Dancing Elephants and Floating Continents: The Story of Canada Beneath Your Feet

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

Ever wonder how Canada got to look the way it does? Ever wonder what’s
under the Earth’s surface? This book answers those questions and many
more. It’s an excellent children’s introduction to the Lithoprobe
project, a massive long-term geological research project that began in
1984 and that over the past 20 years has employed more than 900
scientists in the study of the subsurface geology of Canada. The
“dancing elephants” are trucks used to pound the ground to create
shock waves. The reflected waves are transformed into a picture of the
geologic structures that goes as deep as 100 kilometres below the
surface.

The book covers most of the subjects one would find in an introductory
Earth-history text: geologic time, the supercontinents, plate tectonics,
subduction, continental drift, mountain building, earthquakes,
volcanoes, meteorites, even a bit on mining. But its focus is on Canada
and on the many discoveries the Lithoprobe project has made here.

Each concept is explained and supported by appropriate maps,
photographs, or illustrations. To understand the more difficult
concepts, such as mountain building or earthquakes, readers are required
to use just their hands or their hands and simple materials (e.g., paper
towels or wooden blocks) to simulate the geophysics involved.

Dancing Elephants and Floating Continents is well thought out, written
in age appropriate language, and scientifically up to date. Highly
recommended.