Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau »

Imagine seeing the varied landscapes of the earth as they used to look throughout hundreds of millions of years of earth history. Tropical seas lap on the shores of an Arizona beach. Immense sand dunes shift and swirl in Sahara-like deserts in Utah and New Mexico. Ancient rivers spill from a mountain range in Colorado that was a precursor to the modern Rockies. Such flights of geologic fancy are now tangible through the thought-provoking and beautiful paleogeographic maps, reminiscent of the maps in world atlases we all paged through as children, of Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau.Ron Blakey of Northern Arizona University is one of the world s foremost authorities on the geologic history of the Colorado Plateau. For more than fifteen years, he has meticulously created maps that show how numerous past landscapes gave rise to the region s stunning geologic formations. Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau is the first book to showcase Blakey s remarkable work. His maps are accompanied by text by Wayne Ranney, geologist and award-winning author of Carving Grand Canyon. Ranney takes readers on a fascinating tour of the many landscapes depicted in the maps, and Blakey and Ranney s fruitful collaboration brings the past alive like never before.Features:

More than 70 state-of-the-art paleogeographic maps of the region and of the world, developed over many years of geologic research

Detailed yet accessible text that covers the geology of the plateau in a way nongeologists can appreciate

More than 100 full-color photographs, diagrams, and illustrations

A detailed guide of where to go to see the spectacular rocks of the region

List of Maps and Globes

Foreword William R. Dickinson Dickinson, William R.

Preface Ron Blakey Blakey, Ron

Preface Wayne Ranney Ranney, Wayne

Ch. 1 Foundations of the Colorado Plateau: Early Proterozoic, 1,750 Million Years Ago 1

Ch. 2 Ancient Sediments, Unconformities, and Rifting: Middle and Late Proterozoic, 1,255 to 740 Million Years Ago 7

Ch. 3 Ancient Shallow Seas: Cambrian to Mississippian, 525 to 318 Million Years Ago 13

Ch. 4 Continental Unrest and Geologic Cycles: Pennsylvanian and Permian, 318 to 251 Million Years Ago 29

Ch. 5 Desert Rivers and Great Dunes: Triassic and Jurassic, 251 to 145 Million Years Ago 57

Ch. 6 Mountains and Continental Seaways: Cretaceous, 145 to 65 Million Years Ago 87

Ch. 7 The Modern Landscape Emerges: Cenozoic Era, 65 Million Years Ago to Present 103

Ch. 8 Summary of Historical Geology: Grand Canyon and the Grand Staircase 121

Ch. 9 Where to See the Rocks 127

Appendix Paleogeography, Paleogeographic Maps, and How They Are Made 147

Glossary 151

Reference List 153

Index 155