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National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals (National Audubon Society Field Guides) | 
 enlarge | Author: National Audubon Society
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy Used: $5.93
You Save: $14.02 (70%)
New (54) Used (42) Collectible (2) from $5.93
Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 27831
Media: Paperback
Edition: 11th
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 856
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 3.8 x 1.4
ISBN: 0394502698
Dewey Decimal Number: 552.097
EAN: 9780394502694
Publication Date: May 12, 1979
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Missing dj, clean reading text!!~
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Product Description
Perfect for mountain climbers and hikers, this valuable reference covers more rocks and minerals in North America than any other available guide. 794 full-color photographs depict all the important rocks, gems, and minerals -- in many variations of color and crystal form -- and the natural environments in which they occur; written descriptions provide information on field marks, similar rocks and minerals, environment, areas of occurrence, and derivation of names. Includes a guide to mineral collecting and a list of rock-forming minerals
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Excellent resource, but a little awkward January 5, 2009
The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals is a beautiful book packed full of information. The guide, including index, is 850 pages, with over 250 full color pages featuring pretty much every rock and mineral you will come across in North America. The regular pages are very thin, similar to the paper bibles are printed on. This thin paper is very flimsy and may not hold up well to the kind of abuse it would take if you actually carried it in the field. The thiness also allows the print on the other side to show through, making it difficult to read sometimes. The print is especially small, contributing to some readability problems.
The information is most certainly complete, though. The first 48 pages talk about the various characteristics that are used to identify minerals. It includes brief descriptions of the characteristics and in some cases line drawings. The next section is a "visual key" to minerals. The minerals are arranged by color and form. A small icon at the edge of the pages allows you to quickly flip through the key to find the type of mineral you are looking for. For instance, if you found something orange and globular you can quickly fan through the pages using your thumb until you see the appropriate icon. Then you can look at beautiful pictures of minerals that match those characteristics.
The specimen pictures really are beautiful, but probably are not particularly useful. They are all gorgeous museum quality specimens that likely will not look like anyting you find in the field. But it does help you narrow it down to a list of suspects, and then you can go on from there. The plates include the mineral name and the page number where you will find the more useful information.
There is also a "descriptive key" in case you don't want to use the images. This is probably the most useful part of the book. It allows you to take information you have gathered about your mineral--including color, hardness, cleavage, and form--and quickly reference it. This section is organized by hardness and color. Once you have your suspect this section refers you to the pages where you can find more information about these minerals.
The information section is very thorough. It not only presents the various physical and chemical characteristics of the mineral, but also tells you where the mineral is likely to be found and what other types of minerals would be found in the same area. That information is very useful for ruling out suspects.
The next section is on rocks. The arrangement is very similar. Information about the various characteristics of rocks is presented at the beginning of the section, followed by a visual key. Unlike the mineral section, however, there is not a section with a descriptive key. The visual key references to information pages that are just as thorough as the mineral pages.
At the end there is a brief section on rock and mineral collecting and the environments in which various minerals are found. The appendices also include interesting information, including a glossary and information about rock-forming minerals, as well as a list of chemical abbreviations. The index is alphabatized by rock and mineral names and allows to quickly reference a specific rock or mineral you may be curious about.
The information is excellent. The arrangement is logical and intuitive. The pictures, whether useful or not, are stunning. My only complaint about this field guide is that it is a little bit awkward. The pages are about 3.5" wide and 7.5" tall, and the book is approximately 1.25" inches thick. The thickness makes it a little difficult to handle, especially when you first get it and the binding is still tight. I would have liked it to be a little thinner. The beautiful pictures are three to a page and quite large (you can look at all the minerals in "look inside this book" thing here at Amazon). I think the pictures could have been equally as effective if made a little smaller and presented 6 to a page. That would have reduced the page count by more than 150 pages and made it a little easier to handle.
That being said, I really can't complain. The fact that Audubon was able to fit this much information into such a compact volume is really impressive. I do recommend anyone with troubled vision to get a magnifying glass (or loupe!) with this purchase, though.
 great resource September 29, 2008
As a Library Media Specialist, I receive requests for all sorts of books. This one was a request from an earth science instructor for a book that gave some really good examples of rocks and minerals --in color.
good field guide to minerals September 27, 2008
I love the pictures, even though I did notice the pictures and the corresponding text are in different parts of the guide. The small size allows me to take the book with me anywhere.
Rock Identification August 15, 2008
The National Audubon Field Guides are all great and the clear pictures make rock and mineral identification much easier.
Fantastic reference book!!!! June 6, 2008
We are avid rockhounds and have been looking for a book to help identify some of what we find. This book had great photos and descriptions. I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone.
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