Field Geology Illustrated

A good updated general reference for field geology. Lahee's Field Geology sixth edition 1961 was the last good reference for this topic. All photos are sharp and in black and white. Eliminating color photos assists in viewing and understanding structures easier. Writing style was reasonably clear with some descriptions above a beginning geologist's understanding. A good geology dictionary would make a handy sidekick to this book.

And still don't have a copy at home. I loan it out, it doesn't come back! I haven't decided whether to buy multiple replacements or to stop loaning it out ;-)

Useful, does what it sets out to do. It contains enormous amounts of information that will impress third party who is uninformed about geology that the reader actually knows something about the subject.

I have both editions and this edition is a remarkable improvement. However, the author who has vast experience in marine geology, decided to take up precious space in an early chapter on this topic since, according to him, we live on a planet covered by water. I think instead 15-20 pages introducing geologic maps and elementary structure(especially after his introductory chapter on the history of US geological surveying) would serve the reader far better--who probably will have little opportunity to particpate in 'field' marine geology. Maley lists standard field geology books in the reference section (Compton, etc), but field geology for the beginner/student involves understanding field maps, not just photos, as good as these pics are. A few pages covering geologic maps makes sense for a field geology book with over 700 pages.

very informative. Excellent presentation

Tons of photos

Thank you!

I've been interested in geology most of my life, since I started picking invertebrate Devonian fossils out of stream beds in 1942. So I have quite a stack of books on geology; but most of them are not worth having. Geology is the process of inferring the history of our planet from the physical record of earlier times. Unfortunately, most of the physical record is missing, and much of what remains is quite puzzling. Most geology texts are either extremely restricted in what they cover, or are texts for "bird courses" in geology taken by kids who must take one science course to get a degree (texts that tell "the story of the earth's history" without explaining how we know), or are monographs impenetrable except to other geologists. But although I am not a geologist, almost all my life I have wanted to be able to see what I'm looking at, whether in a road cut or in a flood plain or in a mountain range or in a "wild" cave. And it's really hard to find educational materials that help me to see. This book does that; it is one of three that I treasure. (The other two are "Principles of Geology" Third Edition, by James Gilluly, Aaron C. Waters and A. O. Woodford, and "Geology Illustrated" by John S. Shelton.) I have several other books that help, but these are the three that I depend on to help me decipher how a small deposit of slate wound up embedded into a terrane of folded and metamorphosed PreCambrian Gneiss, or how the purple-red puddingstone at the crest of Schunemunck Mountain came to have three precisely orthogonal cleavage planes, that cleave right through quartz pebbles as well as through the sandstone matrix. I don't haul texts around with me; when I encounter something I don't understand I take a sample or two, and maybe a few photos, and bring those home to ponder at leisure, books by my side. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. But be sure you get the 2005 edition, not the 1994 or 1980 editions.