This is me learning John McPhee is still alive. He’s been at it long enough that the first part of Annals of the Former World has a plate tectonic skeptic geologist who isn’t a total crank
Seeing this post, I couldn't resist going to one of my bookshelves to take a photo of this marvel of a book by McPhee! I'll be smiling for a few hours...
What I find remarkable about this is that McPhee's most famous book is about Alaska,* which presumably required travel to Alaska. Alaska has oodles of quakes, so much so that Alaskan kids of that era had earthquake drills in school.
*Fun aside: my dad is interviewed in Coming into the Country.
Professor of biology & resource management. Worked on the D2 lands bill, the section of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that set aside 80M acres for conservation, although that was cut down by politicking in Congress. A big issue in AK in early 70s when McPhee was researching CitC.
