Aerial Geology: A High-Altitude Tour of North America’s Spectacular Volcanoes, Canyons, Glaciers, Lakes, Craters, and Peaks

Wonderful pictures of our planet.

Great beginner's book on aerial geology. Of course, not comprehensive but really enjoyed everything.

I generally like and am supportive of science books for the general public-- I'm not a scientist myself, after all. And this one at least potentially serves a major need. It's well-conceived and laid out. And yet...The problem is that despite obvious careful research and planning in some things, this work is filled with so many factual errors I can't begin to cite them all. Embarrassing errors, even, that reveal the author's complete lack of deeper understanding of the subject matter. They begin with the introduction, literally on page one. There, the author refers to crinoids as ancient forms of plant life. They're not, and because they're so common in many areas this is one of the first things you learn when you study fossils in even the most casual way. Like the modern sea-lilies they're related to, they're animals. Later, the claim is made that the Earth's oceanic plates are subducted below continental plates because they're waterlogged, which makes them heavier. This is also untrue; the difference is that oceanic crust is richer in heavier, denser elements.This book is well-written by a competent wordsmith, the illustrations are very nice, and I suspect that many people with no knowledge of geology at all won't see a thing wrong with anything presented. Indeed, from a writing point of view it's well enough done that one may hope it'll inspire some readers to ask questions and seek out more knowledge. That's why I gave it three stars, instead of just two. But when one sets one's self up as an authority one should know the subject in question both broadly and deeply-- a few hours with Wikipedia is no substitute for reading at least a few actual books. At the very least it should've been proofread by an actual Earth scientist of one flavor or another, which it clearly was not.

I ordered this book for my father, now in his 80s, who is a retired Earth Science teacher. He absolutely loved the book and the photographs that represented the things he taught so well, and as a bonus the writing about the landforms was well done and very readable.

This book looks at 100 geological sites in North America that specifically can be identified from an airplane far above. Each site gets either 2 or 4 pages consisting mostly of images with a few paragraphs of text describing basic background, interesting features of history and legend, and information for visitors.I bought this book for the images, and I was not disappointed. The photographs are beautiful, high-detail, and incredibly clear, ranging from close-ups of formations to images taken thousands of feet in the air. However, there are also schematic diagrams, maps, false-color and satellite images, and even images taken from space. All of these help support the mission of the author in providing a literally big-picture view of what North America looks like.My biggest complaint is that "North America" is in the title, but it isn't until site 65 out of 100 that we get east of the Rockies. Two-thirds of the book is focused on the Western US and Western Canada, with the remaining third for all of the Eastern US, Eastern Canada, and Mexico. Mexico gets 3 sites, numerous eastern states and provinces get nothing, and Central America, the Caribbean, and Greenland don't appear at all. I understand why - the West is awesome, and the author is probably more familiar with the West. However, nearly 2 dozen American states and most countries that are actually in North America didn't appear in the book.

I was disappointed nothing about Hawaii was in this book. Filled with lots of information from the US and Canada, I would have liked to have seen more pictures, and it would have been better if after reading about Mt. Desert Island (Maine), the passage of Mt. Katahdin was after it instead of Canada. I learned a lot, but the more technical jargon could have been better defined. Also a timeline of all the epochs would be useful.

I enjoyed reading this one ...

Revisiting the places I studied in the 20 years of Dr. Craig's Roadside Geology trips brought back many happy memories! This book also covered places I didn't get to study, to my great delight!!! I highly recommend this wonderful book to new students and old students who love to delve into the mysteries of land formations of North America!

Bought this for my bro in law who is studying geophysics, so while I can’t comment on its accuracy, it’s excellent quality, beautiful photos and he loved it!I did challenge him to see if he could find any of the ‘errors’ other reviewers mentioned ;)

Ricevuto nei tempi previsti, il volume e' una splendida raccolta di fotografie aeree con qualche ulteriore visione dallo Spazio, ben documentata anche nella parte esplicativa. Il contenuto e' adatto sia a un cultore della materia geologica sia a un amante di bei panorami. Sicuramente consigliabile anche in rapporto alla qualita'/prezzo