{"product_id":"9781639362158","title":"How the Mountains Grew: A New Geological History of North America","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe incredible story of the creation of a continent—our continent— from the acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eThe Last Volcano \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eMask of the Sun. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNow in a revised paperback edition!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Exuberant.  Dvorak is a wonderful storyteller [and] challenges the conventional wisdom. This will enrich your everyday personal experiences.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe immense scale of geologic time is difficult to comprehend. Our lives—and the entirety of human history—are mere nanoseconds on this timescale.  Yet we hugely influenced by the land we live on.  From shales and fossil fuels, from lake beds to soil composition, from elevation to fault lines, what could be more relevant that the history of the ground beneath our feet?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e For most of modern history, geologists could say little more about why mountains grew than the obvious: there were forces acting inside the Earth that caused mountains to rise.  But what were those forces?  And why did they act in some places of the planet and not at others? \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e When the theory of plate tectonics was proposed, our concept of how the Earth worked experienced a momentous shift.  As the Andes continue to rise, the Atlantic Ocean steadily widens, and Honolulu creeps ever closer to Tokyo, this seemingly imperceptible creep of the Earth is revealed in the landscape all around us. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e But tectonics cannot—and do not—explain everything about the wonders of the North American landscape.  What about the Black Hills? Or the walls of chalk that stand amongst the rolling hills of west Kansas? Or the fact that the states of Washington and Oregon are slowly rotating clockwise, and there a diamond mine in Arizona?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e It all points to the geologic secrets hidden inside the 2-billion-year-old-continental masses.  A whopping ten times older than the rocky floors of the ocean, continents hold the clues to the long history of our planet.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e With a sprightly narrative that vividly brings this science to life, this revised edition of John Dvorak's monumental \u003ci\u003eHow the Mountains Grew\u003c\/i\u003e will fill readers with a newfound appreciation for the wonders of the land we live on.","brand":"Pegasus Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42371140386877,"sku":"9781639362158","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0603\/0838\/9949\/files\/9781639362158_p0.jpg?v=1771587847","url":"https:\/\/www.tatteredcover.com\/products\/9781639362158","provider":"Tattered Cover","version":"1.0","type":"link"}