Product Description

Millions of years ago, the North American continent was dragged over the world's largest continental hotspot (a hug column of molten rock rising from the earth's interior), tracing a 5 mile wide, 500 mile long path northeastward across Idaho and generating huge volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The hotspot lifted the Yellowstone Plateau to more than 7000 feet and pushed the Northern Rockies to new heights. This book is the story of those events and how the landscape of the two great national parks was shaped by earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers and, in the uplifted Rocky Mountains, mountain glaciers. The story is also a 'window' into the earth's interior, revealing the dynamic processes within.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #392058 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
"Geologist Smith and science writer Siegel team up to tell the exciting story of how Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks came to be."--Bob Decker, former director of the U.S. Geological Surveys Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Professor Emeritus, Dartmouth College, and Barbara Decker, science writer

Customer Reviews

full-colour coffee table book of armageddon
this large-format paperback book details in very calm, measured geologist's style just how many times the Yellowstone volcano system has laid waste to the entire north american continent, with diagrams, pictures, and text which lets you come to your own unarguably clear conclusion about how nasty it will be when the thing goes off the next time. The clock is ticking, and on the evidence writ in the earth in a steady south-west trail away from a hole in the earth 85 miles wide, it's nearly midnight.