Guides and handbooks are reference manuals usually consulted for basic information or instruction, quick fact-finding, or for a concise and authoritative survey of a topic.
B&W drawings, graphs, and photos accompany 900 entries, many cross-referenced with suggestions for further reading. Featured are thematic lists grouping individual entries, themes such as atmosphere and meteorology, climate, geomorphology, geochemistry, geographic time and stratigraphy, marine geology, and sedimentology.
Explains how to start and organize a rock collection; provides detailed descriptions of hundreds of minerals with information on geographic distribution, physical properties, chemical composition, and crystalline structures; and includes 385 color photographs.
Guide to the identification and use of gemstones. Includes the geology, chemistry and properties of gemstones, what to look for when buying and how to care for them, plus information on the diamond industry.
Chapters cover fossil plants, invertebrates, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, plus prehistoric epochs and time periods, fossil hunting and collecting, and important museum collections.