Customer Reviews

Geology Of National Parks

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent textbook of geology and some history of our national parks. The text is organized by each park within geographic regions. This is great and helps one to read up on a specific park BEFORE visiting it so as to get the most out of the trip.

The layout, font size and pictures are great. The explanation of the geology behind the landscape is just beautiful and quite meaty. There is a CD that comes with the text and this is where I have a problem. The CD has great pictures of the parks but that is it. It would have been great if the CD came with some interactive stuff.

With the book size being formidible it would have been great to have a folded handout along with the CD so that one could actually use it on a field trip.

But all in all this is an excellent book and very useful to a non-geologist like myself.

I would have given it a 5-star except that there is no handy cutout that effectively summarizes the book for use in the field.

"Geology of the National Parks" is filled to the brim with information, but it is less a textbook than a nice desk reference.

The book organizes the national parks according to their major geographical features. This works, but since many parks have the same or similar features, the same information is often repeated. Furthermore, the information on the parks is extremely detailed and extends beyond the geographic features that the book is organized by. A straight geographic or alphabetical ordering might have worked better. The index is adequate, though, which make up for this somewhat.

The writing is clear and understandable, though packed with information. If there is a geological process in a NP, it is in this book. The only problem is that the student never really gets an idea of geological processes on a continental or global scale because of the organization. Each park comes off as isolated.

Still, if you are an amateur geologist who enjoys the national parks, this is a great book to have in your collection. It really makes a person appreciate how unique and special each park is. But any professor looking to use this as a text really needs address the material like they would a GEOL 101 course and use the parks to address these larger geological processes. A biology or chemistry teacher wouldn't teach from an encyclopedia of those disciplines and the same care needs to be taken with this text.

In the last few years I've become intrigued by geology after visiting the western National Parks.

I've read and studied a few intro geology textbook to become educated enough to appreciate what underlies the beauty of our National Parks.

This book does a wonderful job of covering the geology underlying the beauty of 58 of our National Parks. IMHO it was worth the used price I paid for it. I do wish I'd gotten the CD to see what it contained.

For me the color pictures and illustrations make the book more interesting and enjoyable to read. It's just easier to learn.

I bought the book in 3-ring binder form so I can take one park out at a time and put it in a smaller binder to read. The book itself is 2 inches thick and cumbersome to read unless you're at a table. Taking out one of the 58 chapters makes it easier to work with.

I also have Geology of Utah's National and State Parks, also in COLOR, that goes into more detail for each park, but having looked at that book, this book covers each of the 58 parks well, but not in too much detail.

Having armchair geology as one of my hobbies, this book makes a wonderful addition to my library.

My basic geology book recommendation is EARTH, An Introduction to Physical Geology. I'd welcome other recommendations here too.

I have a college and professional science background and enjoy learning the "why" behind many things. That bores a lot of people so if you're the "art" type of person that want to watch eagles soaring over the Grand Canyon, I don't recommend this book for you.

I also enjoy watching eagles soar and ground squirrels play at the Grand Canyon!

For this price you might want to borrow it from a library or a university library to be sure it's for you.

Harris et al. have produced a weighty tome that will appeal to the geologist on vacation who wants to get more out of the National Park experience. There are plenty of maps and cross-sections to interest the informed reader, particularly the increasing number of retired geologists. Unfortunately there is not enough in the way of more modern data such as reflection seismic, potential fields or, surprisingly, geothermal data. Also, considering the price, more color satellite images would have been appreciated. One point: I am not sure how much this book would appeal to the lay reader, whose enjoyment of the National Park system would be considerably enhanced by knowledge of the underlying geologic processes that produced the beautiful scenery.

Perfect, great condition, just what I needed. Great seller, fast shipping. I would recommend to others.

My 10 year old daughter loves the book. She wants to be a geologist with the National Park Service when she grows up.

the book came nice and clean, no creases and no highlights, very happy with my purchase

The provided great geologic information. The colorplates of the parks were nice, but it would be better if the whole book was in color, and if they had pictures of all the parks. A good buy if your intrested in National Parks or geology.