Historical geology is the branch of geology that deals with figuring out how things got the way they are, geologically. It can be applied to just a small area, a large area, or the entire planet. In any case, it can be interesting and useful, especially if you're going to visit any of these areas.
ANNALS OF THE FORMER WORLD
McPhee, John
c.1998, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
ISBN: 0-374-51873-4
An omnibus collection of John McPhee's four famous books on North American geology, presented in order of publication. A fifth section, which completes the cross-continent journey, was written specially for this volume. Put together, the five books describe the geology of the United States via an east-to-west journey along Interstate 80.
- Book 1, Basin and Range, describes the theory of plate tectonics and applies it specifically to the region that geologists call the Basin and Range, which covers most of the state of Nevada and part of western Utah, very roughly the area between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada, south of the Oregon/Idaho border and north of the Colorado Plateau.
- Book 2, In Suspect Terrain, covers the geology of the East Coast and the Appalachian Mountains, focusing mostly around the Delaware Water Gap.
- Book 3, Rising from the Plains, uses the geology of the state of Wyoming as a microcosm of the eastern face of the Rocky Mountains.
- Book 4, Assembling California, is about the insanely complicated geology of California.
- The new section, Crossing the Craton, completes the story via a discussion of the geology of Nebraska and eastern Colorado, where rocks of the mid-continent lowlands can be found.
THE EVOLUTION OF NORTH AMERICA*
King, Philip B.
c.1977, Princeton Univ. Press
ISBN: 0-691-07960-9
A methodical review of the geologic history of the North American continent, going systematically north-south and east-west.
THE EVOLVING COAST
Davis, Richard A.
c.1994, W. H. Freeman
ISBN: 0-7167-5042-2
Another of Scientific American's books, this one talks about coastlines and how they develop and change over time.
GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF UTAH
Hintze, Lehi F.
c.1973, Brigham Young Univ.
ISBN:
Lehi Hintze is (or at least was) a professor at Brigham Young University. This book is assembled from the lecture notes he used for his class on the basic geology of Utah. It shows geologic columns for several parts of the state, with formation names and ages and other useful information.
GEOLOGIC STORY OF YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK*
Keefer, William
c.1972, USGS
ISBN:
A small book or pamphlet published by the United States Geologic Survey as a basic introduction to the geology and history of Yellowstone National Park.
GEOLOGIC TIME
Eicher, Don
c.1968, Prentice-Hall
ISBN:
This version of this book is a look at the ideas of historical geology as of the mid-1960s, before the general acceptance of plate tectonics.
THE GEOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF NORTH AMERICA
Clark and Stearn
c.1960, Ronald Press
ISBN:
An older, pre-plate-tectonics textbook that reviews North American geology and geography in terms of the main geologic theory of that time, geosynclinal theory.
GEOLOGY OF THE SIERRA NEVADA
Hill, Mary
c.1975, Univ of California
ISBN: 0-520-02698-5
An extensive look at the geology of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, written by an expert geologist but written for the ordinary hiker or tourist.
THE
HISTORY OF EARTH: AN ILLUSTRATED CHRONICLE OF AN EVOLVING PLANET
Hartmann & Miller
c.1991, Workman Publishing
ISBN: 0-89480-756-0
ICE AGES: PAST AND FUTURE
Erickson, Jon
c.1990, TAB Books
ISBN: 0-8306-3463-0
THE
INCOMPARABLE VALLEY: A geologic interpretation of the Yosemite
Matthes, Francois
c.1950, Univ. of California
ISBN:
A look at the geologic history of Yosemite Valley.
PLANET EARTH: ICE AGES*
Chorlton, Windsor
c.1983, Time-Life Books
ISBN: 0-8094-4328-7
Ice ages, their causes and effects. Another in the Time-Life "Planet Earth" series.
