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In this second edition, the book has an entirely new final section, "California's Environmental Hazards and Challenges", with new chapters on California's landslides, air and water pollution, renewable energy, and the future of climate change in California.
List of contents
Chapter 1 The Golden State
Chapter 2 Building Blocks
Chapter 3 Dating California
Chapter 4 The Big Picture
Chapter 5 Earthquakes and Seismology
Chapter 6 Young Volcanoes
Chapter 7 The Broken Land
Chapter 8 Gold, Glaciers, and Granitics
Chapter 9 Mantle Rocks and Exotic Terranes
Chapter 10 Oil and Agriculture
Chapter 11 The San Andreas Fault System
Chapter 12 Mélanges, Granitics, and Ophiolites
Chapter 13 Compression, Rotation, Uplift
Chapter 14 Granitics, Gravels, and Gems
Chapter 15 Assembling California
Chapter 16 California’s Gold
Chapter 17 California’s Oil and Gas
Chapter 18 California’s Water
Chapter 19 California’s Coasts
Chapter 20 California’s Fossil Resources
Chapter 21 California’s Slippery Slopes
Chapter 22 California’s Air and Water Pollution
Chapter 23 California’s Renewable Energy Resources
Chapter 24 Climate Change and California’s Future Environment
About the author
Donald Prothero has taught college geology and paleontology for 45 years, at Caltech, Columbia, Cal Poly Pomona, and Occidental, Knox, Vassar, Glendale, Mt. San Antonio, and Pierce Colleges. He earned his B.A. in geology and biology (highest honors, Phi Beta Kappa, College Award) from University of California Riverside in 1976, and his M.A. (1978), M.Phil. (1979), and Ph.D. (1982) in geological sciences from Columbia University. He is the author of over 50 books (including 8 leading geology textbooks, and several trade books), and over 400 scientific papers, mostly on the evolution of fossil mammals (especially rhinos, camels, and pronghorns) and on using the earth's magnetic field changes to date fossil-bearing strata. He has been on the editorial boards of journals such as Geology, Paleobiology, Journal of Paleontology, and Skeptic magazine. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, the Paleontological Society, and the Geological Society of America, and also received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Science Foundation. He served as President of Pacific Section SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) in 2012, and served for five years as Program Chair of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. In 1991, he received the Charles Schuchert Award for outstanding paleontologist under the age of 40. In 2013, he received the James Shea Award of the National Association of Geology Teachers for outstanding writing and editing the geosciences. In 2015, he received the Joseph T. Gregory award for service to vertebrate paleontology. In 2016 he was named a “Friend of Darwin” by the National Center for Science Education. In 2023, he was named a “Distinguished Speaker” by the Palaeontological Association. He has been featured on numerous TV documentaries, including Paleoworld, Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, Prehistoric Monsters Revealed, Monsterquest, Prehistoric Predators: Entelodon and Hyaenodon, Conspiracy Road Trip: Creationism, as well as Jeopardy! and Win Ben Stein's Money.
Summary
In this second edition, the book has an entirely new final section, “California’s Environmental Hazards and Challenges”, with new chapters on California’s landslides, air and water pollution, renewable energy, and the future of climate change in California.
