Hilltops surrounded by farmland in southern Wisconsin turn out to
be the eroded remnants of an ancient archipelago. An island in the
Yellow Sea where Korean tourists flock is the peak of a flooded
mountain rising from a drowned continental shelf. From a
mountaintop shrine to Genghis Khan in Inner Mongolia, the
silhouette of a Silurian seascape can be spotted. On the shores of
Hudson Bay, where polar bears patrol the Arctic tundra, a close
look unveils what was a tropical coastline encrusted with corals
nearly 450 million years ago. The geologist Markes E. Johnson
invites readers on a journey through deep time to find the traces
of ancient islands. He visits a dozen sites around the globe,
looking above and below today’s waterlines to uncover how
landscapes of the past are preserved in the present. Going back 500
million years to the Cambrian through the Pleistocene 125,000 years
ago, this book reconstructs how “paleoislands” appeared under
different climatic conditions and environmental constraints.
Finding vestiges of prehistoric ecologies, Johnson emphasizes the
complexity of island ecosystems and the importance of preserving
these significant sites. Inviting and accessible, this book is a
travelogue that takes readers through time as well as space.
Islands in Deep Time shares the adventure of exploring striking
locations across geologic eras and issues a passionate call for
their conservation.
General
Imprint: |
Columbia University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
October 2023 |
Authors: |
Markes E. Johnson
|
Dimensions: |
235 x 156mm (L x W) |
Pages: |
312 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-231-21218-2 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-231-21218-6 |
Barcode: |
9780231212182 |
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