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Earthbook
Publisher: Graphic Learning International, Tallahassee, Florida 32316 USA, USAYear Published: 1987 Pages: 330pp Price: $65.00 ISBN: 0-87746-100-7 Resource Type: Book Cx Number: CX3306 An Encyclopedia of the Earth and a world atlas. Abstract: EarthBook consists of two parts: an "Encyclopedia of the Earth" and a world atlas. The encyclopedia part provides an introductory survey of the elements of geography: air, water, the earth, and fire. Excellent graphics are supplemented by text which describes processes and patterns such as air circulation, climate, air pollution, the water cycle, the oceans, aquatic life, sea routes, the earth's crust, climatic zones, urbanization patterns, and volcanic activity. While the treatment is not in-depth, it does convey the nature of geographic activity in a vivid way. The atlas section was developed with the help of new advances in cartography made possible by satellite imagery and photography. One effect is the development of ways of portraying elevation by striking plastic relief effects and colours. Predictably, in the U.S. version of a world atlas, the American states are given much greater prominence and space than their size warrants. Western Canada is tacked onto a map of Alaska, while the Canadian far north simply doesn't appear in the North America section at all. (It does make an appearance at the end of the book, where one map is devoted to the Arctic and one to Antarctica.) Nevada and Arizona, meanwhile, get more space than India. Nevertheless, the maps are beautiful, and do contain a wealth of detail. [Abstract by Ulli Diemer] |