Written by a career geologist with decades of experience in the field, North America’s Natural Wonders provides everything the reader needs to understand the landscape. It guides readers through the most iconic, geologically significant scenery in North America, points out features of interest, explains what they are seeing, and describes how these features came to be. Presented as classic excursions to some of the best-known natural wonders on the continent, Volume I focuses primarily on Western North America, including the Canadian Rockies, California, the Southwest, Great Basin, and Tetons-Yellowstone Country. The trips detailed in this volume include stops at quintessential features, such as the glaciers and mountains of Banff National Park, Yosemite, the vineyards of Napa Valley, the California goldfields, the Grand Canyon, numerous parks in Utah, the geysers and hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, as well as many others. It also features discussions of lesser-known but equally interesting geologic formations and important information on accessing these sites. Features Addresses issues of interest, such as fossils, earthquakes, mineral sites, mining, and oil fields Lavishly illustrated with numerous colorful maps and breathtaking geological landscapes and their various features These five self-guided tours explain to the curious layman, student, and geologist what they are seeing when they look at a roadcut or a quarry and enhances the experience far beyond simple sightseeing.

Through a remarkable combination of intellect, self-confidence, engaging humility, and prodigious output of published work, William R. Dickinson influenced and challenged three generations of sedimentary geologists, igneous petrologists, tectonicists, sandstone petrologists, archaeologists, and other geoscientists. A key figure in the plate-tectonic revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, he explained how the distribution of sediments on Earth's surface could be traced to tectonic processes, and is widely recognized as a founder of modern sedimentary basin analysis. This volume consists of 31 chapters related to Dickinson's research interests; many of the authors are his former students, their students, and their students' students, demonstrating his continuing profound influence. The papers in this volume are an impressive tribute to the depth and breadth of Bill Dickinson's contributions to the geosciences.