Product Description
For anyone who is interested in developments in the study of the Earth's structure, Plate Tectonics offers a full understanding of the theory that provides a single guiding principle to the earth's geological history. Beginning with a historical overview of plate tectonic theory in this century, the book describes in clear, non-technical language how plate tectonics work, how it affected evolution and extinction, and what the future holds. Coverage includes: - Seafloor Spreading - Mountain Building - The Rock Cycle - Tectonics and the Environment - Tectonics in Space - Continental Draft

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 5 reviews)

Coverage limited by R. Bagula (Lakeside, Ca United States)

3 Stars
December 17, 2008
As a chemist I learned that the oil companies are the major companies who give jobs to chemists. It is similar with geologists: the best industrial jobs go to people who can find new oil pockets. Plate techtonics has shown us where the ancients continents were joined so that we know that oil in the north sea implies oil in Alaska, for instance. I'm reviewing this book because the coverage of oil and coal resources as well as gold and other mineral wealth is pretty much left out. The geologist has been at work finding these resources since the science began. As a History of the geological world this book is pretty good, but as a reference of practical instruction it fails.

This book is wrong! by M. Stroud

1 Stars
July 18, 2005
This book is beyond typos, it is just wrong. The ideas are OK at best but many of the examples are wrong. If you do not know anything about geology this book is fine for a "get your feet wet" read. If you do know a little geology then this book will just anger you.

Not bad for $3 by EJR (Boston, MA USA)

4 Stars
July 07, 2005
I never had a chance to take a geology course during college and several years after graduating decided to buy this cheap geology text to learn something about the topic. (...)and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Like the Oct 2003 reviewer I was a bit worried by the July 2003 review. I agree that the text does need a bit of editing, all the photos are in black and white and most are from the western United States, and the writing will not leave your heart racing. But the book is reasonably concise and I found it digestible by taking in a chapter or two at a sitting. I wouldn't pay more than $10 for it, but if you find it used for less than that and simply want a concise intro it will suffice.

Quite good, actually. Informative and thought provoking.

4 Stars
October 19, 2003
I came across this title in Amazon.com several weeks ago, and decided at that time not to look for a copy, based on the negative review by the reviewer of July 2003.Then I happened upon a copy of the book at a bricks-and-mortar book store today, found it to be quite good, and bought it. I'm about 100 pages into it this evening, and I appreciate the way it summarizes and ties together recent findings I've read about in other works but couldn't relate to one another. I agree that there have been a few rough places where editing could improve the flow of the text, but I'm finding it quite informative.

Desperately In Need of Editing

2 Stars
July 25, 2003
Plate tectonics can be one of the sexiest topics in geology. However, via this book, Erickson and Muller manage to turn it into a sleeper. The writing style is circular, repetitive, and desperately in need of editing. As this book is relatively non-technical, the majority of its content can be found in a second-semester earth science/geology textbook. The one redeeming feature: noteworthy graphics and charts (that would have benefitted from color over black and white...)

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