An illustrated, concise reference to the Earth's mountains. This comprehensive and compact resource begins with an exploration of the powerful geological and other natural forces that create and shape mountains. Environmental sensitivity and unique weather conditions like snow and ice, avalanches and glaciers have lasting effects on mountains, and many diverse societies and economies exist in mountainous regions. This easy-to-use guidebook features an atlas of the world's major mountain regions that shows topography with detailed descriptions and informative tables of key facts and figures. Guide to Mountains is an ideal and handy quick-reference book that naturalists, mountain climbers, skiers, hikers, and travelers of all ages will enjoy and find useful.

Revered for their beauty, unique electrical qualities, and metaphysical attributes, crystals have been precious to mankind for centuries. Crystals for Beginners explores the universal allure of crystals and demonstrates how to channel their dynamic energies. Beginning with how crystals were formed in the Earth billions of years ago, this practical guide introduces the history and myth surrounding these powerful minerals. From agates to zoisite, the characteristics of specific crystals are presented, along with advice for collecting, cleansing, and charging them. Readers also learn how to apply crystal energy to meditation, healing, psychic development, magic, divination, astral projection, dream work, and much more.

What exactly is a mammoth? John Mckay brings to life the fascinating saga of solving the mystery of this ancient being that once roamed the north country has dominated our collective imagination ever since.

At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result of these trips is Assembling California, a cross-section in human and geologic time, from Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada through the golden foothills of the Mother Lode and across the Great Central Valley to the wine country of the Coast Ranges, the rock of San Francisco, and the San Andreas family of faults. The two disparate time scales occasionally intersect—in the gold disruptions of the nineteenth century no less than in the earthquakes of the twentieth—and always with relevance to a newly understood geologic history in which half a dozen large and separate pieces of country are seen to have drifted in from far and near to coalesce as California. McPhee and Moores also journeyed to remote mountains of Arizona and to Cyprus and northern Greece, where rock of the deep-ocean floor has been transported into continental settings, as it has in California. Global in scope and a delight to read, Assembling California is a sweeping narrative of maps in motion, of evolving and dissolving lands. At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result of these trips is Assembling California, a cross-section in human and geologic time, from Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada through the golden foothills of the Mother Lode and across the Great Central Valley to the wine country of the Coast Ranges, the rock of San Francisco, and the San Andreas family of faults. The two disparate time scales occasionally intersect—in the gold disruptions of the nineteenth century no less than in the earthquakes of the twentieth—and always with relevance to a newly understood geologic history in which half a dozen large and separate pieces of country are seen to have drifted in from far and near to coalesce as California. McPhee and Moores also journeyed to remote mountains of Arizona and to Cyprus and northern Greece, where rock of the deep-ocean floor has been transported into continental settings, as it has in California. Global in scope and a delight to read, Assembling California is a sweeping narrative of maps in motion, of evolving and dissolving lands.

The Lake Superior region is nationally known as a rock hound’s paradise, and agates are its most cherished treasures. This field guide spotlights each type of agate and provides you with the information you need for locating and identifying them. The easy-to-use format and full-color photos make this a must-have for rock collectors.

A guide to more than six hundred specimens includes detailed descriptions and illustrations.

You may have heard that Minnesota's ten thousand lakes are the hoofprints of Paul Bunyan's big blue ox, Babe. “Don't you believe it!

"The brief sections are consistently interesting, and plenty of supplemental illustrations and photos make this a handsome volume... best-suited to curious kids and casual mineralogists." --Publishers Weekly "A beautiful book, nicely bound and richly illustrated... written in an easy to read, casual style." --Science Books and Films Fifty Minerals that Changed the Course of History is a beautifully presented guide to the minerals that have had the greatest impact on human civilization. These are the materials used from the Stone Age to the First and Second Industrial Revolutions to the Nuclear Age and include metals, ores, alloys, salts, rocks, sodium, mercury, steel and uranium. The book includes minerals used as currency, as jewelry and as lay and religious ornamentation when combined with gem minerals like diamonds, amber, coral, and jade. Examples of the fifty minerals are: - Diamonds: Did a necklace ordered by Louis XV precipitate the French Revolution? - Sulphur: The biblical brimstone now used in organic farming. - Clay: The oldest ceramic object is not a cooking pot or drinking bowl, but a statuette. - Arsenic: Was Napoleon murdered while imprisoned on the island of St. Helena? - Coal: The Romans invented the first central heating system. - Saltpeter: China's fourth "Great Invention" was perhaps not so great after all. - Salt: Once used as currency, we give it little thought today. - Jade: The Chinese fabric of "pajamas for eternity." Ubiquitous or rare, the minerals described in Fifty Minerals that Changed the Course of History have been fundamental to human progress, for good or evil. Many are familiar -- the aluminum can we drink from, the car we drive, the jewelry we wear. They can be poisons, medicines or weapons, but wherever found and however used, their importance can be easily overlooked. This attractive reference gives us fascinating insight into our undeniable dependence on minerals.

"Put your mittens on; you'll freeze to death!" admonish the world's grandmothers as the temperature plummets. No doubt the Arctic explorers--today in their GORE-TEX, historically in their woolens--needed no such instruction. Icy climes bring with them the dangers of frostbite, but also the poetic beauty of glaciers and ice shelves, of ice palaces and aurora borealis. Karal Ann Marling explores these topics and more as she considers the history of "hard, cold water." What better place to start than with dessert? The pleasure of ice cream on a hot day has been known since the sixteenth century, although it wasn't until a few hundred years later that reliable refrigeration made the treat readily available. Marling expands her icy explorations to the realm of fiction--the ice crossing in Uncle Tom's Cabin, the frozen wasteland of Frankenstein--and to the movies and Broadway. Cities vie for tourists by building shimmering ice palaces to celebrate winter; explorers compete to reach the poles, and not all live to tell the story. The study of ice by a true aficionado yields fascinating insights and may just inspire readers to embrace winter-or to make their way to the nearest ice cream shop. Karal Ann Marling is a professor emerita of art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the author, most recently, of Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday and Illusions of Eden: Visions of the American Heartland.