The Geology of Australia

From Uluru to the Great Dividing Range, The Geology of Australia explores the timeless forces that have shaped this continent.

Robert Henderson (Author), David Johnson (Author)

9781107432413, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 September 2016

384 pages, 224 colour illus. 25 maps
24.2 x 23 x 1.8 cm, 1.12 kg

This book documents the rich and spectacular heritage of the Australian continent over the last 4400 million years. Now in its third edition, The Geology of Australia provides a comprehensive overview of Australia's geology, landscapes and Earth resources. Beginning with the Precambrian rocks that hold clues to the origins of life and the development of an oxygenated atmosphere, it goes on to cover the warm seas, volcanism and episodes of mountain building that formed the eastern third of the Australian continent. This illuminating history details the breakup of the supercontinents Rodinia and Gondwana, the times of previous glaciations, the development of climates and landscapes in modern Australia, and the creation of the continental shelves and coastlines. This third edition features two new chapters on geological time and Paleozoic orogenic rock systems and mountain building, and new and updated illustrations and full-colour images.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and units
1. An Australian perspective
2. The Earth: a geology primer
3. Telling geological time
4. Building the core of Precambrian rocks: the cratons
5. Paleozoic orogenic rock systems and mountain building
6. Warm times: tropical corals and arid lands
7. Icehouse: Carboniferous and Permian glaciation
8. Mesozoic warming: the great inland plains and seas
9. Birth of modern Australia: flowering plants, mammals and deserts
10. Fossils and the Australian record of past life in context
11. Eastern highlands and volcanoes barely extinct
12. Building the continental shelf and coastlines
13. Great Barrier Reef: a unique part of the continental shelf
14. Cycles in a continental journey
Epilogue
Sources and references
Index.

Subject Areas: The environment [RN], Physical geography & topography [RGB], Geography [RG], Historical geology [RBGF], Geology & the lithosphere [RBG], Earth sciences [RB], Earth sciences, geography, environment, planning [R]