The Face of the Earth

This lively book sweeps across dramatic and varied terrains—volcanoes and glaciers billabongs and canyons prairies and rain forests—to explore how humans have made sense of our planet’s marvelous landscapes. In a rich weave of scientific cultural and personal stories The Face of the Earth examines mirages and satellite images swamp-dwelling heroes and Tibetan nomads cave paintings and popular movies investigating how we live with the great shaping forces of nature—from fire to changing climates and the intricacies of adaptation. The book illuminates subjects as diverse as the literary life of hollow Earth theories the links between the Little Ice Age and Frankenstein’s monster and the spiritual allure of deserts and their scarce waters. Including vivid on-the-spot accounts by scientists and writers in Saudi Arabia Australia Alaska England the Rocky Mountains Antarctica and elsewhere The Face of the Earth charts the depth and complexity of our interdependence with the natural world.

Introduction

Chapter 1. Landscapes of Internal Fire
On the Spot: Over a River of Lava (SueEllen Campbell)
Prologue
Imagining the Interior
On the Spot: At the Edge of an Overthrust Belt (Scott Denning)
Mundus subterraneus
On the Spot: Among the Aeolian Islands (John Calderazzo)
The Globe Tectonic Plates and Mountain Building
On the Spot: Along the Disturbance Gradient (Charles Goodrich)
Volcanoes and Their Eruptions
On the Spot: Approaching Chaitén Volcano (Fred Swanson)
Hot Springs and Geysers

Chapter 2. Climate and Ice
Prologue
On the Spot: Up and down the Himalaya (Ellen Wohl)
How the Climate Works
The Ghosts of Climates Past
On the Spot: On the Burren (Gerald Delahunty)
Our Ice Age
Landscapes Shaped by Ice
On the Spot: In the Channeled Scablands (Mark Fiege)
Ice-Age Humans
On the Spot: On the Arctic Tundra (Ellen Wohl)
The Little Ice Age Glaciology and the Sublime
On the Spot: Toward a Glacier’s Edge (Ana Maria Spagna)
The Story Now

Chapter 3. Wet and Fluid
Prologue
On the Spot: In the Rocky Intertidal Zone (Kathleen Dean Moore)
The Water Cycle
On the Spot: Along a Rain Forest Stream (Ellen Wohl)
The Moving Waters of Rivers
The Dream of Water in Deserts
The Slow Water of Wetlands
On the Spot: At the Bog on Céide Fields (Gerald Delahunty)
Peat Mires Bogs Fens
On the Spot: At Wicken Fen (Richard Kerridge)
Marshes and Swamps
Wet/Dry
On the Spot: At the Billabong (Deborah Bird Rose)

Chapter 4. Desert Places Desert Lives
Prologue
On the Spot: Down a Desert River Canyon (SueEllen Campbell)
Dry Hot Windy and Dusty
On the Spot: In Jabal Aja' (Othman Llewellyn and Aishah Abdallah)
What We See
On the Spot: In the Chihuahuan Desert (Tom Lynch)
Clever Plants
On the Spot: In the Red Center (Deborah Bird Rose)
Clever Creatures
On the Spot: In the Negev Desert (Ellen Wohl)
The Human Desert

Chapter 5. The Complexities of the Real
Prologue
Underfoot
On the Spot: In Antarctica’s Dry Valleys (Diana Wall)
Oceans of Grass
The Shapes of Complexity
On the Spot: On the Chalk Downs (Richard Kerridge)
Evolving Together . . .
On the Spot: In the Tallgrass Prairie (Bruce Campbell)
. . . And Moving Apart
On the Spot: On the Tibetan Plateau (Julia Klein)
Among Trees
On the Spot: In a Eucalypt Forest (Kate Rigby)
Zooming In
Return to Wonder

Epilogue: In a High Flower Meadow (SueEllen Campbell)

Sources
Contributor Biographies
Acknowledgments
Index