Author : John McPhee
Release : 1982-04-01
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 568/5 ( reviews)
Book Synopsis Basin and Range by : John McPhee
Download or read book Basin and Range written by John McPhee. This book was released on 1982-04-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.