Nevadaplano: A Brief Geology of the West

"The Nevadaplano" is an essay accompanied by more than 40 photos that describes

Buzz Eggleston's effort to understand the geology of the place where he has lived for

most of the past four decades, California's Mother Lode in the foothills of the Sierra

Nevada. His journey took years, and the territory grew. He traveled across parts of five

states, read scientific texts and technical papers, and interviewed leading geologists.

What he discovered is that the surface geology that draws our interest is created by

forces far deeper in the earth, the crash of the Farallon and North American tectonic

plates. This dramatic and still-unfolding story, beginning tens of millions of years ago,

helps us better understand the scenic marvels of today's American West and perhaps

we get a glimpse of its distant future.