The Mountains That Remade America : How Sierra Nevada Geology Impacts Modern Life / Craig H. Jones.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jones, Craig H., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Geology--Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)--History.

Geology.

Human geography--Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.).

Human geography.

Mountains--Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)--History.

Mountains.

Gold mines and mining--Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.).

Gold mines and mining.

Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (359 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

From ski towns to national parks, fresh fruit to environmental lawsuits, the Sierra Nevada has changed the way Americans live. Whether and where there was gold to be mined redefined land, mineral, and water laws. Where rain falls (and where it doesn't) determines whose fruit grows on trees and whose appears on slot machines. All this emerges from the geology of the range and how it changed history, and in so doing, changed the country. The Mountains That Remade America combines geology with history to show how the particular forces and conditions that created the Sierra Nevada have effected broad outcomes and influenced daily life in the United States in the past and how they continue to do so today. Drawing connections between events in historical geology and contemporary society, Craig H. Jones makes geological science accessible and shows the vast impact this mountain range has had on the American West.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Introduction

1. An Asymmetric Barrier

2. A Golden Trinity

3. A Placer for Everyone

4. Fossil Rivers, Modern Water

5. Lode Gold

6. "A Property of No Value"

7. Granite, Guardian of Wilderness

8. Big Trees, Big Battles

9. Mountains Adrift

10. What Lies Beneath

11. Paradoxes and Proxy Wars

Notes

References

Illustration Sources

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Sep 2019)

ISBN:

9780520964235

0520964233

OCLC:

976036437