Geology Underfoot Along Colorado's Front Range

The transition from the relatively flat Great Plains to the craggy peaks of Colorados Front Range is one of North Americas most abrupt topographical contrasts. The epic, 1,800-million-year geologic story behind this amazing landscape is even more awe inspiring. In Geology Underfoot along Colorados Front Range, the most recent addition to the Geology Underfoot series, authors (and geoscientists) Lon Abbott and Terri Cook narrate the Front Ranges tale, from its humble beginnings as a flat, nondescript seafloor through several ghostly incarnations as a towering mountain range. The books 21 chapters, or vignettes, lead you to easily accessible stops along the Front Ranges highways and byways, where youll meet the apatosaur and other dinosaurs who roamed the floodplains and beaches that once covered the Front Range; look for diamonds in rare, out-of-the-way volcanic pipes; learn how Americas mountain, Pikes Peak, developed from molten magma miles below the surface only to become an important visual landmark for early Great Plains travelers; and walk the Gangplank, a singularly important plateau for both nineteenth-century westward expansion and our understanding of the Front Ranges most recent exhumation. A healthy dose of full-color illustrations and photos demystify the concepts put forth in the authors elegant, insightful prose. With Geology Underfoot along Colorados Front Range in hand, youll feel like youre traveling through time as you explore the Front Ranges hidden geologic treasures.