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The book is a sort of guided tour around a number of geological sites with which Fortey is personally familiar, such as the Grand Canyon, the European Alps and Vesuvius (the description of the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii in AD 79 by Pliny the Younger is probably the first clear and objective description of a geological phenomenon.) He then uses their particular geological details to build a more general story of the geology of earth as it is generally understood today.
As a professional geologist at London's Natural History Museum, Fortey is well-qualified to tell this story. His writing skills have been widely acclaimed in earlier books such as Life: An Unauthorised Biography and Trilobite Eyewitness to Evolution. By giving the story a historical slant we can more readily understand how the present understanding of the earth story has been built up over the centuries and it introduces real people into the narrative. Consequently, the more technical aspects of present day earth science are rendered more palatable and understandable. The text is supported by a number of black and white diagrams and other pictures, which help illustrate some of the more complex processes and features of the earth. --Douglas Palmer.
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The acclaimed author of Trilobite! and Life takes us on a grand tour of the earths physical past, showing how the history of plate tectonics is etched in the landscape around us. "Absorbing. Cinematic. The ultimate travel book, a guidebook that should be read by every person who wants to really know and understand the place we live on." The New York TimesBeginning with Mt. Vesuvius, whose eruption in Roman times helped spark the science of geology, and ending in a lab in the West of England where mathematical models and lab experiments replace direct observation, Richard Fortey tells us what the present says about ancient geologic processes. He shows how plate tectonics came to rule the geophysical landscape and how the evidence is written in the hills and in the stones. And in the process, he takes us on a wonderful journey around the globe to visit some of the most fascinating and intriguing spots on the planet. The face of the earth, crisscrossed by chains of mountains, has changed and changed again over billions of years. In this book Fortey shows how human culture and natural history--even the shape of cities--are rooted in this deep geological past. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780375706202
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