Description
Book SynopsisSweeps across dramatic and varied terrains - volcanoes and glaciers, billabongs and canyons, prairies and rain forests - to explore how humans have made sense of our planet's marvelous landscapes. This book investigates how we live with the great shaping forces of nature - from fire to changing climates and the intricacies of adaptation.
Trade Review"Engaging... The Face of the Earth is like none you have read before." -- Gioia Woods Northern Arizona University Interdisciplinary Studies In Literature And Environment "Remarkable... Dazzling... A sophisticated and varied exploration... Spectacular... The Face of the Earth is indeed a source for wonder." -- Ruth Morgan Environment & History
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. Landscapes of Internal Fire On the Spot: Over a River of Lava (SueEllen Campbell) Prologue Imagining the Interior On the Spot: At the Edge of an Overthrust Belt (Scott Denning) Mundus subterraneus On the Spot: Among the Aeolian Islands (John Calderazzo) The Globe, Tectonic Plates, and Mountain Building On the Spot: Along the Disturbance Gradient (Charles Goodrich) Volcanoes and Their Eruptions On the Spot: Approaching Chaiten Volcano (Fred Swanson) Hot Springs and Geysers Chapter 2. Climate and Ice Prologue On the Spot: Up and down the Himalaya (Ellen Wohl) How the Climate Works The Ghosts of Climates Past On the Spot: On the Burren (Gerald Delahunty) Our Ice Age Landscapes Shaped by Ice On the Spot: In the Channeled Scablands (Mark Fiege) Ice-Age Humans On the Spot: On the Arctic Tundra (Ellen Wohl) The Little Ice Age, Glaciology, and the Sublime On the Spot: Toward a Glacier's Edge (Ana Maria Spagna) The Story Now Chapter 3. Wet and Fluid Prologue On the Spot: In the Rocky Intertidal Zone (Kathleen Dean Moore) The Water Cycle On the Spot: Along a Rain Forest Stream (Ellen Wohl) The Moving Waters of Rivers The Dream of Water in Deserts The Slow Water of Wetlands On the Spot: At the Bog on Ceide Fields (Gerald Delahunty) Peat, Mires, Bogs, Fens On the Spot: At Wicken Fen (Richard Kerridge) Marshes and Swamps Wet/Dry On the Spot: At the Billabong (Deborah Bird Rose) Chapter 4. Desert Places, Desert Lives Prologue On the Spot: Down a Desert River Canyon (SueEllen Campbell) Dry, Hot, Windy, and Dusty On the Spot: In Jabal Aja' (Othman Llewellyn and Aishah Abdallah) What We See On the Spot: In the Chihuahuan Desert (Tom Lynch) Clever Plants On the Spot: In the Red Center (Deborah Bird Rose) Clever Creatures On the Spot: In the Negev Desert (Ellen Wohl) The Human Desert Chapter 5. The Complexities of the Real Prologue Underfoot On the Spot: In Antarctica's Dry Valleys (Diana Wall) Oceans of Grass The Shapes of Complexity On the Spot: On the Chalk Downs (Richard Kerridge) Evolving Together ... On the Spot: In the Tallgrass Prairie (Bruce Campbell) ... And Moving Apart On the Spot: On the Tibetan Plateau (Julia Klein) Among Trees On the Spot: In a Eucalypt Forest (Kate Rigby) Zooming In Return to Wonder Epilogue: In a High Flower Meadow (SueEllen Campbell) Sources Contributor Biographies Acknowledgments Index
