Roadside Geology of New Mexico (Roadside Geology Series)

Halka Chronic

1 Roadside Geology of New Mexico
Outstanding! Since I travel frequently to and through New Mexico, this book was everything I hoped for. Familiar terrain takes on a new meaning now. The seller (BookPlanet) delivered the book promptly, at a reasonable price, and in new condition. Very satisfactory deal all the the way around. John Bradshaw

2 Not what I expected- Very interesting, great resource
I expected a pretty dry book regarding a pretty dry subject. I was wrong.

This has stimulated my interest in geology. Each time we travel now, we take this book and the Roadside History of NM book with us. It makes our trips through New Mexico much more interesting. We stop and look at the places these books mention and read about the events that occured there and what the rocks are telling us. Sometimes we even take side trips to see things that are mentioned in one of these two books.

I particularly like how this book has diagrams and pictures to help clarify what it is exactly I'm looking at. There are answers to questions I wouldn't have thought to ask in this book.

If you drive through NM quite a bit, this is a good book to have with you as you travel. Even if you don't think you are interested in geology, this book is a good book to have.

3 Answers to all your questions
Over the years, I have been saving up pictures and memories of geologic curiosities in New Mexico. I had meant to ask a geologist and/or look up books on the subject, but never quite got around to it. When we lived in Taos, I wanted to know more about the geological ages evidenced in the rock layers at the Rio Grande Gorge bridge. When we lived in Los Alamos, I was fascinated by the sculptured sandstone pinnacles in the canyon lands that look man made (but are not). When we lived in Santa Fe and environs, I wanted to know how climate and human interaction had altered the land and what the countryside must have looked like to ancient Indian peoples in that place. And now that we're living between Grants and Gallup, I'm most interested in the lava flow of the Malpais region. This author says that "The youngest flow is less than 1,000 years old and may figure in Indian legends as 'fire rock' that buried the fields of Indian ancestors." To the East is Mt. Taylor, an "eroded composite volcano."

So it's all here - the answers to all my questions and more - with photographs and diagrams and history. It covers all of New Mexico and into the states it touches - Arizona, Colorado and Texas (as well as the four corners region going into Utah). From Precambrian to Quarternary ages, from ancient flood plains and the Rio Grande rift to mountain rock glaciers and the Palisades, it's all here in this little gem of a book.

A perfect resource to accompany you when you're touring New Mexico either on the main highways or off the beaten track, you can go as deeply into the geology of the area you're seeing as you want or simply check out what type of rock you're looking at. *Roadside Geology of New Mexico* by Halka Chronic is exactly what I was looking for in one compact volume, and I'm most please to have discovered it.

pamhan99@aol.com

Roadside History of New Mexico (Roadside History Series)