Great Plains Geology

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley!

This book was wonderful and highly readable for a variety of audiences. The author initially provides some background on how the Great Plains are defined and where they are located. I have an environmental background with an emphasis on geology, but I wasn't bored by the background detail. Nor do I believe the writing was over-the-head of those without such a background. The background simply set the stage for where we were "going". As I read, I got my maps out and learned quite a bit. The Great Plains include my favorite parts of the country and I have traveled through them relatively extensively. I looked at my own pictures of some of the places discussed and could often see what geologic features the author was pointing out. I was introduced to new places, particularly in Canada, where I could further explore, with specific details on finding the best sites and sights. This book helped me understand the geological history of an area I am strongly drawn to, and I will definitely use this book to help plan future travels. Wonderful mix of text, figures, and photographs.

Highly, highly recommended.

This is a sort of travelogue meant for lovers of landscape. Diffendal gives some quick, accessible basic concepts in geology, then proceeds to take the enthusiast on systematic touring of some of the most awe-inspiring locales of the Great Plains. This is a good book for undergrads, professionals, and tourists alike.

I received a free electronic copy of this great guide to the ecology of the Great Plains from Netgalley, R. F. Diffendal, and University of Nebraska Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.

This is an excellent and much appreciated explanation of the geology behind the spectacular scenery found in most of the central and some of the Southwestern portions of the US. Great Plains Geology is written in a fashion easily understood by laymen and is a wonderful guide to planning your 'field trips' to areas of extreme interest to nature lovers. It is a book I will want to refer to often, before I hit the road in quest of natural wonders. Thank you again, folks, for sharing this work with me.

The Great Plains of America only seem a boring and flat expanse if you haven’t lived in them, as I did in my earlier life, or only travel in certain parts of them.

University of Nebraska geologist Diffendal is out to convince you otherwise.

What the Great Plains are, where they are is a matter of some dispute. Diffendal includes a map with 50 different versions of the Great Plains. They range from the Sierra Nevadas in the west to past the Mississippi River Valley, from north of the Arctic Circle to Mexico. Diffendal’s definition extends from Alberta and Saskatchewan in the north down to a nick out of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains in the west but excludes the eastern parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and includes little more than the panhandle of Oklahoma, and parts of Texas. (My wife thinks Diffendal excluded Iowa just out of typical Nebraskan hostility to her native Iowa.)

Diffendal’s boundaries largely follow John Wesley Powell’s boundaries of the area and seems to be based on two requirements: land covered by the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway and not glaciated in the Pleistocene.

Diffendal starts with a concise summary of the geologic history of the area. Diagrams, maps, and a glossary make this accessible to a newbie to geology. There is diagram laying out the eras of geologic history including known periods of glaciation and impact events from comets and meteorites. (The Precambrian/Proterozoic Eon has certainly been delineated a lot more since I was introduced to historical geology 30 years ago.)

Then Diffendal takes on his road trip of 57 sites that includes every Canadian province and U.S. state in the Great Plains except Oklahoma. (I was rather disappointed he drew his Great Plains boundary west of the Oklahoma’s Arbuckle Mountains.) Diffendal has photos of each site and notes its geological, paleontological, historical, and archaeological interest.

As you would expect from his center of operations, Diffendal finds a surprising amount to see in Nebraska. As a South Dakotan partisan, I think he should have included Spearfish Canyon and the Needles. An example of the book’s humor at Mount Rushmore: “ . . . four U.S. presidents may distract your eyes and thoughts from the important thing here, the geology.”

One benefit of this broad treatment of a large area is that, unlike the more detailed and focused “road trip” geology books I have covering certain states, Diffendal helps you see the broad geologic context of things.

Diffendal throws some appendixes in on the different zones of the Great Plains, the scientific history behind certain geologic concepts, and a worthy guide to traveling the area. (Don’t ignore his warnings about suddenly variable weather and deserted roads.)

I got this book as a review copy from NetGalley, but I liked it well enough that I’m going to buy a hard copy to take along with all the other geology books I take on road trips.

I am going to disagree with the first sentence of the publisher's description of this book. That sentence (as found on Goodreads and on Amazon) reads: "Great Plains Geology concisely guides readers through the geological development of the Great Plains region. " But this book doesn't guide the reader through the geological development of the Great Plains as much as it does provide a sort of travelogue of interesting geological features through the Great Plains. In fact, Diffendal himself writes in his preface that the book is:
<blockquote> intended for ecotourists, anyone with a broad interest in geology and some general education in science, professional geologists and geographers wanting to become more familiar with the region, and students, farmers, ranchers, and k-12 educators who want to know about the Great Plains and its geological development.</blockquote>
The book is broken into three sections, the first two being relatively brief. Chapter One -"What is the Great Plains?" sets about to define the area, which I had thought would be pretty direct, but it seems as though there is no hard and fast definition of the region. Diffendal makes a strong case for his definition.

Chapter Two - "Geologic History of the Great Plains" is quite interesting. As a lay person with no solid science background I enjoyed getting this very easy to read history of how this particular geology was formed.

But it is Chapter Three - "Visiting the Great Plains" - that really proves valuable for the traveler. With fifty-seven different locations described, this is an absolute treat. Diffendal describes unusual features to look for and in some cases where to go to see the evidence of geologic history, and in at least one case something a little more current:
<blockquote>I may remember this Texas park for, among other things, being the place where I saw my first tarantula in the wild. It was big, fast, and aggressive!</blockquote>
This list of geologic sites to visit, many of them in State or National Parks in the United States and Canada is nicely put together and the reader can't help but feel Diffendal's excitement for the geology he describes in these areas. That excitement is infectious and it definitely makes me want to hurry out and get to all these locations.

While I won't get to all these sites - I'll be lucky to get to just a few of them - I will definitely want to take this book along.

The book is nicely illustrated, often with photos taken by the author.

Diffendal wraps up his book with:
<blockquote>...many of the sites described do not fit the stereotypical view of the Great Plains as continuously flat and grass-covered, but that was one of my goals. I hope that I have provided you with a better understanding of the tremendous variation in the landscapes, geology, ecology, and archaeology of this wondrous place and have given you the itch to explore it either for the first time or once again in more detail.</blockquote>
My response is: "Yes you did. Thank you."

Looking for a good book? <em>Great Plains Geology</em> by R. F. Diffendal is a wonderful geology resource and travel-guide for anyone with even a speck of interest in visiting sites of geologic interest.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgally, in exchange for an honest review.