THE ROADSIDE GEOLOGY SERIES AS A GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION RESOURCE

Thirty-seven states now are covered in the Roadside Geology series from Mountain Press Publishing. The books are widely available in parks, museums, and on the shelves of both independent and large chain booksellers, with over one million copies reportedly in print. They are “aimed at people with a ninth-grade education,” according to series co-creator Donald Hyndman. The format is characterized by concise introductions to concepts, both beginning the book and for specific regions; end-to-end road guides for major highways within each geologic region; and road guide geologic maps with arrows tagging outstanding features.

All books since 2010 are in full color, which enhances both their visual appeal and the usability of the road guide maps. Full color titles now cover the states AK, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, MD, MS, NJ, NV, OR, PA, UT, and WA, as well as DC and “Yellowstone Country.” Several of these are updates or new works, replacing books from the 70’s and 80’s, when the series was begun by Hyndman and the late David Alt. The value of the series to excite the public about geology, orient the traveling geologist, and introduce undergraduates to local geology has been growing with these developments.

As an example, Roadside Geology of Georgia (Gore and Witherspoon, 2013) is used as a textbook in several colleges and universities in the state. At University of North Georgia, all students enrolled in Introductory Geology and Earth Materials courses are asked to locate an outcrop with the information contained in the book, record photos, populate descriptions in a GIS database, and write a report.

The book has been a springboard for dozens of its authors’ geology walks and talks. Separate talks have tied geology to landscape evolution, plant communities, gold rush and settlement history, Civil War battles, fossil collecting, climate history, and specific travel destinations. Illustrations from the book are supplemented in slide shows by special uses of Google Earth, such as geologic map overlays, tours, and pull-up cross sections.