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