Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Eastern California

About this book

Eastern California – a geologically dramatic region with the ever-present risk of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, flash floods, and sand storms – boasts spectacular and easily viewed rocks and landforms. Authors Allen Glazner and Art Sylvester build on coauthor Bob Sharp's insights to produce this full-colour illustrated guide to 33 amazing geologic sites in Death Valley and the surrounding region. Learn how stones slide across the Racetrack playa, find the rocks missing from Dantes View, and visit the rim of the Long Valley caldera, an enormous depression left by a supervolcano eruption far larger than any that has occurred since the dawn of civilization.

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Biography

Allen F. Glazner was born, raised, and educated in southern California. He earned a BA degree from Pomona College and a PhD degree in geology from UCLA. Allen was a sports reporter in high school, worked summer jobs with the USGS and Shell, and took a faculty position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill immediately after finishing his PhD, pursuits that were all too fun to be considered real jobs. He has conducted geological research in the Sierra Nevada and eastern California since his undergraduate days and retired from teaching in 2019. He is co-author of Geology Underfoot in Yosemite National Park and of both editions of Geology Underfoot in Southern California, the latter with Art and Bob Sharp.

Arthur Gibbs Sylvester was born, raised, and educated in southern California. He each earned a BA degree from Pomona College and a PhD degree in geology from UCLA. Art joined a team of Shell Development Company research geologists to study the tectonic history of the Pacific margin of the United States after earning his PhD, but UC Santa Barbara lured him away from Shell to teach courses in structural geology, field geology, and petrology. His research includes fieldwork in Norway, Italy, Grand Teton National Park, the Tahoe-Sierra, and the Salton Trough. He has led more than 300 field trips in southern California for student, industrial, and professional geologists. After retiring from active teaching in 2003, Art and Libby O'Black Gans coauthored Roadside Geology of Southern California.

Robert P. Sharp (1911-2004) originated the Geology Underfoot series. In 1993 he took on Allen, 43 years his junior, to co-write the first book in the series, Geology Underfoot in Southern California. Bob taught generations of geology students at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), leading them on field trips across the West and Hawaii even into his 90s. A true polymath who could explain complex concepts to anyone, his speciality fields included sand dune physics, glaciology, and planetary sciences. He was among the first to interpret dune processes in orbital imagery from Mars and received the Penrose Medal from the Geological Society of America, its highest honor, in 1977. In further recognition of his contributions to diverse fields, a mountain and a glacier in Antarctica, a Mars-crossing asteroid, and a mountain on Mars have been named in his honour.