Geology Bookstore

Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History
by Peter Ward
The "greatest catastrophe" of the book's title is the mass extinction that closed the Permian Period wiping out more than 90 percent of all species, including the emblematic gorgonopsids. A grand event that has inspired grand hypotheses and grandiose claims, the end-Permian problem is a classic scientific conflict that is at its peak in 2005. Peter Ward, a prime figure in this conflict, presents a visceral, brooding memoir of his pathbreaking work on end-Permian rocks in South Africa's desolate Karoo country. Ward creates a gothic fusion of landscape, geography, paleontologic holocaust and the experience of fieldwork that does not spare his inner joys and anguish. He also presents a rock-solid exposition of Earth science that includes his novel—and very current— theory of the Permian extinction. "Gorgon" joins "Time Traveler" and "Fieldwork" as classics about the scientific life, geologic division.

Finding Fault in California: An Earthquake Tourist's Guide
by Susan Elizabeth Hough
This is a book that's perfect for a certain type of traveler. Sue Hough, a USGS seismologist, takes you to the famous faults in northern and southern and central and eastern California, including road directions to good exposures: the San Andreas, Sierra Madre, Raymond, Elsinore, San Jacinto, Garlock and more. She also teaches you about earthquakes, about faults and faulting, about quake prediction and modeling, about Californian and scientific history, and about the generation of scientists who are contributing to today's ferment in seismology. The book is full of b&w photos, with color versions on the website www.findingfault.com. Now I feel like hitting the road for a couple weeks to visit all these faults. Softcover

A Brain for All Seasons: Human Evolution and Abrupt Climate Change
by William H. Calvin
A funny thing happened to William Calvin as he studied the ancient human brain: he learned that our apelike African ancestors survived a series of wrenching environmental challenges, leaving them with larger brains. Then ice cores from frozen Greenland revealed those challenges to be global climate catastrophes—centuries-long droughts and deadly freezes that started with no warning, sometimes within a single year. When researchers found a likely mechanism in sudden flip-flop changes in ocean currents, Calvin suddenly saw these ancient challenges threatening our future too—with today's global warming a plausible trigger. What began as a low-key scientific puzzle turned glaringly relevant. And "A Brain for All Seasons" is Calvin's vehicle for imparting some of the wide range of knowledge we will need to help control our fate. Hardcover

California Earthquakes: Science, Risk and Politics of Hazard Mitigation
by Carl-Henry Geschwind
After the 1906 quake, the San Francisco authorities left building practices unchanged as the newspapers loudly downplayed the hazards. Today, government enforces costly safety measures based on scientific knowledge. As "California Earthquakes" shows, this progress didn't happen all by itself. It took generations of political activity—by scientists. This scholarly study is worth reading by anyone in disaster-related work as a short history of the science of earthquakes, as well as a close look at memorable episodes like the "Palmdale bulge" of the 1970s. It's also practically a manual for the kind of quiet activism done by lobbyists and bureaucrats. Hardcover

Geology of Death Valley National Park, 2nd edition
by Marli Miller and Lauren Wright
"Geology of Death Valley National Park" is a colorful, compact, authoritative summary of its subject. With an added section of road logs and some basics about geology and desert logistics, it serves as a field guide to Death Valley in ways that the first edition did not. But professionals and teachers will welcome the book unreservedly as a collection of fine photos and a useful compendium of recent thinking about this fascinating region. Softcover
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Volcanoes in America's National Parks
by Robert Decker and Barbara Decker
"Volcanoes," the Deckers say, "are beautiful and majestic mountains. . . sanctuaries of the way the world was." Close-up treatments of 20 of the USA's finest national parks, plus a crisp introduction to volcanic geology, are lavishly studded with superb photographs. "Volcanoes in America's National Parks" will delight you whether you're actually visiting these volcanic destinations or just letting yourself be tempted by them. For both purposes this solid, seductive volume is the most perfect book of its kind. Softcover
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Time Traveler: In Search of Dinosaurs and Ancient Mammals from Montana to Mongolia
by Michael Novacek
A lively, colorful, honest account of a hard and lucky life in paleontology by a man at the top of his field. We all know scientists can't really explain what it is they do, except to fellow PhD's. In "Time Traveler," Michael Novacek wisely tells not just what he does, but what it's like to be him. He shares with us his growth from bass-playing youth to leading professional, complete with scorpions, heatstroke, accidents, stupidities and frustrations—and landscapes, world cultures, spectacular fossils, and people in all their variety. "Time Traveler" is an unforgettable look at the outer and inner life of a contented scientist, plus a cogent introduction to Earth science. Hardcover
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Measuring Eternity: The Search for the Beginning of Time
by Martin Gorst
A richly detailed, highly readable account of five centuries of human progress toward answering one question: when did time begin? Gorst decorates his timeline, like popcorn on a string, with dozens of different, evolving answers and the fascinating people who proposed them. We begin in 1650 with James Ussher's famous determination that God started time at 6 pm on October 22, 4004 BCE, and end with the tumultuous late 1990s and our current best guess of 13.4 billion years ago. Gorst succeeds in bringing the past to life and placing us in its mindset. With that, we can appreciate the humanity and heroism behind the pioneers great and small who followed Ussher, each of whom—except the latest—was hailed with praise, then later proven wrong. Hardcover
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Salt: A World History
by Mark Kurlansky
A salty trail runs from prehistory to today: until a mere century ago salt was a supremely strategic material, the world's primary means of preserving fresh food. Politics, economics, the evolution of technology, even warfare centered around its producers and consumers. Salt leaves its marks in our languages, place names, and delicatessens. This appetizing book focuses not on salt's geology but on its place in human life. But as geology's root purpose has always been to create wealth, there is much to savor between the lines. In a garland of vignettes "Salt" serves up recipes old and new, anecdotes personal and historical, and some crystalline insights amid a smorgasbord of facts, factoids, travelogue, and well-chosen illustrations. It all goes down like a basket of pretzels. Hardcover

Road Guide to Joshua Tree National Park
by Barbara Decker and Robert Decker
This little road guide is 48 pages long and fits in your glove compartment. But it's so full of enticing information, photos, maps, and lovely line drawings that it won't stay there. Two one-day driving excursions through the park's geology, history, biology, and destinations are lovingly described by two authors who wear their learning lightly. I field-tested this book at Joshua Tree and can vouch for its clarity and relevance. This guide is a total pleasure, and worth three times the price. Paperback
Your Guide's Review

The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals
by Simon Conway Morris
A fiercely argued, profoundly articulate, superbly illustrated treatment of the Burgess Shale fossils and their meaning not just for science, but for philosophy. Whether or not you share the author's passion "that the processes of evolution have metaphysical implications for us," and whether or not you subscribe to his opposition to the ideas of Stephen J. Gould, the facts and the photographs alone are a bargain. Paperback

Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event that Changed History
by Walter Pitman and William Ryan
A first-person account of how geologists tracked down the real Great Flood—when the Mediterranean Sea flooded a great freshwater lake and its human inhabitants to form today's Black Sea, some 7,000 years ago. You'll learn how genuine science is done today, plus how ancient history is deciphered and revised. An inspiring blockbuster for adults and intelligent young readers. Hardcover
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Annals of the Former World
by John McPhee
A monumental classic by today's best writer on geology, this book combines Basin and Range, In Suspect Terrain, Rising from the Plains, and Assembling California. This book is for long-term ownership, and the price is right even if you already have one or two of the constituent volumes. Hardcover

Glossary of Geology, 5th Edition
Neuendorf, Mehl and Jackson, editors
The gold standard from professionals and those who think like them, with over 40,000 entries explained and hundreds of references, published by the American Geological Institute. I use my copy every day. Pricey but permanent. Hardcover

Principles of Geology
by Charles Lyell, edited by James Secord
An inexpensive Penguin Classics reissue of the great three-volume book that launched geology as a formal science in 1830, abridged. A monument of 19th-century science, written for the lay public in the best tradition of scientific writing. Paperback

A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals
by Frederick H. Pough
This old friend to generations of geologists and mineral hounds is both authoritative and readable—and includes physical and chemical tests for every mineral. If I had to discard all but one geology book, I'd keep my Field Guide. Hardcover

Volcanoes, Third Edition
by Robert Decker and Barbara Decker
A superb, highly illustrated sourcebook on volcanology from chapter 1's treatment of plate tectonics to the appendix listing the 101 most notorious volcanoes of the world. Paperback

Naked Earth: The New Geophysics
by Shawna Vogel
The best book I've seen on the greatest geologic story of the last twenty years—the journey to the center of the Earth through the mantle and core. The author has done her homework and covers not just the science but the people doing it today. Paperback
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Fieldwork: A Geologist's Memoir of the Kalahari
by Christopher Scholz
A prominent seismologist tells a tale of science in the field as he really did it, in the back country of Botswana in the 1970s—dealing with elephants, equipment, locals, and diplomats. Old field geologists and student dreamers alike will find rewards in these pages. A captivating example of a rare literary species. Hardcover
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