Canada Rocks: The Geologic Journey.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Geographic information is presented with so much energy and enthusiasm it nearly bursts out of the confines of this book. Canadians live in one of the most spectacular and geologically significant areas on earth. How it got that way is high drama, a tale of violent collisions of tectonic plates—“a crustal collage”—resulting in a country of geologic wonders. These include, for example, the tar sands, gorges, mountains, the silts of the Okanagan Valley, sandstone flutes on Ellesmere Island, B.C.’s volcanic belt, the Devonian granites of Peggy’s Cove, and hoodoos in the Red Deer Valley.

The work is an account of how the Canadian land mass—“The United Plates of Canada”—evolved over 4 million years. It covers the groundwork of basic geologic principles and the mechanics of plate tectonics at work, building volcanoes, causing earthquakes, destroying oceans, and much more, including giving Canada the oldest rocks on the planet.

Visually, the book is outstanding on two levels. First, it is attractive, with some great photos of rocks at their most appealing, plus several reproductions of relevant Canadian paintings. (The authors really dialogue with rocks.) On another level it is spectacular for the all-out massive effort to explain, clarify, and communicate to non-scientists. Colourful, high-quality illustrations—over 1,000 in total?—pack every page, bringing charts, graphs, sidebars, computer modelling, satellite images, staged photos, sketches, archival photos, diagrams, and other tools to the teaching process.

The story of rocks is the backdrop to the evolution of life on earth. Geology speaks to our ability to locate and access resources from the earth, such as oil, gas, minerals, and water. It also impacts geoscientific issues such as climate change, waste management, and urbanization.

The work has a section on glaciers, chapters on each Canadian geological region, and one on how our geology impacts our national identity.

A strong organizational structure, including case histories, helps present the large quantity of technical information. This is supported by a glossary, index, and end-of-chapter bibliographies.

While it is definitely technical in content and vocabulary, the determined-to-communicate style makes the information not only accessible but exciting for the general reader.