SueEllen Campbell 
The Face of the Earth 
Natural Landscapes, Science, and Culture

This lively book sweeps across dramatic and varied terrains—volcanoes and glaciers, billabongs and canyons, prairies and rain forests—to explore how humans have made sense of our planet’s marvelous landscapes. In a rich weave of scientific, cultural, and personal stories,
The Face of the Earth examines mirages and satellite images, swamp-dwelling heroes and Tibetan nomads, cave paintings and popular movies, investigating how we live with the great shaping forces of nature—from fire to changing climates and the intricacies of adaptation. The book illuminates subjects as diverse as the literary life of hollow Earth theories, the links between the Little Ice Age and Frankenstein’s monster, and the spiritual allure of deserts and their scarce waters. Including vivid, on-the-spot accounts by scientists and writers in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Alaska, England, the Rocky Mountains, Antarctica, and elsewhere,
The Face of the Earth charts the depth and complexity of our interdependence with the natural world.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction


Chapter 1. Landscapes of Internal Fire

On the Spot: Over a River of Lava (Sue Ellen Campbell)

Prologue

Imagining the Interior

On the Spot: At the Edge of an Overthrust Belt (Scott Denning)

Mundus subterraneus

On the Spot: Among the Aeolian Islands (John Calderazzo)

The Globe, Tectonic Plates, and Mountain Building

On the Spot: Along the Disturbance Gradient (Charles Goodrich)

Volcanoes and Their Eruptions

On the Spot: Approaching Chaitén Volcano (Fred Swanson)

Hot Springs and Geysers


Chapter 2. Climate and Ice

Prologue

On the Spot: Up and down the Himalaya (Ellen Wohl)

How the Climate Works

The Ghosts of Climates Past

On the Spot: On the Burren (Gerald Delahunty)

Our Ice Age

Landscapes Shaped by Ice

On the Spot: In the Channeled Scablands (Mark Fiege)

Ice-Age Humans

On the Spot: On the Arctic Tundra (Ellen Wohl)

The Little Ice Age, Glaciology, and the Sublime

On the Spot: Toward a Glacier’s Edge (Ana Maria Spagna)

The Story Now


Chapter 3. Wet and Fluid

Prologue

On the Spot: In the Rocky Intertidal Zone (Kathleen Dean Moore)

The Water Cycle

On the Spot: Along a Rain Forest Stream (Ellen Wohl)

The Moving Waters of Rivers

The Dream of Water in Deserts

The Slow Water of Wetlands

On the Spot: At the Bog on Céide Fields (Gerald Delahunty)

Peat, Mires, Bogs, Fens

On the Spot: At Wicken Fen (Richard Kerridge)

Marshes and Swamps

Wet/Dry

On the Spot: At the Billabong (Deborah Bird Rose)


Chapter 4. Desert Places, Desert Lives

Prologue

On the Spot: Down a Desert River Canyon (Sue Ellen Campbell)

Dry, Hot, Windy, and Dusty

On the Spot: In Jabal Aja‘ (Othman Llewellyn and Aishah Abdallah)

What We See

On the Spot: In the Chihuahuan Desert (Tom Lynch)

Clever Plants

On the Spot: In the Red Center (Deborah Bird Rose)

Clever Creatures

On the Spot: In the Negev Desert (Ellen Wohl)

The Human Desert


Chapter 5. The Complexities of the Real

Prologue

Underfoot

On the Spot: In Antarctica’s Dry Valleys (Diana Wall)

Oceans of Grass

The Shapes of Complexity

On the Spot: On the Chalk Downs (Richard Kerridge)

Evolving Together . . .

On the Spot: In the Tallgrass Prairie (Bruce Campbell)

. . . And Moving Apart

On the Spot: On the Tibetan Plateau (Julia Klein)

Among Trees

On the Spot: In a Eucalypt Forest (Kate Rigby)

Zooming In

Return to Wonder


Epilogue: In a High Flower Meadow (Sue Ellen Campbell)


Sources

Contributor Biographies

Acknowledgments

Index

Über den Autor

Sue Ellen Campbell is Professor in the Department of English at Colorado State University. She is the author of Even Mountains Vanish: Searching for Solace in An Age of Extinction and Bringing the Mountain Home, among other books.