Grand Canyon: Solving Earth's Grandest Puzzle

by James Lawrence Powell

Book Overview

Combines historical text with geomorphological and scientific evidence to chronicle the search by explorers, scientists, and academics to understand the cause and evolution of the Grand Canyon. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 013147989X
• ISBN13: 9780131479890
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Pi Press
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

feel your mind stretch!

Not sure if the other reviewers had the same book as there were 16 pages of photos (many old and rare I'm sure) and ample maps and diagrams. If geology is to your liking, this book is sure to please. Long live great minds, deep time and darwinism!

highly recommended

Excellent review of the geology and the history of science of the making of the Grand Canyon. Reading it enriched my recent backpacking trip there.

Breathtaking.

Chapters include: Part One: A Brief History of Awe Six Feet Water Catch 'Em How Old Is a River? The Saw That Cut the Mountain Seven Cities of Gold Part Two: Secrets of the River America's Greatest Geologists The Sublimest Thing Earth's Engine Where Everything Is Exposed Antecedence in Doubt The Same River Twice? Part Three: A New Theory Paradox Canyon Makers Lazarus and Lakes Molten Rock, Melted Snow What Caused the Grand Canyon Key Terms & Places References Acknowledgments Index ***** The middle of the book has several photos with captions. I found this book to be absolutely breathtaking! ***** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Excellant overview

This is a lovely overview of the Grand Canyon, its discovery by Europeans, and its study by scientists from the mid 19th century to the present time. It is sort of a history of a history. While the author discusses early Spanish visits to or near misses of the Canyon, he spends most of the first several chapters discussing John Wesley Powell's voyage of discovery and his documentation of the Colorado River's course to the Gulf of California. This is almost an adventure story in itself, and serves to capture the imagination in a way that most geological works don't. Although the quotes from Powell's work seemed a little over-the-top, I still felt like getting a copy of his work to read it for myself. Certainly the discussion of his later life produces a much more rounded and engaging portrait of the man than most texts provide. Succeeding chapters deal with the careers of Powell and his various coworkers and successors and the development of theories regarding the Grand Canyon's origins. In the process, the author also discusses the history of geology and of the theory of earth history, covering among other things, the work of Nicholas Steno, James Hutton, Louis Agassiz, Charles Lyell, and Alfred Wegener. For the geology student these names will already be familiar; for others the brief introduction will offer a quick recitation of the Who's Who of geology without belaboring the point. Professor Powell's discussion makes it apparent that the science of geology is as much a work in progress as the Grand Canyon itself, since the concept of the canyon building processes have been reshaped as geology itself has matured as a field. He carries the reader through the thought processes of each of the researcher's contributions, ending the book with a final summation of his own on the subject that he admits is thoroughly tentative but is still a best approximation. Among the most interesting points on the Canyon is the fact that, while on first glance it seems so obvious with respect to its structure, dynamics and age, it is in fact much more complex than it appears. The author's style is very readable, although there were places where I got rather lost in the descriptions of channels, directions, etc. along the course of the river. Anyone intimately familiar with the terrain, however, will have little difficulty following the discussion, but those of us less familiar with the Canyon will find it somewhat confusing. The gist of the information is, however, quite clear. Those not familiar with geology will find the author provides explanations of terms in context, and will also find a glossary of terms at the back of the book. For the most part, the description of erosional and depositional processes is quite clear and does not require any background in the subject. It would probably serve as a good book for high school libraries, since its presentation of science as a profession and a discipline is quite clear. A thoroughly enjoyabl

Grand Canyon Geology: Not a Simple Story

James Powell (no relation to John Wesley Powell) is one of the best authors of popular geology writing today. His previous books, "Night Comes to the Cretaceous" and "Mysteries of Terra Firma", provide fascinating accounts of important ideas in modern geology, such as the age of the Earth, plate tectonics, and the extinction of the dinosaurs. In this book, Powell tackles the complex geology of the Grand Canyon within the broader context of the Green-Colorado River systems. The focus is not on a description of the canyon but on understanding how it was formed. As Jim Powell tells us, the Colorado Plateau has played a major role in the history of American geology. Much of his book follows the lives and work of the great geologists of the nineteenth century, such as Powell, Gilbert, and Dutton. It was they who gradually came to an understanding of how rivers carve canyons, canyons that sometimes cut right through mountain ranges. Before their work, many people thought that the great canyons were rifts created by other forces, through which rivers later flowed. Most of the first half of the book is a fascinating mix of history and science, using the adventures of men like Powell to illustrate the birth of modern geology. The second half of the book takes on the more challenging task of explaining the complexities of the Grand Canyon story. As twentieth-century scientists looked more closely at the canyon and measured the ages of rocks through which it cuts, they saw that the simple and elegant theories of the nineteenth century broke down. Perhaps the Colorado River of today did not exist when parts of the canyon were cut. Perhaps the river flowed south-east rather than west, exiting the canyon via the Little Colorado and draining into the Rio Grande. Possibly two separate canyons joined to form the Grand. Maybe the canyon was carved, then filled with gravel and sediment, then cut again within the past few million years. Some of this is heavy going for the geological novice, but the rewards of reading this book are ample. It teaches us that the Earth and its geology are indeed complex, and the process of advancing science is a very human affair. It is sobering to realize that even such a huge geological feature as the Grand Canyon still holds its mysteries and stymies efforts to fit it into a single neat framework.