The Face of the Earth

Introduction

Chapter 1. Landscapes of Internal Fire
On the Spot: Over a River of Lava (SueEllen Campbell)
Prologue
Imagining the Interior
On the Spot: At the Edge of an Overthrust Belt (Scott Denning)
Mundus subterraneus
On the Spot: Among the Aeolian Islands (John Calderazzo)
The Globe, Tectonic Plates, and Mountain Building
On the Spot: Along the Disturbance Gradient (Charles Goodrich)
Volcanoes and Their Eruptions
On the Spot: Approaching Chaitén Volcano (Fred Swanson)
Hot Springs and Geysers

Chapter 2. Climate and Ice
Prologue
On the Spot: Up and down the Himalaya (Ellen Wohl)
How the Climate Works
The Ghosts of Climates Past
On the Spot: On the Burren (Gerald Delahunty)
Our Ice Age
Landscapes Shaped by Ice
On the Spot: In the Channeled Scablands (Mark Fiege)
Ice-Age Humans
On the Spot: On the Arctic Tundra (Ellen Wohl)
The Little Ice Age, Glaciology, and the Sublime
On the Spot: Toward a Glacier's Edge (Ana Maria Spagna)
The Story Now

Chapter 3. Wet and Fluid
Prologue
On the Spot: In the Rocky Intertidal Zone (Kathleen Dean Moore)
The Water Cycle
On the Spot: Along a Rain Forest Stream (Ellen Wohl)
The Moving Waters of Rivers
The Dream of Water in Deserts
The Slow Water of Wetlands
On the Spot: At the Bog on Céide Fields (Gerald Delahunty)
Peat, Mires, Bogs, Fens
On the Spot: At Wicken Fen (Richard Kerridge)
Marshes and Swamps
Wet/Dry
On the Spot: At the Billabong (Deborah Bird Rose)

Chapter 4. Desert Places, Desert Lives
Prologue
On the Spot: Down a Desert River Canyon (SueEllen Campbell)
Dry, Hot, Windy, and Dusty
On the Spot: In Jabal Aja' (Othman Llewellyn and Aishah Abdallah)
What We See
On the Spot: In the Chihuahuan Desert (Tom Lynch)
Clever Plants
On the Spot: In the Red Center (Deborah Bird Rose)
Clever Creatures
On the Spot: In the Negev Desert (Ellen Wohl)
The Human Desert

Chapter 5. The Complexities of the Real
Prologue
Underfoot
On the Spot: In Antarctica's Dry Valleys (Diana Wall)
Oceans of Grass
The Shapes of Complexity
On the Spot: On the Chalk Downs (Richard Kerridge)
Evolving Together . . .
On the Spot: In the Tallgrass Prairie (Bruce Campbell)
. . . And Moving Apart
On the Spot: On the Tibetan Plateau (Julia Klein)
Among Trees
On the Spot: In a Eucalypt Forest (Kate Rigby)
Zooming In
Return to Wonder

Epilogue: In a High Flower Meadow (SueEllen Campbell)

Sources
Contributor Biographies
Acknowledgments
Index