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Basin and Range
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 557.9
EAN: 9780374516901
ISBN: 0374516901
Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 216
Publication Date: April 01, 1982
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Studio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Editorial Review:
One of the most valuable tools for the advancement of geological science has in fact been the humble road cut. United States Interstate 80 crosses the entire North American continent, in the process exposing hundreds of millions of years of geological history. In Basin and Range, McPhee, accompanied at times by Princeton geologist Kenneth S. Deffeyes, demonstrates how the contorted and tilted rocks seen in these road cuts reveal how islands of the earth's crust have floated across the earth's surface, crashing and folding to form basin and range. This is a masterful and sometimes even poetic volume of popular writing about plate tectonics, communicating the profound satisfaction of using scientific research as a tool for understanding the world around us.
This is the first of four books on North American geology by McPhee, collectively entitled Annals of the Former World. The other volumes are In Suspect Terrain, Rising from the Plains, and Assembling California.
The first of John McPhee’s works in his series on geology and geologists, Basin and Range is a book of journeys through ancient terrains, always in juxtaposition with travels in the modern world—a history of vanished landscapes, enhanced by the histories of people who bring them to light. The title refers to the physiographic province of the United States that reaches from eastern Utah to eastern California, a silent world of austere beauty, of hundreds of discrete high mountain ranges that are green with junipers and often white with snow. The terrain becomes the setting for a lyrical evocation of the science of geology, with important digressions into the plate-tectonics revolution and the history of the geologic time scale.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Brilliant organizational idea, great information
The idea of examining American geology a slice at a time by following I-80 from east to west was brilliant.
In this particular volume, McPhee deals with the Great Basin portion of that travelogue geology. There's a lot more than meets the eye -- especially the untrained eye not native to the Great Basin -- in the mountains and valleys of the Silver State, McFhee shows.
Rating: - Basin and Range - Get this book!
I bought the book Basin and Range recently. This is being passed around the household now and is being fought over. Everyone says its a really good book.
Rating:  - Very interesting for lay people interested in geology
The parralells the author draws between the eastern seaboard during the breakup of North America from Europe to the Great Basin and what is going on there was fascinating to me. McPhee helps you understand the processes geologists go through in a way that is interesting to the lay person.
The projective nature of lookin at what the continent will look like millions of years down the road was also fascinating, with a major rift zone either along the Sierra Nevada or the Wasatch front, ... Read More
Rating: - There's more to Nevada than Las Vegas..........
John McPhee's Basin and Range is a layman's geology explaining the formation of mountains and valleys between the Great Salt Lake and the Sierra Nevadas. McPhee intersperses his geology with an alluring mix of personal insight and travelogue commentary which enlivens an otherwise potentially dry subject matter. McPhee makes geology approachable and uncovers the deep intrigue of a science which can be punishing when presented in textbook style. Basin and Range is a short, interesting, and enjoyable explanation ... Read More
Rating: - GREAT BOOK- BASIN AND RANGE
John McPhee's Basin and Range kept me wanting to read more, right up to the very end. His style was very interesting, keeping his story on basin and range full of knowledge. He describes two of North America's past basin and range provinces. An ancient one which was once along America's eastern seaboard and the active basin and range which is centered in Nevada. Even for those who are not knowlegdable on geology this is an easily understood book. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys to read, especially ... Read More
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