Book picks similar to
River of Tears: The Rise of the Rio Tinto Zinc Mining Corporation by Richard West
company-history
corporation-search
geology
mining
Quakeland: On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake
Kathryn Miles - 2017
It's a road trip full of surprises.
Earthquakes. You need to worry about them only if you're in San Francisco, right? Wrong. We have been making enormous changes to subterranean America, and Mother Earth, as always, has been making some of her own. . . . The consequences for our real estate, our civil engineering, and our communities will be huge because they will include earthquakes most of us do not expect and cannot imagine--at least not without reading Quakeland. Kathryn Miles descends into mines in the Northwest, dissects Mississippi levee engineering studies, uncovers the horrific risks of an earthquake in the Northeast, and interviews the seismologists, structual engineers, and emergency managers around the country who are addressing this ground shaking threat.As Miles relates, the era of human-induced earthquakes began in 1962 in Colorado after millions of gallons of chemical-weapon waste was pumped underground in the Rockies. More than 1,500 quakes over the following seven years resulted. The Department of Energy plans to dump spent nuclear rods in the same way. Evidence of fracking's seismological impact continues to mount. . . . Humans as well as fault lines built our "quakeland."What will happen when Memphis, home of FedEx's 1.5-million-packages-a-day hub, goes offline as a result of an earthquake along the unstable Reelfoot Fault? FEMA has estimated that a modest 7.0 magnitude quake (twenty of these happen per year around the world) along the Wasatch Fault under Salt Lake City would put a $33 billion dent in our economy. When the Fukushima reactor melted down, tens of thousands were displaced. If New York's Indian Point nuclear power plant blows, ten million people will be displaced. How would that evacuation even begin?Kathryn Miles' tour of our land is as fascinating and frightening as it is irresistibly compelling.
North Pole, South Pole: The Epic Quest to Solve the Great Mystery of Earth’s Magnetism
Gillian Turner - 2010
Here, for the first time, is the complete history of the quest to understand Earth’s magnetism—from the ancient Greeks’ fascination with lodestone, to the geological discovery that the North Pole has not always been in the North—and to the astonishing modern conclusions that finally revealed the true source.Richly illustrated and skillfully told, North Pole, South Pole unfolds the human story behind the science: that of the inquisitive, persevering, and often dissenting thinkers who unlocked the secrets at our planet’s core.
The Braxtons of Miracle Springs
Michael R. Phillips - 1996
Christopher and Corrie Braxton make their first little home in the bunkhouse connected to her father's barn, but danger from the past comes stalking Pa Hollister and threatens the happy family.
The Life Of A Fossil Hunter
Charles H. Sternberg - 1909
It tells the story of Charles Sternberg and his life-long passion for dinosaur fossils. Sternberg writes vividly of his discoveries and of the hardships and dangers of collecting fossils in the wild West. His book is an extraordinary record of science in the rough and a unique view of life on the frontier.
The Green Age of Asher Witherow
M. Allen Cunningham - 2004
But beneath the vibrant work ethic of its Welch citizens lies an insidious network of superstitions.A missing boy first brings these dark undercurrents to light. Then young Asher Witherow falls under the spell of an unorthodox apprentice minister, stirring a whirlpool of suspicion and outrage. Soon Asher finds himself trapped in a nightmarish crucible, all the more excruciating because he himself could end it if he could only find the strength of will. This is a lesson the missing boy has taught him, and what he understands instinctively from the alluring Anna Flood, new to Nortonville, who with her raw sensuality and independence seems to offer some hope of redemption or even escape.In this powerful debut from a young writer of stunning talent, M. Allen Cunningham takes us into a time and place at once gritty and magical, when the future seems filled with promise but where the day’s labor is bone breaking, numbing and always dangerous.Gorgeously written, historically authentic, The Green Age of Asher Witherow is a novel of tested loyalties, of condemnation and redemption. The characters’ deep emotional lives are complex and vivid, fluctuating from the doomed to the transcendent. As he unpacks his heart, Asher comes to realize that all his early traumas have somehow bonded him to the land surrounding Mount Diablo and infused his life with an inward wealth—a treasure at which we can only wonder.
Physical Geology
Charles C. Plummer - 1992
This book is useful to students taking introductory physical geology to fulfill a science elective, as well as those contemplating a career in geology.
Gray Mountain
John Grisham - 2014
. . and she’s full of surprises
The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer’s career at a huge Wall Street law firm is on the fast track—until the recession hits and she gets downsized, furloughed, escorted out of the building. Samantha, though, is one of the “lucky” associates. She’s offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic for one year without pay, after which there would be a slim chance that she’d get her old job back.In a matter of days Samantha moves from Manhattan to Brady, Virginia, population 2,200, in the heart of Appalachia, a part of the world she has only read about. Mattie Wyatt, lifelong Brady resident and head of the town’s legal aid clinic, is there to teach her how to “help real people with real problems.” For the first time in her career, Samantha prepares a lawsuit, sees the inside of an actual courtroom, gets scolded by a judge, and receives threats from locals who aren’t so thrilled to have a big-city lawyer in town. And she learns that Brady, like most small towns, harbors some big secrets.Her new job takes Samantha into the murky and dangerous world of coal mining, where laws are often broken, rules are ignored, regulations are flouted, communities are divided, and the land itself is under attack from Big Coal. Violence is always just around the corner, and within weeks Samantha finds herself engulfed in litigation that turns deadly.
Maui Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook
Andrew Doughty - 2000
This third edition is the most comprehensive yet easy to use guidebook ever written for Maui.With specially created maps, clear directions to even the most remote locations, and honest reviews, this book and a rental car are all you need to discover what makes Maui so exciting.
Emotional Geology
Linda Gillard - 2005
Haunted by her turbulent past, she takes refuge in a remote Hebridean island community where she cocoons herself in work, silence and solitude in a house by the sea. A new life and new love are offered by friends, her estranged daughter and most of all by Calum, a fragile younger man who has his own demons to exorcise. But does Rose, with her tenuous hold on sanity, have the courage to say “Yes” to life and put her past behind her?REVIEWS“The emotional power makes this reviewer reflect on how Charlotte and Emily Bronte might have written if they were living and writing now.”Northwords Now“Complex and important issues are played out in the windswept beauty of a Hebridean island setting, with a hero who is definitely in the Mr Darcy league!”www.ScottishReaders.net
Super Volcano: The Ticking Time Bomb Beneath Yellowstone National Park
Greg Breining - 2007
And then, why couldn't they find the caldera or crater? Because, as an aerial photograph finally revealed, the caldera is 45 miles wide, encompassing all of Yellowstone. What will happen, in human terms, when it erupts? Greg Breining explores the shocking answer to this question and others in a scientific yet accessible look at the enormous natural disaster brewing beneath the surface of the United States. Yellowstone is one of the world's five "super volcanoes." When it erupts, much of the nation will be hit hard. Though historically Yellowstone has erupted about every 600,000 years, it has not done so for 630,000, meaning it is 30,000 years overdue. Starting with a scenario of what will happen when Yellowstone blows, this fascinating study describes how volcanoes function and includes a timeline of famous volcanic eruptions throughout history.
The Last Volcano: A Man, a Romance, and the Quest to Understand Nature's Most Magnificant Fury
John Dvorak - 2015
They have destroyed cities and ended civilizations. John Dvorak, the acclaimed author of Earthquake Storms, looks into the early years of volcanology and its "father," Thomas Jaggar. Jaggar was the youngest of five scientists to investigate the explosion of Mount Pelee in Martinique, which leveled the entire city of St. Pierre and killed its entire population in two minutes. This explosion changed science forever, and Jaggar became obsessed with understanding the force of nature that could do this.A colorful cast of scientists wind their way through The Last Volcano, including an escaped slave who became the leading volcanic guide in Hawaii. But the focus is on Jaggar, who was so fixated on volcanology that he moved to a small house overlooking the lava lake of Kilauea, much to the derision of the scientific community.Falling in love a widowed schoolteacher who shared his passion, Jaggar devoted his life to studying volcanic activity and the mysteries beneath the earth's surface. From their precarious perch, this dynamic husband and wife duo would discover a way to predict volcanic eruptions and tsunamis, promote geothermal energy, and theorize new ways to study the ocean bottom.
Jack Trout on Strategy
Jack Trout - 2004
In the more than two decades since then, he has remained at the forefront of marketing and strategic thinking. Written in response to the demands by Trout fans, acolytes, and students worldwide, this book brings together the key ideas from his substantial body of work in a quick-bite format."Trout on Strategy" Is an ideal introduction to the thinking of one of the century's most influential marketing innovators Explores Trout's major themes, including survival, perception, differentiation, and more Connects the dots in his major works and makes his ideas relevant to the biggest issues facing business today
Transylvanian Sunrise
Radu Cinamar - 2004
In 2003, the Pentagon discovered, through the use of satellite technology, an anomaly beneath this ancient sphinx. This book chronicles the discovery of these modern day artefacts.
The Ends of the World: Supervolcanoes, Lethal Oceans, and the Search for Past Apocalypses
Peter Brannen - 2017
In The Ends of the World, Peter Brannen dives into deep time, exploring Earth’s past dead ends, and in the process, offers us a glimpse of our possible future.Many scientists now believe that the climate shifts of the twenty-first century have analogs in these five extinctions. Using the visible clues these devastations have left behind in the fossil record, The Ends of the World takes us inside “scenes of the crime,” from South Africa to the New York Palisades, to tell the story of each extinction. Brannen examines the fossil record—which is rife with creatures like dragonflies the size of sea gulls and guillotine-mouthed fish—and introduces us to the researchers on the front lines who, using the forensic tools of modern science, are piecing together what really happened at the crime scenes of the Earth’s biggest whodunits.Part road trip, part history, and part cautionary tale, The Ends of the World takes us on a tour of the ways that our planet has clawed itself back from the grave, and casts our future in a completely new light.
Bretz's Flood: The Remarkable Story of a Rebel Geologist and the World's Greatest Flood
John Soennichsen - 2008
Legendary geologist J Harlen Bretz was the first to explore the area, starting in the 1920s. This dramatic book tells the story of this scientific maverick — how he came to study the region, his radical theory that a flood of biblical proportions created it, and how a campaign by the mainstream geologic community tried to derail him for pursuing an idea that satellite photos would confirm decades later.