A Dangerous place.by Marc Reisner

I know this is an older book about the history and future fate of California. But the really big one hasn't happened yet. It really opened my eyes to the early times and the way California was established and the current fight over water use in that part of the country. Will it really fall into the ocean?

Will it really fall into the ocean?

According to another book I read, Assembling California, by John McPhee, geologists are quite certain that a rift will open someday, very similar to the rift between Africa and Arabia that forms the Red Sea. It will allow the ocean to enter a deep trough that will run through Death Valley, up toward Mono Lake, and somewhere along one of the many block faults in Nevada.

So, while California won't literally "fall" into the ocean, it will become more of a penisula with ocean on both sides.

I'm not a geologist but, from what I gather, Florida was part of another continent and the rock that makes up the Apalachins is found on other continents also.
Our short lifespan doesn't begin to give us the time to whitness the slow earth changes. I think it would be facinating to learn more about the surrounding rock formations while out in the wilderness with someone that knows what they are talking about.

Geology is too fascinating to be the exclusive property of geologists.

If you have an interest in the subject, John McPhee wrote a whole series of books about the geology of North America. They are very well-written and completely geared to the non-specialist general reader. They can be found collected in one volume as Annals of the Former World, or picked up seperately under titles such as Basin and Range or On Suspect Terrain.

He just happened to start this project at a time when geology was just exploding with the widespread acceptance of plate tectonic theory, and he met with some of the best geologists in the nation to get his information. The books are written as narratives (stories) and the characters of the geologists he meets are woven into and around the more technical parts.

Good stuff. I highly recommend it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the info, sounds like good reading, I'll check it out. Plus, I think it would be interesting to know more about all the different rock I trod upon.

My favorite alberta rockies stomping grounds used to be shallow seabed on the coast of north america - as the continent moved with the pacific plate subducting under it, some larger islands that were on the pacific plate were "scraped off" before the pacific plate went under north america. these collided with the coast, forming the rockies (geologists
figure there were several collisions). so roughly - the bits that collided formed british columbia. Makes me think every time i see fossils while hiking (which is frequently)

I will definatly slow down and pay more attention to the rocks and landscape on future trips. Just another reason to be out enjoying nature.

It will fall into the ocean shortly after the hurricane season. The idea is to get maximum press coverage out of it.

Governor Schwartzeneger has a secret committee doing the planning.

The part west of the San Andreas will eventually (give it millions of years) go down the drain, chewed up in the Aleutian Trench. The rest of California should stay high and dry.