No comments about The Superdeep Well of the Kola Peninsula (Exploration of the Deep Continental Crust).

No comments about Cosmic Rays in the Earth's Atmosphere and Underground (Astrophysics and Space Science Library).

No comments about Weather Radar: Principles and Advanced Applications (Physics of Earth and Space Environments).

1 comments about Geological Atlas of Africa: With Notes on Stratigraphy, Tectonics, Economic Geology, Geohazards and Geosites of Each Country.

1. This a very good collection of maps and descriptions for each African country. The regional geology is generally well described and obviously represents the best consesus and data available. The economic geology is occasionly a bit generic and doesn't cover recent exploration activities in Africa. The hazard and sites descriptions are a bit so so due to lack of data in many cases. The continental review is also usefull (14 pages).

No comments about Soil Physics Companion.

No comments about Structures of Ophiolites and Dynamics of Oceanic Lithosphere (Petrology and Structural Geology).

5 comments about Geosystems: An Introduction to Physical Geography: Virtual Field Trip Upgrade.

1. I know I bought this book for a class I'm taking and while the data is something I need to learn what I really like about this book is all the beautiful photography both in the book and in the accompaning CD have on them.
   
   The authors wife is a professional photographer and he uses that to illustrate the concepts with asthetics.
   
   Is the book a bit of a hard read? Yes but again it's a college level textbook so this isn't surprising but if you have to buy it for class don't despair you'll have a book full of beautiful pictures of mother nature to look at well after the college class is done.



2. I thought this was well organized and easy to understand for the most part. There were only a few parts (pages, really) that were sort of ho-hum. The diagrams and photos were top notch and really went well with the text. This text would be interesting to read just for the sake of it. I don't have another text to compare it to, which I imagine is a good thing. I've had other texts that were so bad that I only used them for the problem sets (Zill's diff eq text!) but the only external source I used with this book was the internet --and that was usually because something in the book sparked more curiosity.
   
   I would have preferred more technical information (such as wave dynamics or quantative analysis) but I do understand this is an intro text and that I am a math geek.
   
   Our instructor combined this text with the geography of the Pacific NW where I reside, and I certainly do look at the landscape quite differently after taking this course. For that, I give it a five.
   
   Kudos to Christopherson for a well designed book.



3. Edit of 5 Feb 08 to add emphasis comment and links.
   
   Coment of 5 Feb 08: This amazing professional product has pride of place in my 3000 volum library. It is the permanet owner of the teacher's lecturn, always open to chapter. I include an image aboe to emphasize this point. This book and its author, are GOLD STANDARD.
   
   This is the only DVD I watch weekly on background, stopping my work at each song. This is an incrediblly gifted rendition and integraration of reality art, technology, and directoriaq craft. Wow, wow, wow.
   
   
   I picked this gem up at the University of Colorado bookstore. I do not have the time for a third graduate degree, but if I did, it would be in Environmental Science.
   
   Unlike most textbooks, this hardcover version is worth every penny, and the paperback is a bargain. This is a large book, 8.5 x 11, crammed with photos, extraordinarily well organized, illustrated, and presented, and it includes a CD ROM that the previous owner never opened that I find to be priceless: a series of illustrations and animations keyed to every chapter, with a non-punitive self-test. Also provided free are an online study guide. Supporting materials include a Student Study Guide and a Student Lecture Notebook that provides illustrations and diagrams to be integrated into the class binder. All are identified by ISBNs, but if you miss page xviii, which outlines "the package," you will be unaware of the other resources.
   
   Each chapter has the base material, a focus study, a news item, and more often than not, a career link. Each chapter ends with self-study questions. My bottom line: this book, taken seriously, *is* a self-taught graduate program in Geosystems.
   
   The only think I do not see in the book, and it may be in the study guide, is "Recommended Reading." BUT a complete array of current sources are fully cited as easily visible footnotes on most pages.
   
   The only gap in this book, and it could probably be quickly developed as a supplementary paperback guide and CD, is the avoidance of an integrated discussion of costs and consequences. The entire study of Geosystems is irrelevant unless it can be explained to people in "true cost" terms. While the book excels, for example, at showing the severe drop in aquifers across specific places, it does not provide a guide to calculating current and future costs to society for ignoring these problems and allowing corporations and individuals to continue to externalize to the public and to future generations, the costs of being stupid and greedy today.
   
   First rate book. One of the most serious textbooks, one of the best illustrated, explained, supported, and presented, I have every seen. For serious adults and emerging adults only--this is not a book, nor a class, for dolts just trying to meet a requirement for graduation.
   
   Other recommended book:
   High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
   The Future of Life
   Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
   The Ecology of Commerce
   Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
   Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics
   Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble
   Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource
   Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy
   Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author



4. Fun to read?! A textbook!? That's right. I'm reading this for my own edification, not for a class, and I'm enjoying it. This book is amazingly well organized. It flows from topic to topic, and learning is enhanced. With most textbooks, you know the routine. Read it, hope the teacher can explain it better, then reorganize the material in your notes into some more understandable fashion. With Geosystems, it's just "read and learn."
   
   I used to hate geography, now I love it. For more detailed info on this book, read the excellent Amazon reviews by steele and nmatzke.



5. Poorly written and organized. One of the worst texts I have had for a class, it makes things more confusing instead of explaining. It covers many topics instead of explaining anything in detail.

2 comments about Earth Matters: The Earth Sciences, Philosophy, and the Claims of Community.

1. First, in the interests of full disclosure, I should note that an essay of mine is included in this volume. However, I think my contribution is among the weaker in the book, and I give this volume the rating I do because of the high quality of the other contributions. Also, I am one of two people to whom the editor graciously dedicated the book, a compliment for which I am grateful but which I have tried to set aside as an influence on this review.

   What makes this book outstanding is its attempt to advance philosophical reflection on the earth sciences. Martin Heidegger once made a remark to the effect that the sciences do not think, they simply analyze and re-present. This book attempts to move beyond Heidegger by engaging in interdisciplinary philosophical reflection on the nature and meaning of the geosciences. These reflections range from hydrologist Victor Baker's semiotics of the earth sciences and philosopher Kristin Shrader-Frechette's critique of positivist epistemology in geological modelling to Bruce Foltz's careful phenomenological attention to how the geosciences can help provide human orientation in the world and Albert Borgmann's expressions of concern for the implications of the digitalization of information in geology. Christine Turner provides an introduction to the experience of the field sciences. Daniel Sarewitz critiques excessive attempts to rely on objectivity. Scott McLean, Eldrige Moores, and David Robertson examine how geology is manifest in the poetry of Gary Snyder. Alphonso Lingis examines "ecological emotions." And more. This is, truly, a most remarkable book, that advances not just the development of a philosophy of the geosciences but the philosophy of science.

   Weaknesses: The book deserves a much more robust and programatic introduction; and a good annotated bibliography would have been a very serviceable addition.




2. To any serious observer and critic of the current `State of the Earth'-this book is a crucial resource. Carl Mitcham, in a review that also lives on this site, has done an even-handed job of highlighting particular articles and their merits. I would agree with and refer you back to his observations, but for one point. Mitcham's own essay is not a weak link in the collection, but, in fact, brings up the central concern of the volume eloquently:

   "Rather than being hyperactive cheerleaders for the future or sullen critics of the present we must attempt to think it, to recognize ever more clearly what has happened and what is at stake--in part, through a studied dialogue with ancestors and alternatives..."

   "Earth Matters" provides a quality forum for studied dialogue, alternative ways of thinking through and naming things, and collapsing traditional boundaries in search of progressive, adaptive and compassionate responses to what most see as a precarious state in environmental affairs. Reading it is entering the forum and participating in the dialogue, for many of the questions begin with an examination of self. These authors are indeed `the adults-in-the-room'-deeply respected and serious writers from across several disciplines. There isn't a hint of brash extremism here, but rather, a disciplined, contemplative and often poetic approach to subtle and complex issues.

No comments about GIS for Water Resource and Watershed Management.

No comments about Gravity and Low-Frequency Geodynamics (Physics and Evolution of the Earth's Interior).