Islands in Deep Time: Ancient Landscapes Lost and Found

In his book "Islands in Deep Time," Markes E. Johnson explores the remnants of ancient islands that have been eroded over time, including a flooded mountain in the Yellow Sea, a mountaintop shrine to Genghis Khan in Inner Mongolia, and a tropical coastline in Hudson Bay. He highlights the complexity of island ecosystems and the importance of preserving these sites.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 21 November 2023
Publisher: Columbia University Press

The remnants of an ancient archipelago can be found on the hilltops that are encircled by farmland in southern Wisconsin. The highest point of a submerged mountain that has emerged from a submerged continental shelf is an island in the Yellow Sea that draws Korean tourists. A Silurian seascape's silhouette can be seen from a mountaintop shrine dedicated to Genghis Khan in Inner Mongolia.

A tropical coastline covered in corals nearly 450 million years ago can be seen on the shores of Hudson Bay, where polar bears roam the Arctic tundra.

Markes E. Johnson, a geologist, takes readers on a journey through deep time to uncover the traces of ancient islands. He visits a dozen sites around the globe, looking above and below today's waterlines to uncover how landscapes of the past are preserved in the present. This book reconstructs how "paleoislands" appeared under different climatic conditions and environmental constraints, going back 500 million years to the Cambrian through the Pleistocene 125,000 years ago.

Johnson emphasizes the complexity of island ecosystems and the importance of preserving these significant sites. Inviting and accessible, this book is a travelogue that takes readers through time as well as space. Islands in Deep Time shares the adventure of exploring striking locations across geologic eras and issues a passionate call for their conservation.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231212199