Landforms of Iowa

Landforms of Iowa PDF Author: Jean Cutler Prior
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 9781587291951
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description

Landforms of Iowa

Landforms of Iowa PDF Author: Jean Cutler Prior
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 9781587291951
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description


Iowa's Geological Past

Iowa's Geological Past PDF Author: Wayne I. Anderson
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 9781587292675
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Iowa's rock record is the product of more than three billion years of geological processes. The state endured multiple episodes of continental glaciation during the Pleistocene Ice Age, and the last glacier retreated from Iowa a mere (geologically speaking) twelve thousand years ago. Prior to that, dozens of seas came and went, leaving behind limestone beds with rich fossil records. Lush coal swamps, salty lagoons, briny basins, enormous alluvial plains, ancient rifts, and rugged Precambrian mountain belts all left their mark. In "Iowa's Geological Past, " Wayne Anderson gives us an up-to-date and well-informed account of the state's vast geological history from the Precambrian through the end of the Great Ice Age. Anderson takes us on a journey backward into time to explore Iowa's rock-and-sediment record. In the distant past, prehistoric Iowa was covered with shallow seas; coniferous forests flourished in areas beyond the continental glaciers; and a wide variety of animals existed, including mastodon, mammoth, musk ox, giant beaver, camel, and giant sloth. The presence of humans can be traced back to the Paleo-Indian interval, 9,500 to 7,500 years ago. Iowa in Paleozoic time experienced numerous coastal plain and shallow marine environments. Early in the Precambrian, Iowa was part of ancient mountain belts in which granite and other rocks were formed well below the earth's surface. The hills and valleys of the Hawkeye State are not everlasting when viewed from the perspective of geologic time. Overall, Iowa's geologic column records an extraordinary transformation over more than three billion years. Wayne Anderson's profusely illustrated volume provides a comprehensive and accessible survey of the state's remarkable geological past.

The Butterflies of Iowa

The Butterflies of Iowa PDF Author: Dennis W. Schlicht
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1587297612
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
This beautiful and comprehensive guide, many years in the making, is a manual for identifying the butterflies of Iowa as well as 90 percent of the butterflies in the Plains states. It begins by providing information on the natural communities of Iowa, paying special attention to butterfly habitat and distribution. Next come chapters on the history of lepidopteran research in Iowa and on creating butterfly gardens, followed by an intriguing series of questions and issues relevant to the study of butterflies in the state. The second part contains accounts, organized by family, for the 118 species known to occur in Iowa. Each account includes the common and scientific names for each species, its Opler and Warren number, its status in Iowa, adult flight times and number of broods per season, distinguishing features, distribution and habitat, and natural history information such as behavior and food plant preferences. As a special feature of each account, the authors have included questions that illuminate the research and conservation challenges for each species. In the third section, the illustrations, grouped for easier comparison among species, include color photographs of all the adult forms that occur in Iowa. Male and female as well as top and bottom views are shown for most species. The distribution maps indicate in which of Iowa’s ninety-nine counties specimens have been collected; flight times for each species are shown by marking the date of collection for each verified specimen on a yearly calendar. The book ends with a checklist, collection information specific to the photographs, a glossary, references, and an index. The authors’ meticulous attention to detail, stimulating questions for students and researchers, concern for habitat preservation, and joyful appreciation of the natural world make it a valuable and inspiring volume.

The Emerald Horizon

The Emerald Horizon PDF Author: Cornelia F. Mutel
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1587297477
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
In The Emerald Horizon, Cornelia Mutel combines lyrical writing with meticulous scientific research to portray the environmental past, present, and future of Iowa. In doing so, she ties all of Iowa's natural features into one comprehensive whole. Since so much of the tallgrass state has been transformed into an agricultural landscape, Mutel focuses on understanding today’s natural environment by understanding yesterday’s changes. After summarizing the geological, archaeological, and ecological features that shaped Iowa’s modern landscape, she recreates the once-wild native communities that existed prior to Euroamerican settlement. Next she examines the dramatic changes that overtook native plant and animal communities as Iowa’s prairies, woodlands, and wetlands were transformed. Finally she presents realistic techniques for restoring native species and ecological processes as well as a broad variety of ways in which Iowans can reconnect with the natural world. Throughout, in addition to the many illustrations commissioned for this book, she offers careful scientific exposition, a strong sense of respect for the land, and encouragement to protect the future by learning from the past. The “emerald prairie” that “gleamed and shone to the horizon’s edge,” as botanist Thomas Macbride described it in 1895, has vanished. Cornelia Mutel’s passionate dedication to restoring this damaged landscape—and by extension the transformed landscape of the entire Corn Belt—invigorates her blend of natural history and human history. Believing that citizens who are knowledgeable about native species, communities, and ecological processes will better care for them, she gives us hope—and sound suggestions—for the future.

Coastal Karst Landforms

Coastal Karst Landforms PDF Author: Michael J. Lace
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400750161
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
Carbonate rock coasts are found world-wide, from continental shorelines of the Adriatic Sea of Europe to the Yucatan Peninsula of North America, and on tropical islands from Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean, to the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, to the Bahama Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Such coasts are well known for their unusual and distinctive karst landforms. Karst processes, particularly those associated with coastal landforms, are proving to be surprisingly unique and complex. This volume presents a comprehensive overview of the processes associated with coastal karst development comparing examples from a broad geographical and geomorphological range of island and continental shoreline/paleoshoreline settings, including a review of pseudokarst processes that can compete with and overprint dynamic coastal karst landscapes. As effective management of hydrologic resources grows more complex, coastal caves and karst represent fundamental components in associated coastal aquifers, which in the rock record can also form significant petroleum reservoirs. Audience By providing a clearer understanding of the geological, biological, archaeological and cultural value of coastal caves and karst resources, this volume offers a critical tool to coastal researchers and geoscientists in related fields and to coastal land managers as it illustrates the diversity of coastal karst landforms, the unique processes which formed them, the diversity of resources they harbor and their relationship to coastal zone preservation strategies and the development of sustainable management approaches.

The Physical Geography and Geology of the Driftless Area

The Physical Geography and Geology of the Driftless Area PDF Author: Eric C. Carson
Publisher: Geological Society of America
ISBN: 0813725437
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
"Over the course of his 43-year career, James C. Knox conducted seminal research on the geomorphology of the Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin. His research covered wide-ranging topics such as long-term land-scape evolution in the Driftless Area; responses of floods to climate change since the last glaciation; processes and timing of floodplain sediment deposition on both small streams and on the Mississippi River; impacts of European settlement on the landscape; and responses of stream systems to land-use changes. This volume presents the state of knowledge of the physical geography and geology of this unglaciated region in the otherwise-glaciated Midwest with contributions written by Knox prior to his passing in 2012 and by a number of his former colleagues and graduate students"--

Thresholds in Geomorphology

Thresholds in Geomorphology PDF Author: Donald R. Coates
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000046605
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 525

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Book Description
This book, first published in 1980, is a timely and comprehensive appraisal of thresholds in geomorphology. The papers, arising from the 9th Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium, form the cornerstone of a subject that is increasingly important in geomorphology. This book analyses the historical background to thresholds and geomorphology, as well as fluvial landforms, hydrogeologic regimes and other processes, and the impact of man.

A Chip Off the Old Block

A Chip Off the Old Block PDF Author: Jody Jensen Shaffer
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698189884
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 21

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Book Description
A plucky pebble shows true grit as he travels the country trying to find out if he fits in with any of his famous rock-formation relatives. Rocky comes from a long line of rock stars! Uncle Gibraltar, Aunt Etna, and Great-Grandma Half Dome are just some of the legendary rock formations he calls family. It's no wonder he wants to matter in a big way too--but it's not easy trying to get a foothold. Rocky gets tossed by The Wave and driven away at Devil's Tower--but he's determined not to allow these pitfalls to chip away at his confidence. Rather than feeling crushed, he keeps on rolling, hoping to become the rock-star he knows he's meant to be.

National Land Cover Dataset

National Land Cover Dataset PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Land cover
Languages : en
Pages : 2

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Book Description


Southwestern Homelands

Southwestern Homelands PDF Author: William Kittredge
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 142620910X
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
For part of each of the last twenty years, much-loved essayist and fiction writer William Kittredge has ventured to the storied desert landscape of the American Southwest and immersed himself in the region's wide-ranging wonders and idiosyncrasies. Here Kittredge brings all this experience to bear as he takes us on a rewarding tour of the territory that runs from Santa Fe to Yuma, and from the Grand Canyon on south through Phoenix and Tucson to Nogales. It is a region where urban sprawl abuts desert expanse, where Native American pueblos compete for space with agribusiness cotton plantations, and where semi-defunct mining towns slowly give way to new-age hippie gardening and crafts enclaves. As part-time resident and full-time observer, William Kittredge acquaints us with one of the country's most vital and perpetually evolving regions. Populated with die-hard desert rats on the banks of the Colorado, theoretical physicists in Albuquerque, Hopi mothers and their daughters, and renegade punk-rock kids sleeping in the streets, Southwestern Homelands is a book as much about the legacies of a territory's colorful past as it is about the alternately exciting and daunting complexities of its immediate future.