About this title: At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee has made geological field trips in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result is Assembling California, a cross-section in human and geologic time, from Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada through the golden foothills of the Mother Lode ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780374523930ISBN:0374523932
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 224 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 224 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Revised ed. Illustrated.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux, NY
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780374106454ISBN:0374106452
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 224 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. DJ has some slight creasing around edges, very slight discoloration inside. Book is almost like new. read more
Edition: First Thus Used
Binding: S Paperback
Publisher: Noonday Press/FSG, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780374523930ISBN:0374523932
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall A VG copy. Light creasing and wear to wraps curling with pages. Soiling to page edges. read more
Edition: First Thus
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Noonday Pr, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780374523930ISBN:0374523932
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780374106454ISBN:0374106452
Description: Very good. No dust jacket. 1st printing. Book looks unused. Bright, unmarked, and clean. No dust jacket. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. 224 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Fine in ln jacket. Hardcover with dust jacket, Like New (Near Fine), clean, tight, unmarked, Dust Jacket Like New (Near Fine) North American Orders are shipped by kbooks every business day. International orders are shipped on Tuesdays and Friday's. read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 224 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. Clean inside and out with light cover curl. No creasese. Closed pages a little dusty from shelving. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780374523930ISBN:0374523932
Description: Very Good; Cover has very minor scuff/curl at corners. 0374523932. Cover and text are unmarked and very clean, except as noted.; 0.9 x 8.2 x 5.4 Inches; 224 pages. read more
Description: Noonday Press, c. 1994, 1st Noonday Press edition, softcover, ; About 8X5", pages bright. A tight solid copy. Near VERY GOOD. A nice copy you will be happy to own! read more
"Fourth in a series which I did not begin, this superbly written account of the geological and human history of California, with particular attention to the development of the theory of plate tectonics, demands a great deal from the reader but offers commensurate rewards. I was in CA when I read it, but hugely frustrated by having no access to the Internet, Google Earth, maps, or a quick dictionary. So many places and scenes I wanted to track down. One comes away with a huge appreciation for geology and geologists, and for the extraordinary history of rocks moving around on the surface of this planet. I genuinely look at rocks differently now -- nothing but questions."
"'Deep Time' was originally proposed by the Scotsman James Hutton, and this led to the establishment of geology as a true science (not to mention its influence on Charles Darwin who used the concept as the basis of evolution). Geologic time period names have a magesterial ring to them (Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian...) and somehow convey unimaginable depths of time. If the history of the earth were collected in nine volumes stacked on a table, we would finally reach multi-cellular life and the oldest fossils by Volume 8, dinosaurs somewhere near the end of Volume 9, and humans in the last chapter, last page, and probably last sentence of the ninth volume.
John McPhee sparked my interest (as a layman) in geology many years ago, and I have read most everything he has written (especially on Geology) except this book. Having read it, I am confirmed in my assessment of McPhee as a gifted writer able to convey the complexity of the earth's geological history and how field geologists observe, think and fit observations into a coherent 'story'. The story here is of plate tectonics, and how it has created California: why, for example, rocks from the seafloor appear in the Sierra Nevada Mountains mixed with various other ocean sediments. Or, why the oceans only contain 'young' rock only a few hundred million years old as opposed to the 4 billion year old rock of the Canadian shield.
In explaining plate tectonics, McPhee uses examples from all over the world (all of those islands in the Indian Ocean, and the unique geology of Cyprus...), but California is where it all 'comes together' (sorry for the pun). Where plates have been sutured together to extend North America westward from Utah all the way to the present California coast. Part of the story involves the gold deposits in California, and he gives us a good sense of the chaos of the California Gold Rush. But, just as interesting is the explanation of how gold became concentrated and delivered to the Mother Lode though geological forces of heat, dissolution, concentration, and chemical combination.
I do not know how many books John McPhee has yet to write, but I will certainly await them with anticipation."
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