The book is divided into four sections, minerals, crystals, rocks and ores. Section A incorporates nine s, begins with presenting salient features of the earth--its structure and composition. The second Minerals and Mineralogy briefly tells about their diversity and their categorisation and introduces the interesting way they are named. Crystal chemistry the third is the heart and soul of mineralogy and deals in somewhat details about the building blocks of minerals -atoms and ions and the way they form diverse types of minerals are. It tries to tell why every combination of chemical compounds cannot result into a naturally occurring mineral. The fourth and fifth s deal with Properties of Minerals, physical and optical. The s describe various physical properties that are helpful in the identification both in hand specimens and as thin section under the microscope. These two s are adequately aided with a number of illustrations, photographs and photomicrographs to bring home the point. five deals with classification of minerals and their occurrence and forms a prelude to the next two s on descriptive mineralogy. Important silicate and non silicate minerals are described in s eight and nine. A brief description of mineral uses is dealt with in both descriptive mineralogy as well Section D on mineral deposits, however, the last , Mineral uses presents an overall picture and will be interesting as well as educating to students and even general readeSection B is devoted to crystals and crystallography. one introduces the subject while two presents basic crystallographic elements. three deals with the main six crystals systems while also giving a preliminary idea about stereographic projection and x-ray crystallography. Section C covers petrology, beginning with introduction to science of petrology, rock nomenclature. two is devoted to the study of igneous rocks, including their forms, composition, textures, structures, classification and description. Sedimentary rocks is the theme of three while different aspects of metamorphic rocks including kinds and agents of metamorphism and classification and description of metamorphism. The last portion of this also considers metamorphism in the background of global tectonics. five, the rock cycle presents a concise summary of geological events that have shaped the planet earth. The last section D is what geology is all about for a man on the street and its significance in nation building--the Ore minerals. It begins with what ore is and its place in human affairs as a well as presenting the important terminology in economic geology. two deals with ore genesis and presents various hypogene and supergene process that carves out ore deposits from non economic materials. three, mineral deposits and global tectonics is becoming a very popular theme among the earth scientists. A brief introduction of the same will be certainly appreciated by the student community and prompt them for further study in this direction. A general survey of India's mineral resources is the theme of four. It covers almost all of the commonly used ores, metallic, non metallic or fuels. The last of section D and the boom, 'Indian mineral industry: some facts and figures' will present where our country stands in the realm of mineral resources. Latest available data of resources, production, export, import, organisations that matter and other useful facts and figures are presented.

There once may have been 250,000 miles of stone walls in America's Northeast, stretching farther than the distance to the moon. They took three billion man-hours to build. And even though most are crumbling today, they contain a magnificent scientific and cultural story--about the geothermal forces that formed their stones, the tectonic movements that brought them to the surface, the glacial tide that broke them apart, the earth that held them for so long, and about the humans who built them.
Stone walls tell nothing less than the story of how New England was formed, and in Robert Thorson's hands they live and breathe. "The stone wall is the key that links the natural history and human history of New England," Thorson writes. Millions of years ago, New England's stones belonged to ancient mountains thrust up by prehistoric collisions between continents. During the Ice Age, pieces were cleaved off by glaciers and deposited--often hundreds of miles away--when the glaciers melted. Buried again over centuries by forest and soil buildup, the stones gradually worked their way back to the surface, only to become impediments to the farmers cultivating the land in the eighteenth century, who piled them into "linear landfills," a place to hold the stones. Usually the biggest investment on a farm, often exceeding that of the land and buildings combined, stone walls became a defining element of the Northeast's landscape, and a symbol of the shift to an agricultural economy.
Stone walls layer time like Russian dolls, their smallest elements reflecting the longest spans, and Thorson urges us to study them, for each stone has its own story. Linking geological history to the early American experience, "Stone by Stone" presents a fascinating picture of the land the Pilgrims settled, allowing us to see and understand it with new eyes.

Mica is a broad term encompassing about forty minerals, ranging from the common to the rare, many at times forming excellent crystals jewelers use. This book feaures examples recently described among the 115 striking color photos and electron micrographs that illustrate the text. A detailed entry for each type includes information on where each is found, associations of micas with other minerals, pseudomorphs (minerals that masquerade as mica), and micas that fluoresce under UV light. This fascinating guide is for those interested in minerals.

Discover the fascinating world of the treasures beneath your feet. Minerals and Gemstones is an accessible and informative reference guide to 300 different minerals and gemstones, from simple sandstones to sanidine, jade and diamond. Learn what the Earth is made of, how its rocks were formed and how minerals and gems are used today. Minerals and Gemstones is divided into sections covering the internationally recognised classification groups. Each entry includes an accurately reproduced and representative colour photograph, and a key information table including specifications such as the colour, lustre, streak, hardness, specific gravity, cleavage, habit and crystal system of each type of mineral and gemstone. Full of facts and with an engaging but expertly written text, this handy, pocket-size book is a valuable reference source as well as a fascinating read.

Explore Earth's natural treasures, from their primeval origins to traditional uses and modern-day appeal with this illustrated guide to rocks, minerals, crystals, gems and more! Featuring sparkling crystals, vibrant gemstones, and other precious materials often prized for their beauty, such as amber, coral, and fossils, this illustrated guide is sure to captivate every rockhound and budding gemmologist. Learn how to identify more than 450 rock and mineral specimens through beautiful photographs and key characteristics. Discover more about rocks and minerals through folklore and historical artefacts, and find out the fascinating stories behind some of the amazing natural treasures, including the Hope Diamond and the Great Mogul emerald. Plus there is information on polishing and displaying your finds to further equip you with all the knowledge needed to become a rock and mineral collector. Dive deep into this riveting book on rocks and minerals to further discover: - Comprehensive coverage of more than 450 specimens of rocks, minerals, crystals, gems and fossils. - Expert text and high-quality images combine to make this an indispensable reference tool for every rockhound and budding gemmologist. - Detailed reference panels provide key at-a-glance information for identifying specimens. - Feature panels on folklore, historical artefacts, and famous gems tell the fascinating stories of rocks and minerals. - Includes information on collecting and showing rocks and minerals Practical advice on cutting, polishing, and displaying your finds further equips you with all the knowledge needed to delve into the arena of rock and mineral collecting.

Garnet, with its many color varieties, is a favorite of both mineral collectors and gemologists. Superb examples are found at many locales worldwide, in both igneous and metamorphic rocks. Other members of the group are prized by species collectors and micromount enthusiasts. Over 120 color photos of these beautiful minerals show each species in its geological context. This book also explains how garnets are formed and the unique conditions that create fine crystals and vivid colors. After a brief introduction, the general treatment begins with an explanation of the chemistry and taxonomy of the group. A section on their formation and geochemistry explains the kinds of environments where garnets are formed. Detailed entries for each mineral provide locality information and full-color photos so that collectors can see what good specimens look like and which minerals one might expect to find in association with them. An extensive bibliography is provided.

The mineral Titania is found in large, well-formed crystals at localities around the world. Over 100 color photos display three of the common titanium dioxide minerals: rutile, anatase, and brookite, along with a variety of interesting mineralogical phenomena. These are specimens the average collector will be able to obtain and study. The text is informative and thorough, listing the classic localities and describing both their fascinating diversity, including such phenomena as oriented growth, twinning, and pseudomorphism. The book also provides a solid explanation of the structures of rutile, anatase, and brookite and their phase relations. Their formation and geochemistry is described along with the environments in which the minerals were formed. For anyone fascinated by engaging minerals, this book will be a treasured source of useful information.

This is the first published guide to Herkimer diamonds, striking quartz crystals, that includes all important aspects of interest to anyone curious about this unique form of the mineral quartz. Over 210 vivid color images of important specimens, associated minerals, and field shots illustrate the informative text and enhance the reader s experience. The text includes the most recent scientific information regarding Herkimer diamonds' geological and mineralogical history, where they can currently be found, descriptions of important historic locations, and the inclusion of noteworthy peripheral localities. The specific methods used to effectively field collect Herkimer diamonds are detailed, including photos of mining methods and a discussion of collecting strategy. Additionally, the mines are enumerated, the gear readers need is detailed, specimen preparation, mineral collections, and associated minerals recounted. This is the essential guide for every collector of these well known and much sought minerals, a guide only a seasoned field collector can provide."

Your Definitive Guide to Petoskey Stone Michigan's state stone is prized for its beautiful patterning, which is said to resemble the rays of the rising sun. Take an in-depth look at the famous fossilized coral-including a summary of the fascinating natural history, which began 400 million years ago. Learn all about it, and then head out and search for your own. Get expert advice from author Dan R. Lynch on how to identify and collect Petoskey stones. With tips on where to look and what to look for, along with information about Petoskey lookalikes and other fossils you might find, your rock-hounding trips will be better than ever! Suggestions on what to do with your finds and how much they're worth add to the knowledge you'll gain from Petoskey Stone. From Lake Michigan beaches and Petoskey State Park to gravel pits and riverbeds, grab this book and begin your rock-hunting adventure!

When it comes to dinosaurs and other fascinating fossils, the U.S. has it all, from Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops to Stegosaurus and Brachiosaurus. Dinosaur Destinations, by Jon Kramer, Julie Martinez, and Vernon Morris, will help you find the best dinosaur sites near you and across the country. Visit a dinosaur dig site or a famous dinosaur track site--and even make your own cast of fossilized tracks! With details about the nation's best dinosaur-related locales, you'll learn what fossils have been found at or near each place, what kids will enjoy about each site, contact information and more. Plus, this field guide to extinct creatures introduces each species and includes their former range maps and fun facts. Dinosaur Destinations features: The most famous dinosaur dig sites, track sites and fossil locales in the U.S., including a few that allow visitors to participate in real dinosaur digs Locations with unique opportunities for dinosaur fans, such as venues that allow you to touch real dinosaur fossils Fascinating facts about the most famous dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures Notable non-dinosaur fossil sites and species, such as pteranodons, plesiosaurs, mammoths, and more

In recent years, minerals and gems have enjoyed growing renown and popularity. At this time there are some 3,800 different minerals known from all parts of the world that have been deep in the earth for millions of years and grew there over thousands of years. Learn to identify the most important groups of minerals, including quartz, feldspar, beryl, tourmaline, corundum, diamond, garnet, spinel, fluorite, precious metals, and more. More than 150 photos with descriptions relate how minerals originate, are found, and what they signified in ancient times.

Nothing fills us with a sense of wonder like fossils. What looks at first like a simple rock is in fact a clue that reveals the staggering diversity of ancient environments, the winding pathways of evolution, and the majesty of a vanished earth. But as much as one might daydream of digging a hole in the backyard and finding a Tyrannosaurus, only a few places contain these buried treasures, and when a scientist comes across a remnant of prehistoric life, great care must be taken. What do budding paleontologists need to know before starting their search? In Fantastic Fossils, Donald R. Prothero offers an accessible, entertaining, and richly illustrated guide to the paleontologist's journey. He details the best places to look for fossils, the art of how to find them, and how to classify the major types. Prothero provides expert wisdom about typical fossils that an average person can hope to collect and how to hunt fossils responsibly and ethically. He also explores the lessons that both common and rarer discoveries offer about paleontology and its history, as well as what fossils can tell us about past climates and present climate change. Captivating illustrations by the paleoartist Mary Persis Williams bring to life hundreds of important specimens. Offering valuable lessons for armchair enthusiasts and paleontology students alike, Fantastic Fossils is an essential companion for all readers who have ever dreamed of going in search of traces of a lost world.

Coastwise examines the coastline of the British Isles as a dynamic environment and offers you an understandable explanation of how the coastline functions as a single entity. It is supported by hundreds of stunning photos and illustrations. It begins by exploring how the forces of nature combine to create its physical features (and continue to do so). This is a multifaceted story that involves ancient geology and powerful ocean forces. It then turns to the living nature of the coast, covering the unique plants, animals and other organisms whose interdependence keeps the coast alive and healthy. These amazing creatures are described and displayed in full colour. The third part of the book looks at how humans have interacted with the coast, using it for defence, commerce and leisure. It explores these aspects from the earliest times to the present day. The final section shows, for each coastal region, where the features discussed in the book can be observed and enjoyed, giving you a practical way of exploring the elements described in the book. All aspects of the coast are covered, making it essential reading - or a wonderful gift - for all those who spend time on Britain's coast. As Countryfile presenter, Tom Heap, says in his Foreword: "These pages are a practical love letter to Britain's waterfront and no seaside holiday home should be without them."

Treasures of the Earth

From the author of "Collecting Rocks, Gems and Minerals" and one of the leading agate collectors in the world, comes this comprehensive guide to collecting agates and jaspers, the most sought after types of collectible rocks on the market today. Designed with all beginners in mind, yet filled with valuable technical information for advanced enthusiasts, "Collecting Agates and Jaspers" helps rockhounds discover these treasures of North America.

• The only book on agates and jaspers to offer values.
• Featuring nearly 700 beautiful color pictures, descriptions and technical information, the book provides an easy-to-use, quick reference format perfect for home and field.
• Organized by U.S. states and provinces in Canada and Mexico, with introductions pinpointing each area's best spots and what you can find there.

Over 90 striking color photos display minerals of the epidote group, well known to mineral collectors for their rich colors and the many interesting minerals with which they occur. Lapidary artists also value epidote, particularly in the form of unakite, and precious or semiprecious varieties of the related mineral zoisite, including thulite and tanzanite, some which have inclusions that allow them to be cut into popular catseyes. This informative book provides all presently known species, detailed entries for each of the eighteen minerals, and extensive locality information. This book will be of interest to those interested in developing a better understanding of silicate minerals.

Charles Darwin's voyage on the HMS Beagle was a journey that would revolutionise our understanding of the natural world and our place in it. The magisterial work it spawned, On the Origin of Species, is widely associated with the flora and fauna of the Galapagos Islands. Less well known is Darwin's passion for geology and how his fossil discoveries in South America - by demonstrating the relationship between extinct lifeforms and living species - shaped his theory of evolution. This is the story of those fossil-hunting adventures in the 1830s, the pioneering science behind the fossils he found, and how these remarkable discoveries played a crucial role in forging Darwin's revolutionary ideas.

The characteristic landscape of the Lake District is influenced by its geology. The huge array of different rocks found there determines the shape and appearance of the fells and dales. Also, as the dominant building material in the region, rocks impact both the local architecture and the economy through quarrying. A simple easy-to-read guide to the rocks of the English Lake District, with nearly 200 colour illustrations including diagrams, maps and photographs, this book provides an understanding of the main types of rock and characterizes over sixty of the most common rocks. It describes where to find them and how to recognise them in the landscape. Details are given of the use of rocks in local buildings and how the rocks are still quarried today, and finally, their importance to the local economy.

Dive into the fascinating world of coastal wildlife with this holiday pocket guide. Featuring 40 beautifully illustrated pebbles, shells, crabs, small sea creatures and more, discover more about life between the tides with The Little Guide to Shorelines. Each entry has been delicately illustrated by printmaker Tom Frost to capture its individual characteristics, and is accompanied by associated facts and fables. There is also an interactive spotter's guide at the back, where you can check off what you find. This informative, practical and beautiful guide is part of a new nature series designed to encourage creativity through exploring the outdoors. An activity for adults and children alike, enjoy The Little Guide to Shorelines on your next trip to the sea.

Are we now entering a mass extinction event? What can mass extinctions in Earth's history tell us about the Anthropocene? What do mass extinction events look like and how does life on Earth recover from them? The fossil record reveals periods when biodiversity exploded, and short intervals when much of life was wiped out in mass extinction events. In comparison with these ancient events, today's biotic crisis hasn't (yet) reached the level of extinction to be called a mass extinction. But we are certainly in crisis, and current parallels with ancient mass extinction events are profound and deeply worrying. Humanity's actions are applying the same sorts of pressures - on similar scales - that in the past pushed the Earth system out of equilibrium and triggered mass extinction events. Analysis of the fossil record suggests that we still have some time to avert this disaster: but we must act now.

From caverns deep underground to sky-high mountains, the rocks and stones all around us are ancient. Greedy oni lurk in a cave in Japan; a stonecutter becomes a mountain; and a story of romance, revenge and tragedy plays out on the face of a plate. Revealing hidden fossils, gemstones, folklore and secrets, storyteller Jenny Moon's tales are interwoven with interesting facts and geological observations that will catch the imagination of readers young and old, making this more than just a book of stories.

A profound meditation on climate change and the Anthropocene and an urgent search for the fossils-industrial, chemical, geological-that humans are leaving behind A Times Book of the Year * A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year What will the world look like ten thousand or ten million years from now? In Footprints, David Farrier explores what traces we will leave for the very deep future. From long-lived materials like plastic and nuclear waste, to the 50 million kilometres of roads spanning the planet, in modern times we have created numerous objects and landscapes with the potential to endure through deep time. Our carbon could linger in the atmosphere for 100,000 years, and the remains of our cities will still exist millions of years from now as a layer in the rock. These future fossils have the potential to tell remarkable stories about how we lived in the twenty-first century. Through literature, art, and science, Footprints invites us to think about how we will be remembered in the myths, stories, and languages of our distant descendants. Travelling from the Baltic Sea to the Great Barrier Reef, and from an ice core laboratory in Tasmania to Shanghai, one of the world's biggest cities, David Farrier tells a story of a world that is changing rapidly, and with long-term consequences. Footprints will not only alter how you think about the future, it will change how you see the world today.

The amphibole group is extremely important, widespread, and beautiful, with a structure that can accommodate a bewildering variety of compositions and potentially hundreds of unique specimens. This timely volume will allow mineral collectors to understand how the amphiboles are organized and named, and to relate obsolete names to currently accepted ones. Over 140 full-color crystal images help the reader visualize the important structural features that define amphiboles and control their physical properties. This reference also provides information that collectors need to know to better understand the group and to learn what the specimens teach us about geological processes. Structural chemistry and taxonomy of the group is explored as well as formation and geochemistry, explaining the kinds of environments where amphiboles are formed. An entry for each mineral series provides locality information along with identification photos wherever possible, and examples that one might expect to find in the varied locales.

""This book is a splendidly illustrated and thoughtfully constructed account of one of the greatest ideas ever conceived by the human mind -- evolution. Eldredge has cleverly combined our knowledge of living organisms with instructive insights into the fossil record to convincingly argue that evolution is, indeed, the grand unifying idea of biology."" -- Donald C. Johanson, Founder of the Institute of Human Origins, and author of "From Lucy to Language"

"Extinction and Evolution" recounts the work and discoveries of Niles Eldredge, one of the world's most renowned paleontologists, whose research overturned Charles Darwin's theory of evolution as a slow and inevitable process, as published in "On the Origin of Species" in 1859. Darwin had concluded that evolutionary changes happened very slowly over millions of years. Eldredge's work, however, convinced him that Darwin was wrong and that major evolution of life forms does not happen to any significant degree until after a mass extinction event, thus disproving the traditional view of evolution.

Eldredge's groundbreaking work is now accepted as the definitive statement of how life as we know it evolved on Earth. This book chronicles how Eldredge made his discoveries and traces the history of life through the lenses of paleontology, geology, ecology, anthropology, biology, genetics, zoology, mammalogy, herpetology, entomology and botany. While rigorously accurate, the text is accessible, engaging and free of jargon.

"Extinction and Evolution" features 160 beautiful color plates that bridge the gap between science and art, and show more than 200 different fossil specimens, including photographs of some of the most significant fossil discoveries of recent years. This is a book with appeal to a broad general audience, including natural history readers and students.