A geological saga that digs deep, revealing how even the most ordinary rocks can be stepping stones to the hidden history of our planet. Unearthing the Underworld reveals the hidden world of rocks—the keepers of secrets of past environments, changing climates, and the pulse of life over billions of years. Even the most seemingly ordinary stone can tell us much about the history of this planet, opening vistas of ancient worlds of ice, raging floods, strange unbreathable atmospheres, and prehistoric worlds teeming with life. Remarkably, many types of rocks owe their existence to living organisms—from the remains of bodies of dead animals to rocks formed from rotting ancient forests, or even created by the activity of fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Anything but dull and uninteresting, rocks are intriguing portals that illuminate the secret underworld upon which we live.

This book pays tribute to 14 women who donated millions of dollars to causes close to their hearts. Iris Nowell is the author of five books. Writing her 1996 book, Women Who Give Away Millions, has given her a solid foundation of philanthropy, the not-for-profit sector, and the wealthy. She has also written a memoir of Canadian artist Harold Town, and a biography of artist, filmmaker, and impassioned feminist, Joyce Wieland.

Minerals and rocks form the foundation of geologic studies. This new textbook has been written to address the needs of students at the increasing number of universities that have compressed separate mineralogy and petrology courses into a one- or two-semester Earth materials course. Key features of this book include: equal coverage of mineralogy, sedimentary petrology, igneous petrology and metamorphic petrology; copious field examples and regional relationships with graphics that illustrate the concepts discussed; numerous case studies to show the uses of earth materials as resources and their fundamental role in our lives and the global economy, and their relation to natural and human-induced hazards; the integration of earth materials into a cohesive process-based earth systems framework; two color thoughout with 48 pages of four color. Readership: students taking an earth materials, or combined mineralogy and petrology course in an earth science degree program. It will also be useful for environmental scientists, engineering geologists, and physical geographers who need to learn about minerals, rocks, soil and water in a comprehensive framework. A companion website for this book is available at: www.wiley.com/go/hefferan/earthmaterials.