
Assembling California
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Narrated by:
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Nelson Runger
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By:
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John McPhee
At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result of these trips 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 and across the Great Central Valley to the wine country of the Coast Ranges, the rock of San Francisco, and the San Andreas family of faults.
The two disparate time scales occasionally intersect—in the gold disruptions of the nineteenth century no less than in the earthquakes of the twentieth—and always with relevance to a newly understood geologic history in which half a dozen large and separate pieces of country are seen to have drifted in from far and near to coalesce as California. McPhee and Moores also journeyed to remote mountains of Arizona and to Cyprus and northern Greece, where rock of the deep-ocean floor has been transported into continental settings, as it has in California. Global in scope and a delight to listen to, Assembling California is a sweeping narrative of maps in motion, of evolving and dissolving lands.
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Critic reviews
“A delicious field manual on the creation of the Golden State going back a few hundred million years.”—Peter Stack, The San Francisco Chronicle
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McPhee and Runger
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The book is genius…
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Just as quantum mechanics and relativity transformed Physics, just as the concept of brain plasticity transformed Neuroscience, just so the theory of plate tectonics transformed Geology. John McPhee explains the transformation of the science, and the transformation of the Earth's surface in fine prose. He quotes dialogs with geologists--mainly Eldridge Moores--gives analogies, and uses anecdotes drawn from personal experience to convey the concepts.
Assembling California works fine on the printed page, but has a few too many technical terms to work entirely well as an audio book.
Nevertheless, this is a well-written and well-read book that conveys the outline of modern tectonic geology to the layman.
California as a lens to the surface of Earth
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Meandering Journey Through California Geology
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Would you try another book from John McPhee and/or Nelson Runger?
yesWould you recommend Assembling California to your friends? Why or why not?
not sure, there is a lot of geography terms used that I did not understand so I got bored. I have enjoyed other books by John McPhee more.Would you listen to another book narrated by Nelson Runger?
suregeography jargon
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Enjoyed What I Was Able to Assemble
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Excellent geology for the general public and geology undergrads
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The complexity of California geology
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Like all McPhee writing, 'Assembling California 'is an amazing conglomeration of good writing, great characters, and interesting technical facts. However, unlike the earlier books in this series ( Basin and Range, In Suspect Terrain) it just doesn't set up as nicely. I'm not sure if it had more to do with the messiness of California's geology, the limits of Eldridge Moores as an engaging character, or if McPhee had just grown a bit tired of his own Great I-80 Geology Project. He is engaging, but there just wasn't as much sparkle or heat as with earlier books with Karen Kleinspehn, Kenneth Deffeyes, or Anita Harris. A solid McPhee and a good addition to the series, just not the strongest piece. I hope that 'Rising from the Plains' works out a bit better.
Subduction leads to orogeny zones in California
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Lush and informative.
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