LIMITED OFFER
Save 50% on book bundles
Immediately download your ebook while waiting for your print delivery. No promo code needed.
Landscape Evolution in the United States
An Introduction to the Geography, Geology, and Natural History
- 1st Edition - December 21, 2012
- Author: Joseph A. DiPietro
- Language: English
- Hardback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 3 9 7 7 9 9 - 1
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 3 9 7 8 0 6 - 6
Landscape Evolution in the United States is an accessible text that balances interdisciplinary theory and application within the physical geography, geology, geomorpho… Read more
Purchase options
Institutional subscription on ScienceDirect
Request a sales quoteLandscape Evolution in the United States is an accessible text that balances interdisciplinary theory and application within the physical geography, geology, geomorphology, and climatology of the United States. Landscape evolution refers to the changing terrain of any given area of the Earth's crust over time. Common causes of evolution (or geomorphology—land morphing into a different size or shape over time) are glacial erosion and deposition, volcanism, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, sediment transport into rivers, landslides, climate change, and other surface processes. The book is divided into three main parts covering landscape components and how they are affected by climactic, tectonic and ocean systems; varying structural provinces including the Cascadia Volcanic Arc and California Transpressional System; and the formation and collapse of mountain systems.
The vast diversity of terrain and landscapes across the United States makes this an ideal tool for geoscientists worldwide who are researching the country’s geological evolution over the past several billion years.
- Presents the complexities of physical geography, geology, geomorphology, and climatology of the United States through an interdisciplinary, highly accessible approach
- Offers more than 250 full-color figures, maps and photographs that capture the systematic interaction of land, rock, rivers, glaciers, global wind patterns and climate
- Provides a thorough assessment of the logic, rationale, and tools required to understand how to interpret landscape and the geological history of the Earth
- Features exercises that conclude each chapter, aiding in the retention of key concepts
Geologists, Exploration Geologists, Geographers, Geomorphologists, Climatologists, and Land Managers conducting research and working in industry, particularly with U.S. Geological Surveys nationwide, GPS/GIS companies as well as Oil & Gas companies. Undergraduate students in the Geosciences, particularly those taking coursework in geomorphology/physical geology and landscape evolution
Preface
Abbreviations
Conversions
Part I: Keys to Understanding Landscape Evolution
Chapter 1. The Tortoise and the Hare
How Slow is Slow?
Maps, Cross-sections, and Scale
The Face of the United States
Across the Great Divide
Components, Mechanisms, and Variables That Impart Change on a Landscape
Chapter 2. Component: The Rock/Sediment Type
Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition
Rocks and Unconsolidated Sediment
The Influence of Bedrock on a Landscape
Karst Landscape
Distribution of Rock/Sediment Type Among the US Physiographic Provinces
Chapter 3. Component: The Structural Form
Style of Rock Deformation (Structure)
Influence of Geologic Structure on Landscape
The Response of Dipping Layers to Erosional Lowering
The Shape of Land vs. the Shape of Rock Structure
Chapter 4. Mechanisms That Impart Change to Landscapes
Uplift and Subsidence
Erosion and Deposition
Exhumation
Volcanism
Chapter 5. Forcing Variable: The Tectonic System
Fire and Ice
The Tectonic System
The Atlantic Passive Continental Margin
The Pacific Active Continental Margin
Tectonic Accretion, Underplating, and Suture Zones
Thermal Plumes and Hot Spots
Tekton: The Carpenter, The Builder
Chapter 6. Forcing Variable: The Climatic System
Present-Day Climate Zones
Controls on Climate
A Daughter of the Snows: The Continental Glaciation
Alpine Glaciation
Chapter 7. Forcing Variables: Sea Level and Isostasy
Sea-Level Changes
River Response to Sea-Level changes
Isostasy and Isostatic Equilibrium
Tectonic Versus Isostatic Uplift/Subsidence
Chapter 8. Interaction of Tectonics, Climate, and Time
Structure-Controlled versus Erosion-Controlled Landscapes
Thresholds and Reincarnation
A Classification of Structural Provinces
A Structural Overview of the Four Physiographic Regions
Part II: Structural Provinces
Chapter 9. Unconsolidated Sediment
The Nebraska Sand Hills Region and the Ogallala Aquifer
The Atlantic and Gulf Coast Shoreline
Ancient Shorelines of the Coastal Plain
The Pacific Coast
Chapter 10. Nearly Flat-Lying Sedimentary Layers
Overview of the Interior Plains and Plateaus Region and the Coastal Plain
Overview of the Great Plains and Wyoming Basin
Bench-and-Slope Landscape
The Colorado Plateau
The Interior Low Plateaus
Erosional Mountains of the Appalachian Plateau
Ozark Plateau
Fractures in Nearly Flat-Lying Layers on the Colorado Plateau
The Coastal Plain
Chapter 11. Crystalline-Cored Mid-Continent Anticlines and Domes
The Adirondack Mountains
The St. Francois Mountains
The Wichita, Arbuckle, and Llano Structural Domes
The Northwestern Great Plains
Crystalline-Cored Dome Mountains on the Colorado Plateau and the Colorado Mineral Belt
The Middle and Southern Rocky Mountains
The Wind River and Bighorn Mountain Ranges
The Black Hills
Water Gaps in the Rocky Mountains
Chapter 12. Foreland Fold-and-Thrust Belts
The Cordilleran (Sevier) Fold-and-Thrust Belt
The Appalachian Fold-and-Thrust Belt
The Ouachita and Marathon Fold-and-Thrust Belts
Water Gaps in the Valley and Ridge and Ouachita Mountains
Chapter 13. Crystalline Deformation Belts
The Crystalline Appalachians
Erosional History of the Appalachian Mountains
The Fall Line
The Blue Ridge Escarpment
The Northern Rocky Mountains and North Cascades
The Superior Upland Crystalline Province
Chapter 14. Young Volcanic Rocks of the Cordillera
Magma Types and Lava Domes
The Columbia River Plateau
The Snake River Plain
Cordilleran Volcanic Areas Between 60 and 20 Million Years Old
Cordilleran Volcanic Areas Younger Than 20 Million Years
Chapter 15. Normal Fault-Dominated Landscapes
The Basin and Range
Rio Grande Rift
The Teton Range
The Wasatch Mountains
Triassic Lowlands of the Appalachian Mountains
Chapter 16. Cascadia Volcanic Arc System
The Coast Range and Valleys
The Olympic Mountains
The Klamath Mountains
The Cascade Mountains
The Central-Southern Cascade Mountains
Chapter 17. California Transpressional System
The San Andreas Fault System
Displacement Along the San Andreas Fault
The History of the San Andreas Fault System
A Relict Subduction Zone Landscape
The Formation of Transpressional Structures
The Transverse Ranges and the Salton Sea
Rotation of the Transverse Block
The Eastern California–Walker Lane Belt
The Coast Ranges
Peninsular Ranges
The Sierra Nevada
Chapter 18. The Story of the Grand Canyon
The Physiographic Canyon
Why Less than Six Million Years?
Meanders
The Great Deformation and Paleoelevation
Recent Incision Rates
Exhumation Ages
A Pre-Six-Million-Year Theory on the Cutting of the Canyon
Water Gaps
Part III: Mountain Building
Chapter 19. Early Theories on the Origin of Mountain Belts
Chapter 20. Keys to the Interpretation of Geological History
Geologic Field Mapping
How Rocks Reveal History
Fossils, Cross-Cutting Relationships, and the Geologic Time Scale
Metamorphism
Plutonism
Volcanic Arc Complexes
Ophiolite, Subduction Complexes, and Collision
Recognition of Crystalline Basement
Radiometric Dating (Geochronology)
Pre-, Syn-, Post-, and Intra-
Detrital Zircon Geochronology
Fault and Belt Terminology
Chapter 21. Tectonic Style, Rock Successions, and Tectonic Provinces
A Tectonic Subdivision of the United States
Tectonic Style
Rock Successions
Tectonic Provinces
The Idealized Orogenic Belt
Termination of Deformation at the Margins of an Orogenic System
Intra-Orogenic Deposition, Plutons, and Suture Zones
Post-Orogenic Reincarnation
Chapter 22. Formation, Collapse, and Erosonal Decay of Mountain Systems
Subduction and Development of the Tectonic Wedge
Gravitational Collapse of a Mountain
Lithospheric Delamination
Erosional Decay of Mountain Systems
Chapter 23. The Appalachian Orogenic Belt: An Example of Compressional Mountain Building
Setting the Stage
A Tectonic Map of the Appalachians
Major Tectonic Boundaries
Tectonic Framework
Formation of Laurentia
Flysch and Molasse Basins: Dating Appalachian Orogeny
The Foreland Fold-and-Thrust Belt
The Five Appalachian Realms
Late Cambrian-Early Ordovician Paleogeography
Laurentian Continental Realm
Internal Massifs
Iapetus Oceanic Realm
Peri-Gondwana Microcontinental Realm
Sequence of Appalachian Collision
Chapter 24. The Cordilleran Orogenic Belt
The Precambrian Shield
Precambrian Sedimentary/Volcanic Succession
The Miogeocline
The Sri = 0.706 Line
Cratonic Deformation: Laramide and Maria Thick-Skinned Belts
Miogeoclinal Deformation: The Sevier Thrust Belt
Accreted Terrane Thrust Belts: The Antler and Sonoma Orogenies
Truncation
Volcanic Arc and Subduction Complexes
Building the Cordilleran Tectonic Wedge
Epilogue
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
- No. of pages: 480
- Language: English
- Edition: 1
- Published: December 21, 2012
- Imprint: Elsevier
- Hardback ISBN: 9780123977991
- eBook ISBN: 9780123978066
JD
Joseph A. DiPietro
Joseph A. DiPietro is Professor of Geology at the University of Southern Indiana. His research interests are in the fields of structural geology, tectonics, and metamorphism. He has been on the faculty at University of Southern Indiana since 1991 where he teaches Physical Geology, Landscapes and Geology of North America, Mineralogy, Structural Geology, and Tectonics. Most of his research has been on the tectonics of the Pakistan Himalaya where he mapped along the suture zone that separates India from Asia. He has also worked for the New York State Geological Survey mapping in the Adirondack Mountains and for the Idaho Geological Survey mapping in the Clearwater Mountains and he has conducted mapping and research in the Green Mountains of Vermont.
Affiliations and expertise
University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, USARead Landscape Evolution in the United States on ScienceDirect