bubbles, and their hauntingly black surfaces, making it impossible to gauge the true depth of the asphalt abysses, should have seemingly served as clear deterrents to the animals that roamed the vicinity prior to their entrapment. Instead, judging by the treasure trove of bones and remnants that have been uncovered within the pits, the sludge seemed to have figuratively emitted a siren song that no animal, regardless of stature or physical power, could resist. The disturbing and fascinating implications of the silent death traps, situated in what is now 5801 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, only further heightens their mystery. Evidence shows that the slow, torturous deaths of many of the creatures who became permanently ensnared in the asphalt quicksand were worsened by passing predators who essentially stumbled upon supper served on a sticky platter. Unfortunate, or rather, clumsy predators sometimes slipped, struggled, and were ultimately swallowed up by the tar pit themselves, creating a macabre, yet natural cycle of death and despair. Unsurprisingly, the La Brea Tar Pits have also become a wellspring of supernatural legends. According to one such legend, the disembodied, bone-chilling shrieks of a desperate woman, supposedly the La Brea Woman, victim of Los Angeles' oldest cold murder case, can still be heard in the dead of the night. More curious yet, these liquid time capsules are swaddled in another layer of mystique, its fossils not only solving mysterious riddles of a bygone age, but also offering up even more questions that are begging to be answered. The La Brea Tar Pits: The History and Legacy of One of the World’s Most Famous Fossil Sites looks at the geological origins of the area and analyzes the fossil finds from the tar. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the tar pits like never before.

    These treasured Matternes murals documenting mammal evolution over the past 56 million years and dioramas showing dinosaurs from the Mesozoic Era are significant works of one of the most influential paleoartists in history. Simultaneously epic in size and scope and minutely detailed, they also provide a window into the study and interpretation of vertebrate paleontology and paleoecology.Visions of Lost Worlds presents these unparalleled works of art, and also includes the sketches and drawings Matternes prepared as he planned the murals. Known for his technical genius and eye for detail, Matternes sketched from skeletons in museum collections and added muscle, skin, and fur to bring mammals and dinosaurs from prehistory to vivid life. This book offers a close look at these works of art, a peek inside the artist's process, and an examination of the works' impact and legacy.

    

      Exploring the ecology and most common plants and animals of the various regional environments—beaches, dunes, salt marshes, heathlands, and coastal forests—the book also encompasses marine mammals, sea turtles, and fish offshore. For nature-loving local residents and visitors alike, this essential book will be a treasured resource.

    In the Coastal Plain's wedge of fossil-rich sediments, a meteor impact crater-the sixth largest on Earth-helped determine the location of Chesapeake Bay. The Piedmont begins at the Fall Line, the series of East Coast waterfalls that mark the upstream limit to ship navigation, such as Belle Else in Richland, where the turbulent James River erodes potholes in the Petersburg Granite. Rising up from the rolling hills of the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge forms the spine of the state, its hard basalt and gneisses on display at Shenandoah National Park. Farther west, limestones in the Valley and Ridge are riddled with caves and sinkholes, with dissolution forming one of the wonders of the world at Natural Bridge State Park. Along the very western edge of the state is the Appalachian Plateau, where the No. 3 coal, know as America's Favorite Fuel was extracted from the historic Pocahontas Mine.Virginia 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. Author Albert Dickas has picked 50 of the best sites in Virginia for discussing the enormous variety of rocks, minerals, and landforms created over the course of the states more than 1 billion years of geologic history.

    Mines have long lives, companies have little control over the prices at which they sell, prices are volatile, and the environmental impacts of mining are often not well managed. Despite this, the mining industry has received relatively little attention from neither economists nor the wider business community. There is a need to address the unique management challenges raised by this globally important industry. Modern Management in the Global Mining Industry addresses the economics of mining industries and the management of global mining companies in a manner which is both practical and guided by economic and management theory. Leading with the assertion that mining generates substantial benefits for all its stakeholders provided it is well-managed, and that this includes management of environmental impacts, the book argues that mining companies should move to seeing environmental preservation and sustenance of local communities as an objective rather than a constraint.  The book will be an important reference for practitioners working in mining and related industries and to researchers of economic and management theory, mining operations, mining engineering and commodities.

    This high-country region of Yosemite is dominated by a young, beautifully glaciated geological formation known as the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite. It does not include familiar Yosemite icons like Half Dome, yet geologists describe this granitic realm at over 8,000 feet as “an iconic American landscape.” Drawing together the humanistic and scientific significance of the wild landscapes he traverses, Michael uncovers relationships between people and places and meaning and substance, rendering this text part memoir—but also considerably more. On-the-rock encounters by hand and foot open up a dialogue between the heart of a philosopher and the mind of a geologist. Michael adds a literary softness to this hard landscape, blending excursions with exposition and literature with science. It is through his graceful representations that the geological becomes metaphorical, while the science turns mythological. This high country, where in 1889 John Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson planned what would become Yosemite National Park, is significant for cultural as well as natural reasons. Discoursing on everything from Camus’s “Myths of Sisyphus” to the poems of Gary Snyder, Michael adds depth to an already splendorous landscape. Premier early geologists, such as François Matthes, shaped the language of Yosemite’s landscape. Even though Yosemite has changed over half a century, the rock has not. As Michael explores the beauty and grace of his familiar towering vistas, he demonstrates why, of the many aspects of the world to which one might get attached, the most secure is granite.