101 American Geo-Sites You've Gotta See (Geology Underfoot) [Paperback]

Albert B. Dickas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2012 | Series: Geology Underfoot

Rocks racing across a lakebed in Death Valley. Perfectly preserved 36-million-year-old tsetse flies in Colorado. Dinosaur trackways cemented into ancient floodplains in Connecticut. A gaping rift in the Idaho desert. What do these enigmatic geologic phenomena have in common? Besides initiating a profusion of head-scratching over the years, these sites of geologic wonder appear side by side, for the first time, in a single publication.


Examining in detail at least one amazing site for all fifty states, Albert Dickas clearly explains the geologic forces behind each one s origin in 101 Geologic Sites You ve Gotta See. Dickas discusses not only iconic landforms such as Devil s Tower in Wyoming but also locales that are often overlooked yet have fascinating stories. Consider the Reelfoot scarp in Tennessee: to the casual observer it is nothing more than a slight rise in a farm field. Yet this subtle slope represents a rift formed during an 1812 earthquake that forced the mighty Mississippi to flow upstream. Or Lousiana s unassuming, low-lying Avery Island, which actually caps an 8.5-mile-high column of salt. Amply illustrated with full-color photographs and illustrations and written in clear yet playful prose, 101 Geologic Sites You ve Gotta See will entertain and inform amateur and seasoned geology buffs whether from an armchair or in the field.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in Ohio, Albert Dickas earned BA and MA degrees from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio). He earned his PhD at Michigan State University and then worked in the oil industry for many years. He taught at the University of Wisconsin Superior for thirty-one years, founded an environmental research center, and became involved in the industrial exploration for oil in the Precambrian strata of the Midcontinent Rift. He has led numerous field conferences, authored and coauthored more than thirty papers, and delivered presentations from Nova Scotia to Siberia all on the subject of Precambrian oil and Precambrian rifting. Today he lives on the crest of Brush Mountain in southwest Virginia, where he continues to engage in research and plan travel excursions in his quest for new and interesting geo-sites on all of the seven continents.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company (April 15, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087842587X
• ISBN-13: 978-0878425877
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Geology
  • #18 in Books > Travel > United States > West > Mountain

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great gift for travelers (even if you're not a rock hound) June 17, 2012

By Hblowers

Format:Paperback

I received this book as gift and upon paging through the rich array of photos, images and text had to immediately order a copy as a gift for some friends. 101 American Geo-Sites That You've Gotta See is an excellent and easy to read field guide to interesting geological finds. With a site to explore in every one of the states, the guide is a "must have" addition to any explorer's (arm-chair enthusiasts included) travel library. Our copy is traveling with us on our next family vacation out west. True, as one reviewer notes, the Grand Canyon is not included, but this title contains more than the obvious (that most other travel books focus one). Each site contains interesting photos and graphics that explain the geological significance and even provides longitude and latitude coordinates. If you're into geo-caching, this book will add some additional fun to your travel adventures. A great book that you don't have to be a rock-hound to appreciate. So impressed, I came here to order copies for friends

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Geology for the Masses June 27, 2012

By acorn

Format:Paperback

For those who enjoy incorporating natural wonders in their travels, this guide is a must. You may not find the same over-exposed marvels as every other tour book, but you will find (easily, with the coordinates) some pretty cool sites you never would have without this book. And, you can learn as little or as much about geology as you want with the well-written and succinct "Introduction and Short History of the Earth". I learned much more in the initial 18 pages than I remember from my Historical Geology class! If you don't care to know that much, the descriptions of most sites and the reasons they rate a spot in this book are easily understood without much background. A complete glossary is a big help for unfamiliar words.

A must for car travel - On the way to visit grandma, you can tell the family, "Look, it's only a 100-mile detour to see the Paluxy River Tracks!" and turn a mundane annual trip into a real adventure.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous for Touring or Tutorial June 11, 2012

By Norman Sperling

Format:Paperback

Both for sight-seeing and for tutorials, this is a wonderful new book. It illustrates a great many important geological principles while providing glorious sights to see. Almost all of the sites can been visited by road. You'll find many settings of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.

Each selection has a 2-page spread: the left side tells coordinates, background, and what you can see. The right side presents 3 or 4 photos, cross-sections, maps, and/or development sequences. As in most cases where a publisher or designer dictates that all selections get equal space, both stories and typography may seem puffed or crammed.

Many places are within a half-day drive for most Americans. There's at least one in every state - one of the selection criteria. Just as in baseball's All-Star Game, where there has to be a player from every team, this promotes a number of less-important selections at the expense of better ones. Baseball depends on its fan-base, but people seeking superior geologic examples know perfectly well that they have to travel to see most of them. I hope the next edition abandons this criterion. Travelers will find concentrations of gem-quality sites easier to take in during reasonable excursions.

The author's illustrations and points are extremely clear. I found no typos, and only 5 minor mistakes.

The glossary, references, and index all have lots of entries, enabling a reader to pursue items. The glossary is a bit terse considering that many readers are novices. But it does distinguish, for example, between "terrain" ("A region of the Earth that is considered a physical feature, such as the Great Plains") and "terrane" ("A body of rock bounded by faults and characterized by a geologic history that differs from adjacent terranes"). It would be improved by listing all the examples in the book. The index probably doesn't list all occurrences of each term.

Whether you seek the newest or oldest rocks, or relics of ancient Gondwanaland or Rodinia, this book shows the way. These 101 geo-sites are well worth the trip for anyone interested in the more durable parts of Nature.