Ghost Mountains and Vanished Oceans

Book excerpt: In the age of climate change and space stations, it's easy to forget that the final frontier may well lie beneath our feet; that the Earth's rocks is the stuff of which oil is made. And yet we understand so little of the very thing we're trying to protect. Geologists John Wilson and Dr. Ron Clowes narrate the tale of earth's coming-of-age in Ghost Mountains and Vanishing Oceans: North America from Birth to Middle Age . The vast jigsaw puzzle of geological plates that drifted together to form today's continents have not done with floating just yet. They also tell the story of Lithoprobe, created in Canada early 1980s, as part of an international program and seen as the best project in earth sciences' field. It combines multidisciplinary studies of the Canadian landmass and surrounding offshore margins to determine how the northern North American continent has formed over geological time from 4,000 million years ago to the present. Highlighted with informative sidebars and photographs, Ghost Mountains and Vanishing Oceans will help readers gain a better appreciation of the earth sciences and the terra firma that isn't so firm after all.