In 1793, a canal digger named William Smith made a startling discovery. He found that by tracing the placement of fossils, which he uncovered in his excavations, one could follow layers of rocks as they dipped and rose and fell-clear across England and, indeed, clear across the world-making it possible, for the first time ever, to draw a chart of the hidden underside of the earth. Smith spent twenty-two years piecing together the fragments of this...

Examines the Earth's origins, the constant movements of its crust, and its rocks and minerals.

Introduces rocks, discussing how they are formed, where they are found, different types, the rock cycle, and how people use rocks.

Carrying the famous biologist Charles Darwin, the Beagle set sail from Plymouth Sound in December of 1831 and returned in October of 1836-completing its journey across the world. This journal kept by Charles Darwin contains his notes from the journey and his commentary on the discoveries that were made. It also includes illustrations of the wonders that they encountered and in-depth discussions about life on the sea.

A river winds through the landscape, eroding the rock for millions of years, shaping a cavity in the ground 277 miles long, as much as 18 miles wide, and more than a mile deep known as ... Grand Canyon. Home to an astonishing variety of plants and animals that live within its walls, Grand Canyon is much more than just a hole in the ground. Follow a father and daughter as they make their way through this wondrous place, discovering life both present...

"Separated from his science team on a mountain after a landslide, Joe is in no hurry to get back. The slide has carried a wealth of fossils with it for him to study! Joe examines these and the mountain terrain to learn how the mountains formed and figure out how old they are."--

In Underland, Macfarland delivers his masterpiece: an epic exploration of the Earth's underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself. He takes us on an extraordinary journey into our relationship with darkness, burial, and what lies beneath the surface of both place and mind. Traveling through "deep time" - the dizzying expanses of geologic time that stretch away from the present - he moves from the birth of the universe...