How the Mountains Grew: A New Geological History of North America

by John Dvorak

The incredible story of the creation of a continent—our continent— from the acclaimed author of The Last Volcano and Mask of the Sun.

The immense scale of geologic time is difficult to comprehend. Our lives—and the entirety of human history—are mere nanoseconds on this timescale. Yet we hugely influenced by the land we live on. From shales and fossil fuels, from lake beds to soil composition, from elevation to fault lines, what could be more relevant that the history of the ground beneath our feet?

For most of modern history, geologists could say little more about why mountains grew than the there were forces acting inside the Earth that caused mountains to rise. But what were those forces? And why did they act in some places of the planet and not at others?

When the theory of plate tectonics was proposed, our concept of how the Earth worked experienced a momentous shift. As the Andes continue to rise, the Atlantic Ocean steadily widens, and Honolulu creeps ever closer to Tokyo, this seemingly imperceptible creep of the Earth is revealed in the landscape all around us.

But tectonics cannot—and do not—explain everything about the wonders of the North American landscape. What about the Black Hills? Or the walls of chalk that stand amongst the rolling hills of west Kansas? Or the fact that the states of Washington and Oregon are slowly rotating clockwise, and there a diamond mine in Arizona?

It all points to the geologic secrets hidden inside the 2-billion-year-old-continental masses. A whopping ten times older than the rocky floors of the ocean, continents hold the clues to the long history of our planet.

With a sprightly narrative that vividly brings this science to life, John Dvorak's How the Mountains Grew will fill readers with a newfound appreciation for the wonders of the land we live on.

Genres: Science, Geology, History, Nonfiction, Nature, Geography, Natural History

464 pages, Hardcover

First published August 3, 2021

About the author

John Dvorak, PhD, has studied volcanoes and earthquakes around the world for the United States Geological Survey, first at Mount St. Helens in 1980, then a series of assignments in Hawaii, Italy, Indonesia, Central America and Alaska. In addition to dozens of papers published in scientific journals, Dvorak has written cover stories for Scientific American, Astronomy and Physics Today.

Reviews

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Dvorak has been one of my favorite science writers since I came across The Last Volcano while visiting Kilauea, and I assume that the relative scarcity of reviews on his books is due to a lack of marketing, because I think he is easily the equal of many more popular authors. I was excited from the minute I saw the title of this book, months before publication. It wasn’t always exactly what I expected, but I wasn’t disappointed.

Like the other Dvorak books I’ve read, this one combined detailed “look-at-the-physical-properties-of-this-rock” geology with great layman’s explanations of complex physics, humanizing anecdotes of key scientific figures through the centuries, and a sense of wonder at how the forces of the earth interact with human history and our place in this small moment in geologic time. In some ways it reminded me of McPhee—I recently read his Assembling California, and I actually found How The Mountains Grew to be more educational and accessible while having a similar aspect of hands-on exploration.

I’ve read quite a few books on popular geology, astrophysics, dinosaur extinction, and evolutionary biology, but Dvorak managed to cover a lot of ground here that was completely new to me. I especially liked the focus on mountain building that went beyond just the subduction of one tectonic plate beneath another, which seems to be where most books end. The up-to-date information on the revelations of tomography around the Farallon Plate were fascinating and that chapter, by itself, was worth reading the whole book.

I look forward to rereading this as a reference while traveling to various national parks in the future. Virtually every area of the US is covered somewhere in this book, and I won’t look at any place I visit without wondering if I should relate its features to volcanic eruption, magma extrusion, uplift or tilting or thinning due to delamination, glacial moraines, floods from glacial lakes breaking dams….and so many other factors I now understand in much greater detail.

I would technically rate this as 4.5 stars rounded up, knocking a bit off for the terrible editing others have pointed out (it didn’t really hinder my reading, but was sad in such a high-quality book), as well as some of the evolutionary biology content. Maybe I felt too strongly about it because I recently finished Dawkins’s Ancestor’s Tale, but I thought many of his sections around evolutionary biology, including punctuationism vs Darwinism and information around Hox genes, drew questionable conclusions that are not nearly so universally accepted in that space as he makes it sound.

I look forward to the next one.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

The content of this book was outstanding. The editing was terrible! There were more typos in this book than a high school freshman level term paper. The author should fire the editor. Absolutely terrible.

However, the actual content and writing of the book was fantastic. The author does go into very deep detail, so you really must love geology. He made the long geologic story of North America, and related stories of the rest of the planet, absolutely fascinating. Other than the editing this book was informative and interesting.

[David Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a curious interest in Paleontology I added this book to my to be read for this year. I have to say I learned so much reading this book - it start at the creation of Earth to present and explains the impacts of each time period on the geology of North America. As our family visits National Parks we could look almost to each chapter as the geological features we have seen or will see are explained within the book. As much as I loved the book, the final chapters were my favorite and went through the Anthropocene epoch and what climate change I.e. increase in carbon dioxide looks like from the geologic record. I cannot recommend this book enough.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything we know about the geology of North America is in this book, and, I must admit, most of it went over my head. I was most fascinated with the development of life on the planet and the times that most of life on earth has been wiped out. I will understand more when I attend the naturalist group book club meetings where we'll discuss the book during the next two months.

[Rachit Nimavat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the geological story of North America told in the correct detail for me : didn't overexplain things that I knew while mostly explaining new things in detail that I could follow. The author has traveled to almost all of the places (there are lot!) mentioned in the book and it gives a charm to the otherwise expository read. The anecdotes about scientists and explorers are present but do not overwhelm the narrative. The text is often repetitive and verbose. I'd have liked more maps, photos, tables, and summaries. I took a long time to finish it going one chapter at a time. Overall, a great book for a layperson to appreciate the geology of North America. I wish there were books that explain the Indian geology similarly.

[Lin F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a quick read, but a book to be processed and savored. I’ll keep it on the shelf to reference for the inevitable times I’ll need to connect to something else I read or watch. Luckily, it’s extensively indexed.

One of the interesting things I learned: there are volcanic deposits that show the migration of the Yellowstone hotspot, the way the Hawaiian Islands have migrated from the Pacific hotspot where they formed. If this kind of thing interests you, you’ll enjoy this book!

[Gerard Flaherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. Great read for those who enjoyed an historical geology class in college or have a sense of curiosity about fundamental geological processes. A lot of new science well explained and very readable.

[Art Petrenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great overview of the geological history of Earth, if at times feeling a little bit like a collection of trivia facts.

[Marshall Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needs more pictures and graphics.

[Dan Griswold · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing tour of what geologists think about our world.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot from the book and enjoyed it but overall it was not organized well and was pretty dense with lots of typos.

[Richard Buller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like reading about geology and I found this book to be as good as McPhee's "Annals of the Former World", but this book is a bit different in that it is more of an updated geological history of the Earth, with an emphasis on North America. The author has done a good job of incorporating new findings and ideas into how we got to the present geological state of the planet. There are also some sobering things on global warming as well. As an aside, I generally find that books that I read have very few typos, misspellings, etc.. The hardbound copy I read has quite a few, so many that if I ever reread it, I may make a list and send it to the publisher.

[Steve S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book a low rating because the proofreading is terrible; too many errors of syntax or semantics. The content is enjoyable but the enjoyment is reduced by having to parse the meaning of too many sentences.

[Darrell Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should have been about half as long. The editors must have been asleep because there are numerous spelling, grammatical, and word choice errors throughout.

[John Graeber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly fascinating and quite readable.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book for a geology geek like me who wants to know the "Big Picture" of how events connect. Dvorak does a clear job explaining, giving the big picture, but also very specific, local examples. When I first started reading I thought maybe the focus would be on the East. But locations I'm familiar with such as the rimrocks in Billings, the mounts and buttes of east Portland, and Beacon Rock are all described. And quite possibly the author has seen all those places, because his tone is conversational and familiar. Of course I wish there were many more pictures, fewer typos and better proofreading where some statements seem to contradict with some confused writing. But I was happy to find a popular book that takes in some of the latest findings. I loved McPhee's geology books, but they only cover the features along Interstate 80 as a way to define a huge topic. Dvorak has done a wonderful job integrating everything from the Grand Canyon to vanished glacial lakes along the northern states. No corner of the country is left out.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book, it helped round out my knowledge on geology and incrementally improve my understanding of how the Earth evolved since its official birth 4.5 billion years ago. I took so many notes and will recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about the bigger and more dramatic lifecycles that this planet has gone through. Loved this book a lot!

Interesting facts:
* Earth was estimated to have become a planet 4.5 billion years ago. We have some rocks like Morton Gneiss, that are around 3.5 billion years old and the oldest one we can find
* the core was hot enough there weren’t hard tectonic plates but rather a magma ocean 4.5 bn years ago
* once cooling, the Earth used to not have any solid land, and instead be completely covered with large waves and water but it was a lot warmer at 50-70C and more acidic
* there were 8 extinction events, even though most people only remember the dinosaur extinction

[BBoulier · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Dvorak’s “How the Mountains Grew: A New Geological History of North America” (2021) is an excellent summary of the history of the planet with a focus on North America. Our knowledge of this history has improved enormously since I was young. Technology has allowed to measure better the time at which important events occurred, to “see” into the interior of the earth’s structure, and the theory of tectonic plates has revolutionized our understanding of the formation of continents and mountains. The author is very good at identifying where you can see various features of this history in North America. I learned a lot from this book and recommend it highly. My only criticism is that I wish there were more pictures, maps, and diagrams.

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A complete telling of the geologic history of North America written in language accessible to a layman. I enjoyed reading about the geology of the Eastern United States as I am much more familiar with the geology of California (anyone who lives on the San Andreas Fault becomes cognizant of plate tectonics) and the national parks of the West. I would have given the book four stars but for the absolutely infuriating number of typos, such as horizon for horizontal, and misplacement of commas(the Louisiana Delta is not in Florida), etc. Other readers have commented on the great number of errors. It represents a carelessness that should not appear in a book about scientific subjects.

[Katie Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.

I did learn a lot, loved how many places he focused on that you can actually go and see today, and I think it was well written for the most part, but something about it just... didn't hit right at the end. Maybe the causal discussion of global warming without touching on the lives that will be lost, mostly in the global south, as a result - though maybe I shouldn't expect a book specifically about geology to touch on that? But he got to that point and talked about the impact of an 8 degree warming in about a paragraph. Didn't feel right.

Also, desperately needs a better editor - I haven't read a book with this many noticeable typos and grammatical errors in a minute.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a really mind-blowing geology book. I'm especially excited to understand why paleontology and geology are so closely entwined; it's not just because fossils are found in rocks. Many things I thought I knew about geology turns out are no longer the picture of what happened. (I never actually took a class, just had various informal events over the last 50 years through the museum and books and so on.) Zircons older than the Earth; absolute dating of ancient rock! Stromatolites, LIVING in the Borrego desert! Evolution by Hox genes, who knew? (lots of people probably, but not me).

[Janis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was full of interesting details about the history of the geology of North America. However, it was so poorly edited that reading it was frustrating. It contains dozens of typos and poorly structured sentences. Did they publish the wrong version? To be certain, I will now look at the world around me in a very different way after reading this book and am hoping they publish an edited version!

[Thomas Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Noticeably uneven editing throughout the book. Seemed to get worse towards the end to the point it became a bit irritating. Also felt like the author was rushing a bit at the end. Aside from that, I found it both interesting and very informative. The organization seemed somewhat convoluted at times, but I think that is the expected result of describing a continent that has undergone so many changes through a variety of mechanisms over billions of years.

[Roger Ruggeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I certainly enjoyed the breadth of scope that Dvorak brings to this work. He raises many interesting points that I found stimulating to further thought as he reveals the geological evolution of the Americas. Less fortunately, the book sometimes seems hurriedly assembled and could be more effective if professionally edited. All in all, however, I enjoyed the book and have recommended it to friends.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for geology and other science content. However - hardback first edition was not proofread at all. There are many, many typos and grammatical errors - and it gets even worse towards the final chapters - as if the author has no editor at all. However, from a latest-greatest theories of geology standpoint, this book is worth buying for my home collection - albeit in the latest edition that just came out in paperback. Hopefully, that one has been proofread and corrected.

[Scott Kardel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book on the geologic history of North America. The topic might sound dry to some, but John Dvorak takes the reader on a fantastic journey that begins before the formation of Earth itself and extends into the future. Along the way there are many, many examples of where the rocks can be found that reveal the history of our planet's life and evolution. A great read!

Note to readers: be sure to read the end notes as they contain lots of great information.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF at about 50%. This book is filled with many interesting facts and ideas, and in many ways I enjoyed it. From my perspective, though, it was just so dense. I found that I just did not feel like reading on. I took reading breaks three separate times, but found myself wanting to quit each time even though I generally enjoyed the content. I think this would be a very enjoyable book for the right person..

[Paleoanthro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly enjoyable and readable account of the Earth and its evolution through geological time. In a page turner, the author provides an in-depth look at geological history of the Earth and how geology and biology combined to impact the environment and life throughout deep time through the lens of North America and its formation.

[Sara Laor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing and engrossing book. Could not put it down. My only disappointment is his presentation of climate change as "definitely" man-made. After pages and pages of nothing but twists and turns about what is known and what was mis-known, you would think he would show a bit more humility about what we "definitely" know. In any case -- highly recommended book.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating!

It’s all here. The four and a half billion year history of the planet, including the formation of three supercontinents and a supercontinent projected into the future. He weaves the story of the geological upheavals together with the biology of the planet’s history. Recommended for the lay person wondering how those mountains got there.