The Colorado Plateau: A Geologic History

Rating:
Summary: Good luck.
Review: This book contains lots of information about the geology of the Colorado Plateau... the problem is that it's incredibly difficult to read, even for folks like me who studied geology in the Southwest. For one thing, it provides little overview information, which would help introduce key concepts and tie them together. (Of course, tying key concepts together might be easier if the author were comfortable with plate tectonics as a driver for the structural features of the region... but that's another story). The fact that this book is chock full of mistakes--for example, referencing figures that don't actually exist--doesn't help, either. In fact, I generally found the illustrations to be more confusing than helpful. They never appear in places where they'd actually help you understand the text, and when they do appear, they're often confusing because they lack labels... or, worse yet, they are not discussed at all. It's too bad; with a good editorial and peer review, this book could have been a worthwhile reference. I definitely would not recommend it for the lay audience.