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The geologist Markes E. Johnson invites readers on a journey through deep time to find the traces of ancient islands. He visits a dozen sites around the globe, looking above and below today's waterlines to uncover how landscapes of the past are preserved in the present.
List of contents
Preface: On the Reality of Time Travel
Acknowledgments
1. How to Listen to a Sky Island with Global Ambition: Climbing Mount Monadnock
2. How an Island Cluster Acquires Its Shape: A Journey in Late Cambrian Time to Wisconsin’s Baraboo Archipelago
3. How Islands Trade in Physical Wear and Organic Growth: A Journey in Late Ordovician Time to Hudson Bay’s Jens Munk Archipelago
4. How Islands Recall Windward Surf and Leeward Calm: A Journey in Late Silurian Time to Inner Mongolia’s Bater Island
5. How Bigger Islands are Broken into Smaller Pieces: A Journey in Late Devonian Time to Western Australia’s Mowanbini Archipelago
6. How Softer Islands Dissolve: A Journey in Early Permian Time to the Labyrinth Karst of Western Australia
7. How Islands React to Big Storms: A Journey in Early Jurassic Time to Saint David’s Archipelago of Wales
8. How Island Life Aligns with Global Currents: A Journey in Late Cretaceous Time to Baja California’s Eréndira Islands
9. How Island Life Adjusts to Opposing Shores on Oceanic Islands: A Journey in Middle Miocene Time to the Madeira Archipelago
10. How Volcanic Islands Rise, Fall, and Renew: A Journey in Early Pliocene Time to the Azorean Santa Maria Island
11. How the Youngest Islands Challenge Witness: Journeys in Pleistocene Time to Islands on the African and Pacific Tectonic Plates
12. How Islands Draw Meaning and Obligation: Descending Mount Misen on Japan’s Sacred Miyajima
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Markes E. Johnson is the Charles L. MacMillan Professor of Natural Science Emeritus at Williams College. His most recent book is Baja California’s Coastal Landscapes Revealed: Excursions in Geologic Time and Climate Change (2021).
Summary
The geologist Markes E. Johnson invites readers on a journey through deep time to find the traces of ancient islands. He visits a dozen sites around the globe, looking above and below today’s waterlines to uncover how landscapes of the past are preserved in the present.
