Main entry:

Williams, David B., 1965- author.

Title & Author:

Stories in stone : travels through urban geology / David B. Williams.

Edition:

Paperback edition.

Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, 2019.
©2009

Description:

x, 260 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-250) and index.
"The most hideous stone ever quarried" : New York brownstone -- The granite city : Boston granite -- Poetry in stone : Carmel granite -- Deep time in Minnesota : Minnesota gneiss -- The clam that changed the world : Florida coquina -- America's building stone : Indiana limestone -- Pop rocks, pilfered fossils, and Phillips petroleum : Colorado petrified wood -- The trouble with Michelangelo's favorite stone : Carrara marble -- Reading, writing, and roofing : East Coast slate -- "Autumn 20,000 years ago" : Italian travertine.
Electronic version: Williams, David B. Stories in Stone: Travels through Urban Geology. [Place of publication not identified] : University of Washington Press : University of Washington Press, 2019 9780295746470 (OCoLC)1114289684
Hardcover edition: Williams, David B., 1965- Stories in stone. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Walker, 2009 9780802716224 (DLC) 2009005609 (OCoLC)303927746

Summary:

"Most people do not think to observe geology from the sidewalks of a major city, but all David B. Williams has to do is look at building stone in any urban center to find a range of rocks equal to any assembled by plate tectonics. In 'Stories in Stone', he takes you on explorations to find 3.5-billion-year-old rock that looks like swirled pink-and-black taffy, a gas station made of petrified wood, and a Florida fort that has withstood three hundred years of attacks and hurricanes, despite being made of a stone that has the consistency of a granola bar. Williams also weaves in the cultural history of stone, explaining why a white fossil-rich limestone from Indiana became the only building stone used in all fifty states; how in 1825 the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument led to America's first commercial railroad; and why when the same kind of marble used by Michaelangelo clad a Chicago skyscraper it warped so much after nineteen years that all 44,000 panels of it had to be replaced. A finalist for the Washington State Book Award, this love letter to building stone brings life to geology you can see in the structures of every city"--Page 4 of cover

ISBN:

0295746459 (paperback)
9780295746456 (paperback)
(eBook)
9780295746470
0295746475
(hardcover)
9780802716224
0802716229

Subject:

Urban geology United States.
Urban geology Italy.
Géologie urbaine États-Unis.
Géologie urbaine Italie.
Urban geology.
Italy.
United States.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 306872
Call No.: BIB 252412
Status: Available