ANNALS OF THE FORMER WORLD about geology and how it reveals the
earth's past history. Writer tells about examining rock along
the roadcuts of the Palisades Sill in N.J. with geologist Karen
Kleinspehn. Geologists consider themselves lucky to be living in
a period of great road building as roadcuts are a way of
sampling fresh rock. Writer soon learned that the West is where
the interesting rocks are. Description of what it would have
been like to make a cross country trip in Triesaic times, close
to 2 million years ago. The New Geology is the package phrase
for the effects of the revolution that occurred in earth
sciences in the sixties, when people began to discuss continents
in terms of their velocities and when the interactions of some
20 parts of the globe became known as plate tectonics. Wanting
to learn more about it writer got in touch with Kenneth
Deffeyes, a senior professor who teaches introductory geology at
Princeton Univ. Deffeyes said roadcuts were windows into the
world as it was in other times.