Missouri Geology: Three Billion Years of Volcanoes, Seas, Sediments, and Erosion

Rating:
Summary: This book rocks!
Review: I have quite a collection of regional geologies. This volume is, by far, the best organized and complete one I've seen. If you have any interest in the geology of Missouri or the mid-continent area, I'd strongly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Missouri Complete
Review: I have quite a collection of regional geologies. This volume is, by far, the best organized and complete one I've seen. If you have any interest in the geology of Missouri or the mid-continent area, I'd strongly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: This book rocks!
Review: I've always been interested in geology but never educated in it. I hung with geology types in the caving club at the University of Missouri-Rolla but was never able to understand the significance when they'd remark on the Roubidoux sandstone or Gasconade Dolomite. I have an old copy of Vinyard's "Geologic Wonders and Curiosities of Missouri" and was always teased by his mention of those and many other formations throughout that book.

He and Unklesbay makes up for it in this book! All the rocks in Missouri, from bottom to top, are given their due -- what they are and how they got here, and what they're good for. And without having to try too hard, I even managed to memorize all the basic geologic ages, eras, and epochs that had always muddled me.

This book shows its age in some ways, though I'm not qualified to judge how badly. I have read about interesting research into the Weaubleau and Crooked Creek structures identifying them as potential meteor strikes, e.g., whereas this book identifies them as explosive in orgin. In fairness, some of that research is very new, if I recall correctly.

The section about economically important geologic resources is all about numbers and recoverability without any thought given to the ecologic and cultural damage widespread mining can cause. But in fairness, that's not the aim or purpose of this book, and neither are those concerns overtly slighted. Keep in mind the age of this book, too, when reading about Missouri mining industries. The lead belt still produces, but the Pea Ridge iron mine has been shuttered, or so says my Internet research.

Okay, now that I've shown balance by pointing out some shortcomings, I can now highly recommend that you read this book if you're curious but uninformed about the mid-continent region geology. It is exactly the book I was looking for.