Book reviews from wyantry

Annals Of the Former World

by John McPhee

All John McPhees series of boks on geology, collected into one volume; and this time WITH MAPS!Anyone that has read one or more of McPhees books on geology: 1] Basin and Range, 2] In Suspect Terrain, 3] Rising From The Plains, 4] Assembling California, and 5] Crossing The Craton will enjoy having these individual books in one collection.The Narrative Table of Contents is worth reading as well, in it McPhee explains the rationale and history of his more than twenty-year series of sojurns traversing North America along the line of Interstate 80, accompanying several different geologists.Several concepts of geology, from an explanation of the glaciation of New England, to the advent of Plate Tectonics explaining the accretion of California are explained in an entertaining essentially non-geological manner, with numerous literary references.As a geologist, I recommend this series of books to anyone with an interest in the land-forms and origin of North America.

Lexicon Of Geologic Names Of the United States For 1936-1960 Three Volumes Vol 1 A-F, Vol 2 G-O, Vol 3 P-Z

by Grace C Et Al 1967 Keroher

This is a reprint of the three-volume set of the US Geological Survey Bulletin 1200 – "Lexicon of Geologic Names of the United States", by Keroher et. al.1967. English printed copies (with French-language printed covers) of the massive collection of Formations, Stages, Age, Outcrop locations and type-localities of geologic formations of the United States (including Pacific Islands, Possessions, and the Panama Canal Zone).In three (3) volumes:Vol I = A - F (p. 1-1449), Vol. II = G - O (p. 1450-2886), Vol. III = P - Z (p.2887-4341).A nearly-invaluable reference for geologic formations and their origins and derivations. The history and usage of each individual geologic formation is described in detail, and some type-localities are very specific.Format of each description is:Formation Name (and attendant Group):Geologic age / Location of formation:Original reference:Notes on outcrop(s), localities, and descriptions by worker/author:Type locality or name derivation:An example:"Gallatin Limestone or Formation Gallatin Group Upper Cambrian: Southern Montana and northwestern Wyoming. Original references: A. C. Peal, 1893, U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 110; 1896, U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Folio 24. B. M. Miller, 1936, Jour. Geology, v. 44, no. 2, p.124-127. In Wind River Mountains and Owl Creek-Bridger uplift, formation is subdivided to include Du Noir member. ... H. A. Tourtelot and R. M. Thompson, 1948, U.S. Geol. Survey Oil and Gas Inv. Prelim. Map 91. Formation, in Boysen area, Wyoming, consists of 455 feet of limestone and limestone-pebble conglomerate with lesser amounts of limy siltstone and shale. Contact between Gallatin and overlying Gros Ventre is placed at base of prominent cliff- forming limestone about 87 feet thick; the contact thus placed is approximately at base of Gallatin as used by Miller (1936) and is about 60 feet above contact between DePass and Boysen formations of Deiss (1938). Underlies Madison formation. ... {other references, descriptions & locations} ... Named for typical occurence in Gallatin Range, the southern extension of which is in northwestern corner of Yellowstone Park."