The authors are very keen on the idea that the Yellowstone hot spot was caused by a meteor impact, over which the North American plate has now moved, and which was also responsible for the Columbia flood basalts and the genesis of the Basin and Range province. Hmm. I can almost buy it, particularly given that seismic tomography has shown the Yellowstone hot spot to be unexpectedly shallow, but still.

Kind of a historical thing. The book was published after the recognition of shocked quartz and iridium in the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, but before the Chixulub crater in Yucatan was discovered. The authors speculate that the Deccan Traps mark the impact that ended the Cretaceous. Apparently this theory is not quite dead today, though the impact origin of the Shiva feature off the west coast of India is debated. There does seem to be an indication of a cluster of large impacts at about the right time, so it's faintly possible Chixulub was only part of the story.

Otherwise, a pretty good book, with some nice explanation of accretionary wedges from subduction zones. (There are some very old such features in Idaho from when the West Coast was just west of Boise.) Also a bit on mining, which surprised me by not ranting about the irresponsibility of using the cyanide method. ( )

-made travel less boring, a great service
-one example of several like this I've read ( )

With Idaho's unparalleled geology, this is the ultimate short-course. ( )