Annals of the Former World

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Annals of the Former World Page 81

by John McPhee


  United Kingdom: tectonic history

  United States: Cambrian physiographic time line contemporary physiographic time line eastern rivers Eocene physiographic time line geologic study of East vs. West impact of glaciation Mississippian physiographic time line mystery of 1450 plutons Ordovician physiographic time line Pennsylvanian physiographic time line Precambrian physiographic time line response to Darwin’s The Origin of Species scientific drilling Silurian physiographic time line Triassic physiographic time line see also named places and features; names of states

  United States Geological Survey: description of Love Ranch topographic quadrangle earthquake predictions employs Anita Harris employs David Love field offices first Chief Geologist geologists as visitors at Love Ranch Oil & Gas Resources branch viewed by geologic profession view of Loma Prieta earthquake see also Harris, Anita; Love, David

  University of Kansas: midcontinent rock archive

  Unruh, Jeff

  uplifts: exhumation of the Rockies and hot spots

  Ural Mountains: formation of and naming of Permian period and ophiolites and plate tectonics

  uranium: David Love’s discovery resource issues

  uranium/lead dating

  Ussher, James

  Utah: conodonts in in Ordovician period origin of red rock in in Triassic period see also Great Salt Lake; Salt Lake City; Young, Brigham

  Valentine, James W.

  Valenzuela, Isabel

  Vallejo, California

  valleys: υs. basins Great Valley of the Appalachians Jersey Valley, Nevada Napa Valley pull-apart in Triassic New Jersey see also basins; Great Central Valley, California

  Valparaiso Moraine

  vanadium

  Van Allen, Hendrik

  Vancouver Island

  Vanfleara, Hans

  Van Houten, Franklyn B.

  Vanlaningham, Carl

  Van Schmus, Randy described McPhee travels with research work

  vegetation: in Eocene epoch first occurrences in Jurassic period in Pennsylvanian period in Silurian period unexistent in Precambrian time

  Venetz, Ignace

  Verkhoyanski Mountains

  vertebrate paleontology see also fossils

  Vibroseis

  Vine, Fred and Cyprus

  vineyards: Napa Valley soil characteristics

  vocabulary, geological

  volcanic ash: in Basin and Range from Idaho stratovolcanoes in Jersey Valley prior to Basin and Range in Sierra Nevada in Wyoming

  volcanic necks

  volcanism: in Cascade Mountains in Coast Ranges and island-arc origins as method of venting heat in Napa Valley in ocean at plate boundaries Precambrian and pull-apart basins questions raised by plate-tectonic theory in Sierra Nevada and Sonomia Terrane in South America and subduction zones volcanic necks in Wyoming and Yellowstone see also lava flows; magma

  vugs

  vulcanists

  wagon trails: emigrant

  Wahrhaftig, Clyde

  Walden Pond, Massachusetts

  walking draglines

  Walking Purchase

  Walton, Paul

  Walvis Ridge

  Ward, Sam

  Wasatch Fault

  Wasatch Mountains, Utah

  Washakie, Chief

  Washakie Basin, Wyoming

  Washakie Range, Wyoming

  Washington State: flood basalts

  Watchung lava flows

  watercress

  water gaps see also Delaware Water Gap

  water rights

  Watsonville, California

  Watt, James

  Waxham, Ethel, see Love, Ethel Waxham

  Wegener, Alfred

  welded tuff see also tuff, volcanic

  well cores

  wells, water: and faults

  Welty, Alice Amoss

  Werner, Abraham Gottlob

  West African Craton

  western North America: addition of terranes from ocean edge of continent in Cambrian period edge of continent in Devonian period edge of continent in Mississippian period edge of continent in Ordovician period edge of continent in Pennsylvanian period edge of continent in Precambrian time future seaway geologic study of

  West Luzon arc

  White Mountain escarpment, Wyoming

  White Mountains, New Hampshire

  White Wolf Fault

  Whitney, Josiah D.

  Whitney, Mt.

  Whittier, John Greenleaf

  Whittier Narrows earthquake

  Wildcat Fault

  Williams, Harold

  Williams, Howel

  Williamsburg, Brooklyn

  Willis, Bailey

  Wilson, J. Tuzo

  wind: erosion by and exhumation of the Rockies impact of and Laramie Plains lake excavation in Wyoming

  wind gaps

  Wind River, Wyoming age of

  Wind River Basin, Wyoming: in Eocene epoch and exhumation of the Rockies site of Love Ranch uranium in

  Wind River Range, Wyoming creation of vs. Uinta Mountains

  wineries

  Winnemucca, Nevada

  Wisconsinan ice sheet: and Delaware Water Gap impact on United States topography size of

  Wrangellia Terrane

  Wyler, William

  Wyoming: as Archean craton in Cambrian period and Cheyenne Belt Cloverly formation coal in cowboys in in Cretaceous period energy resource issues in Eocene epoch Fort Union formation Frontier sandstone as geologic influence geology around Rawlins Hanna formation Laramide Orogeny limestone in livestock Madison limestone maps of Mesozoic snapshot in Miocene epoch in Mississippian period and Mississippi River Delta Morrison formation Mowry shale Nugget formation Ogalalla formation oil in in Oligocene epoch in Ordovician period in Paleocene epoch in Pennsylvanian period in Precambrian time Rawlins in the Old West Red Canyon rivers in in Silurian period Sundance formation Tensleep formation in Tertiary period Teton landscape in Triassic period unexplored topics in regional geology uranium in volcanic debris as west coast of North America wind in

  Wyoming craton

  Wyoming Shear Zone, see Cheyenne Belt

  xenoliths: dating defined at Donner Pass in Four Corners area in Palisades Sill west of Donner Summit on I–80

  x-ray diffractometer

  x-ray fluorescence spectrometer

  Yalesumni Indians

  Yellowstone National Park: 1959 earthquake geologic phenomena and hot spots Old Faithful and other geysers resource issues

  Yerba Buena Island, California: tunnel

  Young, Brigham

  Young Diamond

  Yount, George

  Yuba River, California

  Yucatán

  Yukon gold

  zeolites: clinoptilolite erionite gathering industrial uses where to find

  Zietz, Isidore

  Zimbabwe Craton

  Zimmerman, Jay

  zircons: use in dating Precambrian rock

  Geologic Time Scale

  THE CENOZOIC ERA

  65 MILLION YEARS

  THE MESOZOIC ERA

  185 MILLION YEARS

  THE PALEOZOIC ERA

  ABOUT 300 MILLION YEARS

  PRECAMBRIAN TIME

  ABOUT 4000 MILLION YEARS

  Copyright © 1981, 1983, 1986, 1993, 1998 by John McPhee

  All rights reserved

  Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  18 West 18th Street, New York 10011

  Published in 1998 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  www.fsgbooks.com

  Designed by Cynthia Krupat

  eISBN 9780374708467

  First eBook Edition : June 2011

  Large parts of the text of this book originally appeared,

  in different form, in The New Yorker

  Maps by Allan Cartography, Medford, Oregon

  Geologic Time Scale by Tom Funk

  Coordinated by Carmen Gomezplata and Natasha Wimmer

  Index by Julie Kawabata

  Note: In 1993, the Unive
rsity of New Mexico Press published

  Lady’s Choice: Ethel Waxham’s Journals and Letters, 1905–1910,

  compiled and edited by her granddaughters Barbara Love

  and Frances Love Froidevaux.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McPhee, John A.

  Annals of the former world / John McPhee.–1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Includes index.

  1. Geology—United States. I. Title.

  QE77.M38 1998

  557.3—dc21

  97-39660

  The author thanks the Albert P. Sloan Foundation

  for support in the completion and preparation of this book,

  and the Geological Society of America for administering the grant.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Table of Contents

  Book 1 - Basin and Range

  Book 2 - In Suspect Terrain

  Book 3 - Rising from the Plains

  Book 4 - Assembling California

  Book 5 - Crossing the Craton

  A Narrative Table of Contents

  JOHN McPHEE

  by John McPhee

  Index

  Geologic Time Scale

  Copyright Page

 

 

 


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