Rock On

Rocks and minerals are the building blocks of our world, but there’s a huge and fascinating variety of these materials, from the roundest gray pond rock to the most brilliant and sparkly diamond. Readers will learn about all manner of rocks and minerals, as well as their properties, types, and uses. Color photos and diagrams allow curious geologists in training to study rocks and minerals in detail, while hands-on activities and projects will encourage them think for themselves about important principles.

Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument thirty-five miles northeast of Amarillo, Texas, celebrated its fiftieth anniversary as a federal entity in 2015, but until now, there has not been a single comprehensive book written about the site. Beryl Cain Hughes, who has long been fascinated by the site, celebrates the history and natural beauty of what had been the one and only national monument in Texas for several decades in this collection of essays. She answers questions such as the following: Who were the people who lived near the quarries? Why was the flint more valuable than gold? What did these people eat, wear, and do? What were their most significant accomplishments? The author also celebrates the accomplishments of Floyd V. Studer, who was the first person to recognize the importance of a hill pockmarked with the pits that people dug in their search for good flint. He would spend his life dedicated to the site and its preservation. Explore the history of some of the earliest people to venture into the Western hemisphere who dug flint, set up trade exchanges, established villages, and fought to survive with Gone to Rock and Ruin.

Rocks are time machines and the keepers of our history. This guide is a geological field trip through Earth’s incredible rock formations and the stories they hold Like rings on a tree stump hold the history of the tree, the history of Earth is written in its rocks. How to Read a Rock: Our Planet’s Hidden Stories teaches readers to decipher the rocks all around us, from backyard stones to mountain ranges, and trace Earth's history layer by layer. Spanning from prehistoric Earth’s shifting continents, to contemporary human impact, to the future surfaces of space exploration, the book reviews a remarkable array of topics, including: diamond volcanoes ancient coastlines, rivers, deserts, and coral reefs how animals have changed rocks making of mud urban rock strata human-made rocks and minerals current limestone rock crisis technofossils (the footprints humans will leave behind through their material goods) How to Read a Rock's brilliant imagery captures the power, majesty, and history of the planet. Rocks carry the memories of dinosaur landscapes and vanished oceans; show evidence of the greening of the planet and the effect of natural forces; and convey clues on climate and energy consumption. The book unearths the most fascinating stories rocks can tell us, not only about our past, but how the past can help imagine the future.