Description
Book SynopsisThe geologist Markes E. Johnson invites readers on a journey through deep time to find the traces of ancient islands. He visits a dozen sites around the globe, looking above and below today’s waterlines to uncover how landscapes of the past are preserved in the present.
Trade ReviewIslands in Deep Time is a deep dive into the logic of geology: how vanished land- and seascapes can be conjured back into existence from the raw rock record. All geologists collect old rocks, but Markes Johnson collects entire ancient islands. This book is an exhibit of a dozen particularly fine specimens, which Johnson holds up and rotates so they can be viewed from multiple perspectives. -- Marcia Bjornerud, author of
Geopedia: A Brief Compendium of Geologic Curiosities and
Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the WorldUsing his lifetime of experience in geology, Johnson illustrates how a landscape can be read as the results of millions of years of geological, biological, and climatological processes. A fascinating and imaginative work. -- Henry Hooghiemstra, emeritus professor in the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam
Islands in Deep Time takes readers on hikes to ancient shorelines, featuring possibly the best descriptions and visualizations of field locations I have ever read. -- Gordon Chancellor, coeditor of
Charles Darwin's Notebooks from the Voyage of the Beagle
[A…] geological tour de force. * Deposits Magazne *
Table of ContentsPreface: On the Reality of Time Travel
Acknowledgments
1. How to Listen to a Sky Island with Global Ambition: Climbing Mount Monadnock
2. How an Island Cluster Acquires Its Shape: A Journey in Late Cambrian Time to Wisconsin’s Baraboo Archipelago
3. How Islands Trade in Physical Wear and Organic Growth: A Journey in Late Ordovician Time to Hudson Bay’s Jens Munk Archipelago
4. How Islands Recall Windward Surf and Leeward Calm: A Journey in Late Silurian Time to Inner Mongolia’s Bater Island
5. How Bigger Islands are Broken into Smaller Pieces: A Journey in Late Devonian Time to Western Australia’s Mowanbini Archipelago
6. How Softer Islands Dissolve: A Journey in Early Permian Time to the Labyrinth Karst of Western Australia
7. How Islands React to Big Storms: A Journey in Early Jurassic Time to Saint David’s Archipelago of Wales
8. How Island Life Aligns with Global Currents: A Journey in Late Cretaceous Time to Baja California’s Eréndira Islands
9. How Island Life Adjusts to Opposing Shores on Oceanic Islands: A Journey in Middle Miocene Time to the Madeira Archipelago
10. How Volcanic Islands Rise, Fall, and Renew: A Journey in Early Pliocene Time to the Azorean Santa Maria Island
11. How the Youngest Islands Challenge Witness: Journeys in Pleistocene Time to Islands on the African and Pacific Tectonic Plates
12. How Islands Draw Meaning and Obligation: Descending Mount Misen on Japan’s Sacred Miyajima
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
