Customer Reviews

Cape Cod and the Islands: The Geologic Story

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To begin with, although the Amazon.com screen shows the 1992 edition published by Parnassus Imprints, that edition is no longer available, and Parnassus Imprints no longer has anything to do with Oldale's book; it is now sold in a completely revised and greatly improved edition, published in 2001 by On Cape Publications. If you want this book, you want the new edition.

There are three easily available books aimed at the general reader (rather than professional geologists) on the geology of Cape Cod; two of the three, including this one, also discuss Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. In my opinion, this one, by Robert N. Oldale, is by far the best of the three, although the other two are also worth reading by anyone seriously interested in the subject. Oldale has spent his long career with the US Geological Survey, and much of it has been devoted to research on the soils, geology, and geological history of Cape Cod and the Islands. As a result, he knows more about the subject than anyone else I know or know of. In this book he writes very clearly, for the general reader, and covers the subject thoroughly and with scrupulous accuracy. His discussion is clarified and improved by a large number of apt photographs, figures and sketch maps, most of which are new in this 2001 edition. I love this book.

The geology of Cape Cod is astonishingly complex for a spit of land that seems so simple. It would have been impossible for Oldale to describe all the details in a book of reasonable length. So for the seriously interested reader, the numerous references to other books, maps and monographs, in Appendices A, C, D and F are invaluable. Unfortunately, although most of the material referred to is easy to come by, some of it is not. In particular, the map which underlies Oldale's book (also largely prepared by Oldale) "Geologic Map of Cape Cod and the Islands, Massachusetts: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-1763" can be hard to find. But it can be bought by mail at a very modest price from the Geology Department of the University of Massachusetts. I recommend that anyone who plans to read more than one book on the geology of Cape Cod, or who intends to re-read Oldale's book, get this map. It illustrates admirirably many of the points made by Oldale in the book, and in addition contains a wealth of detail that supplements the book (but which might be hard for a non-professional to comprehend before reading the book.) The book and the map together provide wonderful coverage of a fascinating subject.