Roadside Geology of Yellowstone Country

With more than 10,000 geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, and mud pots, as well as cubic mile upon cubic mile of once-incendiary rhyolite, the landscape of Yellowstone Country vividly displays its fiery past and present. The region contains 1/5 of the world's geysers,including the most famous of them all, and is the setting of some of Earth's most destructive volcanic eruptions. The 19 road guides in Roadside Geology of Yellowstone Country fully explore this volcanic pedigree while also delivering you to sites that have recorded the region's broad and deep geologic story, which includes exquisitely preserved, 50-million-year-old petrified trees buried in conglomerate; mountain-sized blocks of rock that slid more than 50 miles in a massive debris avalanche; the glacially carved craggy peaks and U-shaped valleys of the Beartooth Mountains and Absaroka Range; and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the excavation of which is still a mystery. This completely revised second edition reexamines the region using the latest scientific thinking and now includes stunning full-color photos, maps, and diagrams.

Bill Fritz is provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the College of Staten Island, The City University of New York (CUNY). He is also professor of geology at the College of Staten Island, a member of the earth and environmental sciences doctoral faculty at the CUNY Graduate Center, and emeritus professor of geology at Georgia State University, where he was the director of summer geology field camp taught in Dillon, Montana, and Yellowstone for many years. He has been a student of Yellowstone geology for over thirty-five years and has led students on numerous field trips throughout Yellowstone Country. Rob Thomas is a professor of geology in the heart of Yellowstone Country at The University of Montana Western in Dillon, Montana. He has co-led numerous GeoVentures fieldtrips in Yellowstone for the Geological Society of America; spent over twenty-five years teaching geology field courses and camps, including many years with the Yellowstone-Bighorn Research Association geology field camp; and produced numerous publications, geological road signs, and public presentations about Yellowstone Country. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the prestigious U.S. Outstanding Baccalaureate College Professor of the Year Award from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.