(eBook PDF) Earth: Portrait of a Planet

Sixth Edition by Stephen Marshak

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PART IV HISTORY BEFORE HISTORY
INTERLUDE E Memories of Past Life: Fossils and Evolution 430
CHAPTER 12 Deep Time: How Old Is Old? 448
CHAPTER 13 A Biography of the Earth 482

PART V EARTH RESOURCES

CHAPTER 14 Squeezing Power from a Stone: Energy Resources 522
CHAPTER 15 Riches in Rock: Mineral Resources 564

PART VI PROCESSES AND PROBLEMS

AT THE EARTH’S SURFACE
INTERLUDE F Ever-Changing Landscapes and the Hydrologic
Cycle 590
CHAPTER 16 Unsafe Ground: Landslides and Other Mass
Movements 606
CHAPTER 17 Streams and Floods: The Geology of Running
Water 634
CHAPTER 18 Restless Realm: Oceans and Coasts 676
CHAPTER 19 A Hidden Reserve: Groundwater 720
CHAPTER 20 An Envelope of Gas: The Earth’s Atmosphere and
Climate 756
CHAPTER 21 Dry Regions: The Geology of Deserts 802
CHAPTER 22 Amazing Ice: Glaciers and Ice Ages 832
CHAPTER 23 Global Change in the Earth System 876

Metric Conversion Chart A-1

The Periodic Table of Elements A-2
Glossary G-1
Credits C-1
Index I-1

vii
Special Features

WHAT A GEOLOGIST SEES GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE

Hot-Spot Volcano Track, Fig. 4.17d • 106 The Earth System, Prelude • 6-7
The East African Rift, Fig. 4.18d • 108 Forming the Planets and the Earth-Moon System,
Chapter 1 • 34-35
Basalt Sill in Antarctica, Fig. 6.12c • 172
The Earth from Surface to Center, Chapter 2 • 60-61
Dike Near Shiprock, NM, Fig. 6.13a • 173
Magnetic Reversals and Marine Magnetic Anomalies,
Contact Between Basement and Cover Rocks in the
Chapter 3 • 86-87
Grand Canyon, Fig. 7.2c • 213
The Theory of Plate Tectonics, Chapter 4 • 110-111
Stratigraphic Formation, Fig. 7.13 • 226
Mineral Formation, Chapter 5 • 130-131
Crossbeds, Fig. 7.15d • 228
Formation of Igneous Rocks, Chapter 6 • 178
Deposits of an Ancient River Channel, Fig. 7.18e • 231
Weathering, Sediment, and Soil Production,
Displacement on the San Andreas Fault, Fig. 10.4a • 327
Interlude B • 200-201
Displacement and Fault Zone, Fig. 11.10a • 403
The Formation of Sedimentary Rocks, Chapter 7 • 232-233
Slip on a Thrust Fault, Fig. 11.10b • 403
Environments of Metamorphism, Chapter 8 • 264-265
The San Andreas Fault, Fig. 11.10c • 403
Rock-Forming Environments and the Rock Cycle,
Horsts and Grabens, Fig. 11.13e • 405 Interlude C • 272-273
Train of Folds, Fig. 11.15d • 407 Volcanoes, Chapter 9 • 296-297
Plunging Anticline, Fig. 11.15e • 407 Faulting in the Crust, Chapter 10 • 330-331
Flexural-Slip Fold, Fig. 11.16a • 408 The Collision of India with Asia, Chapter 11 • 416-417
Passive Fold, Fig. 11.16b • 408 The Record in Rocks: Reconstructing Geologic History,
Ramp anticline, Fig. 11.17e • 409 Chapter 12 • 468-469

Slaty Cleavage, Fig. 11.18b • 410 The Earth Has a History, Chapter 13 • 514-515

Horizontal Sandstone Beds, Fig. 12.4c • 453 Power from the Earth, Chapter 14 • 550-551

Chilled Margin, Fig. 12.4h • 454 Forming and Processing the Earth’s Mineral Resources,
Chapter 15 • 580-581
Unconformity in Scotland, Fig. 12.8a • 457
The Hydrologic Cycle, Interlude F • 598-599
Unconformity in a Road cut, Fig. 12.8b • 457
Mass Movement, Chapter 16 • 622-623
New York Outcrop, OFT. 12.1 • 481
The Changing Landscape along a Stream, Chapter 17 • 662-663
Topographic Profile, Fig. BxF.1d • 593
Oceans and Coasts, Chapter 18 • 712-713
The Oso, Washington Mudslide, Fig. 16.5b • 613
Caves and Karst Landscapes, Chapter 19 • 750-751
Drainage Basins on a Ridge, Fig. 17.5b • 639
Life Cycle of a Large Tornado, Chapter 20 • 788-789
Floodplain in Utah, Fig. 17.17c • 650
The Desert Realm, Chapter 21 • 822-823
Desert Pavement, Arizona, Fig. 21.20b • 819
Glaciers and Glacial Landforms, Chapter 22 • 858-859
Consequences of Sea-Level Change, Chapter 23 • 910-911

viii
Contents

Preface xx

PRELUDE
And Just What Is Geology? 1
P.1 In Search of Ideas 1
P.2 Why Study Geology? 3
P.3 Themes of This Book 5
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: The Earth System 6–7
BOX P.1 CONSIDER THIS: The Scientific Method 10
Prelude Review 13

PART I OUR ISLAND IN SPACE

CHAPTER 1
Cosmology and the Birth of the Earth 16
1.1 Introduction 17
1.2 An Image of Our Universe 17
BOX 1.1 SCIENCE TOOL BOX: Force and Energy 20
BOX 1.2 CONSIDER THIS: Foucault’s Pendulum 24
1.3 Forming the Universe 25
BOX 1.3 SCIENCE TOOL BOX: Matter and Energy 28
BOX 1.4 SCIENCE TOOL BOX: Heat and Temperature 30
1.4 We Are All Made of Stardust 31
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Forming the Planets and the Earth-Moon
System 34–35
Chapter Review 38

CHAPTER 2
Journey to the Center of the Earth 40
2.1 Introduction 41
2.2 Welcome to the Neighborhood 41
BOX 2.1 CONSIDER THIS: Comets and Asteroids: The Other Stuff
of the Solar System 44
2.3 Basic Characteristics of the Earth 47
2.4 How Do We Know That the Earth Has Layers? 51
ix
 BOX 2.2 CONSIDER THIS: Meteorites: Clues to What’s Inside 54
2.5 What Are the Layers Made of? 55
BOX 2.3 SCIENCE TOOL BOX: Heat Transfer 58
2.6 The Lithosphere and the Asthenosphere 59
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: The Earth from Surface to Center 60–61
Chapter Review 64

CHAPTER 3
Drifting Continents and Spreading Seas 66
3.1 Introduction 67
3.2 Wegener’s Evidence for Continental Drift 67
3.3 The Discovery of Seafloor Spreading 72
3.4 Paleomagnetism—Proving Continental Drift and Seafloor Spreading 77
BOX 3.1 CONSIDER THIS: Finding Paleopoles 79
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Magnetic Reversals and Marine Magnetic
Anomalies 86–87
Chapter Review 88

CHAPTER 4
The Way the Earth Works: Plate Tectonics 90
4.1 Introduction 91
4.2 What Do We Mean By Plate Tectonics? 91
4.3 Divergent Boundaries and Seafloor Spreading 95
4.4 Convergent Boundaries and Subduction 99
4.5 Transform Boundaries 101
4.6 Special Locations in the Plate Mosaic 104
4.7 How Do Plate Boundaries Form, and How Do They Die? 107
4.8 Moving Plates 109
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: The Theory of Plate Tectonics 110–111
Chapter Review 116

PART II EARTH MATERIALS

CHAPTER 5
Patterns in Nature: Minerals 120
5.1 Introduction 121
5.2 What Is a Mineral? 122
BOX 5.1 SCIENCE TOOL BOX: Some Basic Concepts from Chemistry: A Quick
Review 124
5.3 Beauty in Patterns: Crystals and Their Structure 126
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Mineral Formation 130–131
5.4 How Can You Tell One Mineral from Another? 133
5.5 Organizing Knowledge: Mineral Classification 136

x Contents
 BOX 5.2 CONSIDER THIS: Asbestos and Health: When Crystal Habit
Matters! 138
5.6 Something Precious: Gems! 140
BOX 5.3 CONSIDER THIS: Where Do Diamonds Come From? 141
Chapter Review 146

INTERLUDE A
Introducing Rocks 148
A.1 Introduction 149
A.2 What Is Rock? 149
A.3 The Basis of Rock Classification 151
A.4 Studying Rock 155
Interlude A Review 159

CHAPTER 6
Up from the Inferno: Magma and Igneous
Rocks 160
6.1 Introduction 161
6.2 Why Do Melts Form? 161
6.3 What’s in Molten Rock? 165
6.4 Movement and Solidification of Molten Rock 167
BOX 6.1 CONSIDER THIS: Bowen’s Reaction Series 170
6.5 Comparing Extrusive and Intrusive Environments 171
6.6 How Do You Describe an Igneous Rock? 175
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Formation of Igneous Rocks 178
6.7 Plate Tectonic Context of Igneous Activity 182
Chapter Review 188

INTERLUDE B
A Surface Veneer: Sediments and Soils 190
B.1 Introduction 191
B.2 Weathering: Forming Sediment 193
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Weathering, Sediment, and Soil
Production 200–201
B.3 Soil 202
Interlude B Review 209

CHAPTER 7
Pages of the Earth’s Past: Sedimentary
Rocks 210
7.1 Introduction 211
7.2 Classes of Sedimentary Rocks 211
7.3 Sedimentary Structures 224

Contents xi
 7.4 How Do We Recognize Depositional Environments? 229
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: The Formation of Sedimentary Rocks 232–233
7.5 Sedimentary Basins 237
Chapter Review 240

CHAPTER 8
Metamorphism: A Process of Change 242
8.1 Introduction 243
8.2 Consequences and Causes of Metamorphism 243
8.3 Types of Metamorphic Rocks 249
8.4 Defining Metamorphic Intensity 255
BOX 8.1 CONSIDER THIS: Metamorphic Facies 257
8.5 Where Does Metamorphism Occur? 259
BOX 8.2 CONSIDER THIS: Pottery Making—An Analog for Thermal
Metamorphism 261
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Environments of Metamorphism 264–265
Chapter Review 268

INTERLUDE C
The Rock Cycle in the Earth System 270
Igneous rock forming, Hawaii Sedimentary rock, Colorado

C.1 Introduction 271

Metamorphic rock, California
C.2 Rock Cycle Paths 271
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Rock-Forming Environments and the Rock
Cycle 272–273
C.3 A Case Study of the Rock Cycle 274
C.4 Cycles of the Earth System 276
Interlude C Review 277

PART III TECTONIC ACTIVITY OF A

DYNAMIC PLANET

CHAPTER 9
The Wrath of Vulcan: Volcanic Eruptions 280
9.1 Introduction 281
9.2 The Products of Volcanic Eruptions 283
9.3 Structure and Eruptive Style 290
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Volcanoes 296–297
BOX 9.1 CONSIDER THIS: Explosive Eruptions to Remember 300
9.4 Geologic Settings of Volcanism 302
9.5 Beware: Volcanoes Are Hazards! 308
9.6 Protection from Vulcan’s Wrath 311
9.7 Effect of Volcanoes on Climate and Civilization 315

xii Contents
9.8 Volcanoes on Other Planets 317
Chapter Review 320

CHAPTER 10
A Violent Pulse: Earthquakes 322
10.1 Introduction 323
10.2 What Causes Earthquakes? 325
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Faulting in the Crust 330–331
10.3 Seismic Waves and Their Measurement 333
10.4 Defining the “Size” of Earthquakes 338
10.5 Where and Why Do Earthquakes Occur? 342
10.6 How Do Earthquakes Cause Damage? 348
10.7 Can We Predict the “Big One”? 359
BOX 10.1 CONSIDER THIS: The 2010 Haiti Catastrophe 360
10.8 Earthquake Engineering and Zoning 365
BOX 10.2 CONSIDER THIS: When Earthquake Waves Resonate—Beware! 366
Chapter Review 368

INTERLUDE D Magnetic anomaly

strength (nanoteslas)
+400

The Earth’s Interior, Revisited: Seismic Layering,

+100

+50

Gravity, and the Magnetic Field 370 –50

–100

–400

D.1 Introduction 371

D.2 The Basis for Seismic Study of the Earth’s Interior 371
D.3 Seismic Study of the Earth’s Interior 373
BOX D.1 CONSIDER THIS: Resolving the Details of the Earth’s Interior with
EarthScope 380
D.4 The Earth’s Gravity 382
D.5 The Earth’s Magnetic Field, Revisited 386
Interlude D Review 389

CHAPTER 11
Crags, Cracks, and Crumples: Crustal
Deformation and Mountain Building 390
11.1 Introduction 391
11.2 ​Rock Deformation in the Earth’s Crust 391
11.3 ​Brittle Structures 397
BOX 11.1 CONSIDER THIS: Describing the Orientation of Geologic
Structures 400
11.4 Folds and Foliations 405
11.5 Causes of Mountain Building 411
11.6 Mountain Topography 415
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: The Collision of India with Asia 416–417
11.7 Basins and Domes in Cratons 421
11.8 Life Story of a Mountain Range: A Case Study 424
Chapter Review 426

Contents xiii
 PART IV HISTORY BEFORE HISTORY

INTERLUDE E
Memories of Past Life: Fossils and
Evolution 430
E.1 ​The Discovery of Fossils 431
E.2 ​Fossilization 432
E.3 Characterizing Life of the Past 437
BOX E.1 CONSIDER THIS: Defining Life 439
BOX E.2 CONSIDER THIS: The Biosphere’s Biomass 442
E.4 Evolution and Extinction 442
Interlude E Review 447

CHAPTER 12
Deep Time: How Old Is Old? 448
12.1 Introduction 449
12.2 The Concept of Geologic Time 449
BOX 12.1 CONSIDER THIS: Time: A Human Obsession 450
12.3 Relative Age 452
12.4 Unconformities: Gaps in the Record 457
12.5 Stratigraphic Formations and Their Correlation 459
12.6 The Geologic Column 464
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: The Record in Rocks: Reconstructing Geologic
History 468–469
12.7 How Do We Determine Numerical Ages? 470
BOX 12.2 CONSIDER THIS: Carbon-14 Dating 471
12.8 Numerical Ages and Geologic Time 475
Chapter Review 480

CHAPTER 13
A Biography of the Earth 482
13.1 Introduction 483
13.2 Methods for Studying the Past 483
13.3 The Hadean Eon and Before 486
13.4 The Archean Eon: Birth of Continents and Life 487
13.5 The Proterozoic Eon: The Earth in Transition 491
BOX 13.1 CONSIDER THIS: Where Was the Cradle of Life? 493
13.6 The Paleozoic Era: Continents Reassemble and Life Gets Complex 496
BOX 13.2 CONSIDER THIS: The Evolution of Atmospheric Oxygen 497
BOX 13.3 CONSIDER THIS: Stratigraphic Sequences and Sea-Level Change 498
13.7 The Mesozoic Era: When Dinosaurs Ruled 502
13.8 The Cenozoic Era: The Modern World Comes to Be 510
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: The Earth Has a History 514–515
Chapter Review 518

xiv Contents
PART V EARTH RESOURCES

CHAPTER 14
Squeezing Power from a Stone: Energy
Resources 522
14.1 Introduction 523
14.2 Sources of Energy in the Earth System 525
14.3 Introducing Hydrocarbon Resources 526
14.4 Conventional Hydrocarbon Systems 529
BOX 14.1 CONSIDER THIS: Types of Oil and Gas Traps 532
14.5 Unconventional Hydrocarbon Reserves 537
BOX 14.2 CONSIDER THIS: Hydrofracturing (Fracking) 540
14.6 Coal: Energy from the Swamps of the Past 542
14.7 Nuclear Power 547
14.8 Other Energy Sources 549
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Power from the Earth 550–551
14.9 Energy Choices, Energy Problems 555
BOX 14.3 CONSIDER THIS: Offshore Drilling and the Deepwater Horizon
Disaster 558
Chapter Review 562

CHAPTER 15
Riches in Rock: Mineral Resources 564
15.1 Introduction 565
15.2 Metals and Their Discovery 565
15.3 Ores, Ore Minerals, and Ore Deposits 568
15.4 Ore-Mineral Exploration and Production 574
15.5 Nonmetallic Mineral Resources 576
BOX 15.1 CONSIDER THIS: The Amazing Chilean Mine Rescue of 2010 577
BOX 15.2 CONSIDER THIS: The Sidewalks of New York 579
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Forming and Processing the Earth’s Mineral
Resources 580–581
15.6 Global Mineral Needs 583
Chapter Review 586

Contents xv
 PART VI PROCESSES AND PROBLEMS
AT THE EARTH’S SURFACE

INTERLUDE F
Ever-Changing Landscapes and the
Hydrologic Cycle 590
F.1 Introduction 591
F.2 Shaping the Earth’s Surface 591
BOX F.1 CONSIDER THIS: Topographic Maps and Profiles 593
F.3 Factors Controlling Landscape Development 596
F.4 The Hydrologic Cycle 597
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: The Hydrologic Cycle 598–599
F.5 Landscapes of Other Planets 600
BOX F.2 CONSIDER THIS: Water on Mars? 602
Interlude F Review 605

CHAPTER 16
Unsafe Ground: Landslides and Other Mass
Movements 606
16.1 Introduction 607
16.2 Types of Mass Movement 608
BOX 16.1 CONSIDER THIS: What Goes Up Must Come Down 612
16.3 Why Do Mass Movements Occur? 618
BOX 16.2 CONSIDER THIS: The Storegga Slide and North Sea Tsunamis 619
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Mass Movement 622–623
16.4 Where Do Mass Movements Occur? 626
16.5 How Can We Protect against Mass-Movement Disasters? 628
Chapter Review 632

CHAPTER 17
Streams and Floods: The Geology of Running
Water 634
17.1 ​Introduction 635
17.2 Draining the Land 635
17.3 Describing Flow in Streams 641
17.4 The Work of Running Water 643
17.5 How Do Streams Change along Their Length? 646
17.6 Streams and Their Deposits in the Landscape 648
17.7 The Evolution of Fluvial Landscapes 656
17.8 Raging Waters 660
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: The Changing Landscape along a
Stream 662–663

xvi Contents
 BOX 17.1 CONSIDER THIS: The Johnstown Flood of 1889 666
BOX 17.2 CONSIDER THIS: Calculating the Threat Posed by Flooding 671
17.9 Vanishing Rivers 672
Chapter Review 674

CHAPTER 18
Restless Realm: Oceans and Coasts 676
18.1 Introduction 677
18.2 Landscapes beneath the Sea 679
18.3 Ocean Water Characteristics 684
18.4 Tides 686
BOX 18.1 CONSIDER THIS: The Forces That Generate Tides 688
18.5 Wave Action 690
18.6 Currents: Rivers in the Sea 693
BOX 18.2 CONSIDER THIS: A Closer Look at the Coriolis Effect 696
18.7 Where Land Meets Sea: Coastal Landforms 699
18.8 Causes of Coastal Variability 710
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Oceans and Coasts 712–713
18.9 Coastal Problems and Solutions 714
Chapter Review 718

CHAPTER 19
A Hidden Reserve: Groundwater 720
19.1 Introduction 721
19.2 Where Does Groundwater Reside? 722
19.3 Characteristics of the Water Table 726
19.4 Groundwater Flow 729
19.5 Tapping Groundwater Supplies 731
BOX 19.1 CONSIDER THIS: Darcy’s Law for Groundwater Flow 732
BOX 19.2 CONSIDER THIS: Oases 735
19.6 Hot Springs and Geysers 737
19.7 Groundwater Problems 739
19.8 Caves and Karst 746
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Caves and Karst Landscapes 750–751
Chapter Review 754

CHAPTER 20
An Envelope of Gas: The Earth’s Atmosphere
and Climate 756
20.1 Introduction 757
20.2 The Formation of the Atmosphere 758
20.3 General Atmospheric Characteristics 760
BOX 20.1 CONSIDER THIS: Air Pollution 761

Contents xvii
 BOX 20.2 CONSIDER THIS: Why Is the Sky Blue? 762
20.4 Atmospheric Layers 764
20.5 Wind and Global Circulation in the Atmosphere 766
BOX 20.3 CONSIDER THIS: The Earth’s Tilt: The Cause of Seasons 769
20.6 Weather and Its Causes 772
20.7 Storms: Nature’s Fury 779
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Life Cycle of a Large Tornado 788–789
20.8 Global Climate 795
Chapter Review 800

CHAPTER 21
Dry Regions: The Geology of Deserts 802
21.1 Introduction 803
21.2 The Nature and Location of Deserts 803
21.3 Producing Desert Landscapes 806
21.4 Deposition in Deserts 811
21.5 Desert Landforms and Life 813
BOX 21.1 CONSIDER THIS: Uluru (Ayers Rock) 818
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: The Desert Realm 822–823
21.6 Desert Problems 824
Chapter Review 830

CHAPTER 22
Amazing Ice: Glaciers and Ice Ages 832
22.1 Introduction 833
22.2 Ice and the Nature of Glaciers 834
BOX 22.1 CONSIDER THIS: Polar Ice Caps on Mars 838
22.3 Carving and Carrying by Ice 845
22.4 Deposition Associated with Glaciation 851
22.5 Consequences of Continental Glaciation 856
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Glaciers and Glacial Landforms 858–859
22.6 The Pleistocene Ice Age 863
BOX 22.2 CONSIDER THIS: So You Want to See Glaciation? 864
22.7 The Causes of Ice Ages 868
Chapter Review 874

CHAPTER 23
Global Change in the Earth System 876
23.1 Introduction 877
23.2 Unidirectional Changes 878
23.3 Cyclic Changes 880
23.4 Global Climate Change 883
BOX 23.1 CONSIDER THIS: Global Climate Change and the Birth
of Legends 887

xviii Contents
 BOX 23.2 CONSIDER THIS: Goldilocks and the Faint Young Sun
890
23.5 Human Impact on Land and Life 894
23.6 Recent Climate Change 898
23.7 The Future of the Earth 908
GEOLOGY AT A GLANCE: Consequences of Sea-Level Change 910–911
Chapter Review 912

Metric Conversion Chart A-1

The Periodic Table of Elements A-2
Glossary G-1
Credits C-1
Index I-1

Contents xix
Preface
Narrative Themes
Why do earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, and landslides
happen? What causes mountains to rise? How do beauti-
ful landscapes develop? How have climate and life changed
through time? When did the Earth form, and by what pro-
cess? Where do we dig to find valuable metals, and where
do we drill to find oil? Does sea level change? Do continents
move? The study of geology addresses these important ques-
tions and many more. But from the birth of the discipline,
in the late 18th century, until the mid-20th century, geolo-
gists considered each question largely in isolation, without
pondering its relation to the others. This approach changed,
beginning in the 1960s, in response to the formulation of
two paradigm-shifting ideas that have unified thinking about
the Earth and its features. The first idea, called the theory of
plate tectonics, states that the Earth’s outer shell, rather than
being static, consists of discrete plates that slowly move, rela-
tive to each other, so that the map of our planet continuously
changes. Plate interactions cause earthquakes and volcanoes,
build mountains, provide gases that make up the atmosphere,
and affect the distribution of life on our planet. The second
idea, the Earth System concept, emphasizes that the Earth’s
water, land, atmosphere, and living inhabitants are dynami-
cally interconnected, so that materials constantly cycle among
various living and nonliving reservoirs on, above, and within
the planet. In the context of this idea, we have come to realize
that the history of life is intimately linked to the history of the
physical Earth, and vice versa.
Earth: Portrait of a Planet, Sixth Edition, is an introduc-
tion to the study of our planet that uses the theory of plate
tectonics as well as the Earth System perspective throughout,
to weave together a number of narrative themes, including:
1. The solid Earth, the oceans, the atmosphere, and life
interact in complex ways.
2. Many important geologic processes involve the inter-
actions of plates—pieces of the Earth’s outer, rela-
tively rigid shell.
3. The Earth is a planet formed, like other planets, from
dust and gas. But, in contrast to other planets, the
Earth is a dynamic place where new geologic fea-
tures continue to form, and old ones continue to be
destroyed.
xx
4. The Earth is very old—indeed, about 4.56 billion
years have passed since its birth. During this time,
the map of the planet and its surface features have
changed, and life has evolved.
5. Internal processes (driven by the Earth’s interior heat)
and external processes (driven by heat from the Sun)
interact at the Earth’s surface to produce complex
landscapes.
6. Geologic knowledge can help society understand, and
perhaps reduce, the danger of natural hazards, such as
earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and floods.
7. Energy and mineral resources come from the Earth
and are formed by geologic phenomena. Geologic
study can help locate these resources and mitigate the
consequences of their use.
8. Geology is a science, and the ideas of science come
from observation, calculation, and experiment by
researchers—it is a human endeavor. Furthermore,
geology utilizes ideas from physics, chemistry, and
biology, so the study of geology provides an excel-
lent opportunity for students to improve their science
literacy.
These narrative themes serve as the book’s take-home mes-
sage, a message that students hopefully will remember long
after they finish their introductory geology course. In effect,
the themes provide a mental framework on which students
can organize and connect ideas, and can develop a modern,
coherent image of our planet.
Pedagogical Approach
Educational research demonstrates that students learn best
when they actively engage with a combination of narrative
text and narrative art. Some students respond more to the
words of a textbook, which help to organize information,
provide answers to questions, fill in the essential steps that
link ideas together, and help a student develop a context for
understanding ideas. Some students respond more to figures
and photos, for images help students comprehend, visual-
ize, and remember the narrative. And some respond best
to active learning, an approach where students can practice
their knowledge by putting ideas to work. Earth: Portrait of
a Planet, Sixth Edition, provides all three of these learning
tools. The text has been crafted to be engaging, the art has
been configured to tell a story, the chapters are laid out to help
students internalize key principles, and the online activities
have been designed both to engage students and to provide
active feedback. This book’s narrative doesn’t merely provide
a dry statement of facts. Rather, it provides the story behind
the story—the reasoning and observation that led to our cur-
rent understanding, as well as an explanation of the processes
that cause a particular geologic phenomenon.
Each chapter starts with a list of Learning Objectives that
frame key pedagogical goals for each chapter. These objectives
are revisited in the end-of-chapter Review Questions and in
the Smartwork5 online activities. Take-Home Message panels,
which include both a brief summary and a key question,
appear at the end of each section to help students solidify key
themes before proceeding to the next section. Throughout the
chapter, brief Did You Ever Wonder? questions prompt stu-
dents with real-life questions they may already have thought
about—answers to these questions occur in the nearby text. See
for Yourself panels guide students to visit spectacular examples
of geologic features, using the power of Google Earth. They
allow students to apply their newly acquired knowledge to the
interpretation of real-world examples. In the ebook version
of the text, these features are live links that “fly” students to
the precise locations discussed. Each chapter concludes with
a concise, two-page chapter summary that reinforces under-
standing and provides a concise study tool at the same time.
Review Questions at the end of each chapter include two parts:
the first addresses basic concepts; and the second, labeled as
On Further Thought, stimulates critical thinking opportunities
that invite students to think beyond the basics. Some of the
questions use visuals from the chapter.
To enhance active-learning opportunities, the Smartwork5
online activity system has been developed specifically for Earth:
Portrait of a Planet, Sixth Edition. Smartwork5 offers a wide
range of visual exercises, including ranking, labeling, and sort-
ing questions. Smartwork5 questions make the textbook art
interactive, and they integrate the Narrative Art Videos, anima-
tions, and simulations that have been created to accompany the
text. Questions are designed to give students answer-specific
feedback when they are incorrect, coaching them toward
developing a thorough understanding of the core concepts dis-
cussed in the book.
Organization
The topics covered in this book have been arranged so that
students can build their knowledge of geology on a foun-
dation of overarching principles. To set the stage, the book
starts by describing processes that led to the formation of the
Earth, in the context of scientific cosmology. It then intro-
duces the architecture of our planet, from surface to center.
With this basic background, students are prepared to delve
into plate tectonics theory. Plate tectonics appears early in the
book, so that students can relate the content of subsequent
chapters to the theory. Knowledge of plate tectonics, for
example, helps students understand the suite of chapters on
minerals, rocks, and the rock cycle. Knowledge of plate tec-
tonics and rocks together, in turn, provides a basis for study-
ing volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountains. And with this
background, students are prepared to see how the map of the
Earth has changed through the vast expanse of geologic time,
and how energy and mineral resources have developed. The
book’s final chapters address processes occurring at or near
the Earth’s surface, such as the flow of rivers, the evolution
of coasts, and the carving of landscapes by glaciers. We also
consider the problems that the Earth’s surface processes can
cause, such as landslides and floods. This part concludes with
a topic of growing concern in society—global change, par-
ticularly climate change.
In addition to numbered chapters, the book contains sev-
eral Interludes. These are, in effect, “mini-chapters” that focus
on topics that are self-contained but are not broad enough
to require an entire chapter. By placing selected topics in
interludes, we can keep the numbered chapters reasonable in
length, and can provide additional flexibility in sequencing
topics within a course.
Although the sequence of chapters and interludes
was chosen for a reason, this book is designed to be flex-
ible enough for instructors to choose their own strategies
for teaching geology. Therefore, each self-contained chap-
ter reiterates relevant material where necessary. For exam-
ple, if instructors prefer to introduce minerals and rocks
before plate tectonics, they simply need to reorder the read-
ing assignments. A low-cost, loose-leaf version of the book
allows instructors to have students bring to class only the
chapters that they need.
We have used a tiered approach in highlighting termi-
nology in Earth: Portrait of a Planet, Sixth Edition. Termi-
nology, the basic vocabulary of a subject, serves an important
purpose in simplifying the discussion of topics. For example,
once students understand the formal definition of a mineral,
the term can be used again in subsequent discussion without
further explanation or redundancy. Too much new vocabu-
lary, however, can be overwhelming. So we have tried to
keep the book’s Guide Terms (set in boldface and referenced
at the end of each chapter for studying purposes) to a mini-
mum. Other terms, less significant but still useful, appear
in italic when presented, to provide additional visual focus
for students as they read the chapters. We take care not to
use vocabulary until it has been completely introduced and
defined.
Preface xxi
Special Features of this Edition
Earth: Portrait of a Planet, Sixth Edition, contains a number
of new or revised features that distinguish it from all compet-
ing texts.
Narrative Art, What a Geologist Sees,
and See for Yourself
It’s difficult to understand many features of the Earth System
without being able to see them. To help students visualize
these and other features, this book is lavishly illustrated with
figures that try to give a realistic context for the particular
feature, without overwhelming students with too much extra-
neous detail. The talented artists who worked on the book
have used the latest computer graphics software, resulting
in the most sophisticated pedagogical art ever provided by
a geoscience text. Many figures have been updated with an
eye toward improving students’ 3-D visualization skills. The
figures have also been reconfigured to be more friendly and
intuitive. All of the plate tectonics figures have been revised
in this Sixth Edition in order to provide students the clearest,
most vibrant, and most accurate visual understanding of the
Earth’s interior dynamics.
In addition to the drawn art, the book also boasts over
1,000 stunning photographs from all around the world. Many
of the photographs were taken by the author, in order to illus-
trate the exact concept under discussion. Where appropriate,
photographs are accompanied by annotated sketches named
What a Geologist Sees. These figures allow students to see how
geologists perceive the world around them and to encourage
students to start thinking like geologists.
Throughout the book, drawings and photographs have
been integrated into narrative art, which has been laid
out, labeled, and annotated to tell a story—the figures are
drawn to teach! Subcaptions are positioned adjacent to rel-
evant parts of each figure, labels point out key features,
and balloons provide important annotation. Subparts are
arranged to convey time progression, where relevant. The
color schemes of drawings have been tied to those of rele-
vant photos, so that students can easily relate features in the
drawings to those in the photos. The author has also written
and narrated over a dozen Narrative Art videos, which bring
this art to life.
Google Earth provides an amazing opportunity for stu-
dents to visit and tour important geologic sites wherever they
occur. Throughout the book, we provide See for Yourself panels,
which offer coordinates and descriptions of geologic features
that students can visit at the touch of a finger, or the click of
xxii Preface
a mouse. The adjacent box provides a quick guide for using
these panels.
Featured Paintings—Geology at a Glance
In addition to individual figures, artists Gary Hincks and
Stan Maddock have created spectacular two-page annotated
paintings for each chapter. These paintings, called Geology at
a Glance, integrate key concepts introduced in the chapters,
visually emphasize the relationships between components
of the Earth System, and allow students a way to review a
subject . . . at a glance. The Sixth Edition includes three new
paintings, illustrating the formation of minerals (Chapter 5),
the life cycle of a tornado (Chapter 20), and the consequences
of sea-level change (Chapter 23).
Enhanced Coverage of Current Topics
To ensure that Earth: Portrait of a Planet continues to reflect
the latest research discoveries and help students understand
geologic events that have been featured in current news, we
have updated many topics throughout the book. For example,
the Sixth Edition discusses the causes of and lessons learned
from recent natural disasters such as Hurricanes Harvey,
Irma, and Maria (Chapter 20), and assesses the impact of
recent earthquakes in Nepal, Japan, and Ecuador (Chapter 8).
The Sixth Edition also includes updated coverage of the
economics of oil and other energy resources, and the dif-
ference between conventional and unconventional reserves
(Chapter 14). These topics, along with expanded discussion
of climate change and its impacts (Chapter 23), highlight the
relevance of physical geology concepts and phenomena to stu-
dents’ lives today.
Other notable new content in the Sixth Edition
includes a revision of the paleomagnetism discussion to
makes this topic more accessible (Chapter 3); new coverage
of mantle modeling technology, and how it has changed
our understanding of the appearance and behavior of
subducted plates (Interlude D); new introductions to the
concepts of phylogenetics, ecosystems, and paleoecology
(Interlude E); and an intensive revision of the explana-
tion of the Coriolis force and other atmospheric concepts,
using text and figures developed in collaboration with
atmospheric scientist Robert Rauber of the University of
Illinois, coauthor of the First Edition of a separate book,
Earth Science. This reworking ensures that students have
access to the most contemporary and accurate explanations
of these important processes (Chapter 18).
See for Yourself
Using Google Earth
Visiting the SFY Field Sites Identified
in the Text
There’s no better way to appreciate geology then to see it
first-hand in the field. The challenge is that the great variety of
geologic features that we discuss in this book can’t be visited
from any one locality. So, even if your class takes geology field
trips during the semester, at best you’ll see examples of just a few
geologic settings. Fortunately, Google Earth makes it possible to
fly to spectacular geologic field sites anywhere in the world in a
matter of seconds—you can take a virtual field trip electronically.
In each chapter in this book, See for Yourself panels identify
geologic sites that you can explore on your own computer (Mac
or PC) using Google Earth software, or on your Apple/Android
smartphone or tablet with the appropriate Google Earth app.
To get started, follow these three simple steps:
1. Check to see if Google Earth is installed on your personal
computer, smartphone, or tablet. If not, download the free
software from https://www.google.com/earth, or access the
desktop version at earth.google.com. You can also download
the app from the Apple or Android app store.
2. 
Each See for Yourself panel in the margin of the chapter
provides a thumbnail photo of a geologically interesting site,
as well as a very brief description of the site. The panel also
provides the latitude and longitude of the site.
3. Open Google Earth and enter the coordinates of the site in the
search window. As an example, let’s find Mt. Fuji, a beautiful
volcano in Japan. We note that the coordinates in the See for
Yourself panel are as follows:
Latitude 35°21’41.780N
Longitude 138°43’50.740E
Type these coordinates into the search window of Google Earth as:
35 21 41.78N, 138 43 50.74E
with the degree, minute, and second symbols left blank. When
you click “Enter” or “Return,” your device will bring you to the
viewpoint right above Mt. Fuji, as illustrated by the left-hand
thumbnail above.
Google Earth contains many built-in and easy-to-use tools
that allow you to vary the elevation, tilt, orientation, and position
of your viewpoint, so that you can tour around the feature, see
it from many different perspectives, and thus develop a three-
dimensional sense of the feature. In the case of Mt. Fuji, you’ll
be able to see its cone-like shape and the crater at its top. By
zooming out to higher elevation, you can instantly perceive the
context of the given geologic feature—for example, if you fly up
into space above Mt. Fuji, you will see its position relative to the
tectonic plate boundaries of the western Pacific. The thumbnail
on the right below shows the view of the same location you’ll see
if you tilt your viewing direction and look north.
Vertical view, looking down. Inclined view, looking north.
Need More Help?
If you’re having trouble, please visit digital.wwnorton.com/earth6.
There you will find a video showing how to download and install
Google Earth, additional instructions on how to find the See for
Yourself sites, links to Google Earth videos describing basic functions,
and links to any hardware and software requirements. Also, notes
addressing Google Earth updates will be available at this site.
We also offer a separate book—
the Geotours Workbook, Second
Edition (ISBN 978-1-324-00096-9), by
Scott Wilkerson, Beth Wilkerson, and
Stephen Marshak—that identifies
additional interesting geologic sites
to visit, provides active-learning
exercises linked to the sites, and
explains how you can create your
own virtual field trips.
Smartwork5 Online Activities
Smartwork5
Smartwork5 is Norton’s tablet-friendly, online activity plat-
form. Both the system and its physical geology content were
designed with the feedback of hundreds of instructors, result-
ing in unparalleled ease of use for students and instructors alike.
Smartwork5 features easy-to-deploy, highly visual assign-
ments that provide students with answer-specific feedback.
Students get the coaching they need to work through the
assignments, while instructors get real-time assessment of
student progress via automatic grading and item analysis. The
question bank features a wide range of higher-order questions
such as ranking, labeling, and sorting. All of the Narrative Art
videos, animations, and interactive simulations are integrated
directly into Smartwork5 questions—making them assignable.
Smartwork5 also contains What a Geologist Sees questions that
take students to sites not mentioned in the book, so they can
apply their knowledge just as a geologist would. In addition,
Smartwork5 offers reading quizzes for each chapter and Geo-
tours-guided inquiry activities using Google Earth.
Based on instructor feedback, Smartwork5 offers three
types of pre-made activity:
• Chapter Reading Quizzes, designed to help students pre-
pare for lecture
• Chapter Activities, consisting of highly visual exercises
covering all chapter Learning Objectives
• Geotours Worksheets—guided inquiry activities that use
Google Earth
Smartwork5 is fully customizable, meaning that instructors
can add or remove questions, create assignments, write their
own questions, or modify ours. Easy and intuitive tools allow
instructors to filter questions by chapter, section, question
type, and learning objective.
SMARTWORK5 features a variety of question types to get
students working hands-on with geologic concepts.
xxiv Preface
All Smartwork5 content is written by geology instructors. Our
Sixth Edition Smartwork5 authors include Heather Lehto
of Angelo State University, Tobin Hindle of Florida Atlantic
University, Christine Clark of Eastern Michigan University,
and Jacqueline Richard of Delgado Community College.
Media and Ancillaries
Animations, Simulations, and Videos
Earth: Portrait of a Planet, Sixth Edition, provides a rich col-
lection of new animations, developed by Alex Glass of Duke
University, working with Heather Cook of California State
University, San Marcos. These illustrate geologic processes
in a consistent style and with a 3-D perspective. Interactive
simulations allow students to control variables and see the
resulting output. The newest simulations are designed to help
students understand basic terminology.
Narrative Art Videos, written and narrated by Stephen Mar-
shak, bring both textbook art and supplementary field photos to
life. And a robust suite of over 100 real-world video clips illus-
trate key processes, concepts, and natural phenomena.
ANIMATIONS illustrate geologic processes.
All the videos, animations, and interactive simulations are
free, require no special software, and are available in a variety
of settings to offer ultimate flexibility for instructors and stu-
dents: on the Norton Digital Landing Page (digital.wwnor-
ton.com/earth6); in LMS-compatible coursepacks; integrated
into Smartwork5 questions; linked to the ebook; and as
linked resources in the new Interactive Instructor’s Guide
that accompanies the text (iig.wwnorton.com/earth6/full).
Mobile-ready E-book
Earth Portrait of a Planet, Sixth Edition is available in a new
format perfect for tablets and phones. Within the ebook, art
expands for a closer look, links send you to geologic locations
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
all other settlements by means of roads deserving the name of
barabara, i.e., beaten road, in the most literal sense of the term. This
road is so broad that a column could at need march along it four
abreast; though in some places indeed it is very much overgrown.
We took the main road leading to Nkunya, but very soon turned off
to the right, getting deeper and deeper into the bush. Riding soon
became impossible; in fact, every member of the expedition was
engaged in a very cautious struggle with the upupu. Nils Knudsen
warned me against this agreeable plant soon after our arrival at
Newala, so I have escaped an experience which many a new-comer
will not forget in a hurry. The upupu[45] is a kind of bean bearing dark
green pods, which, if touched, cause an unbearable irritation in the
skin. Rubbing or scratching only brings the victim nearer to
madness. Washing is quite useless—the only effectual remedy is
wood ashes, which, if mixed with water and plastered on the skin,
draw out the minute poison-crystals in a short time. As in many
other cases, the cure is easily applied if one only knows it.
Punctually at nine, we are standing before a hut similar to the one
already described, only that the likuku, as it is here called, is double
—two low, round structures, standing side by side. The ceremony is
just about to begin, Sefu says. I am hard-hearted and barbarous
enough to send the headman of the place—who has one foot
ulcerated in the most horrible way and consequently poisons the
atmosphere for some distance around him, but in spite of this feels
that he ought to do the honours of his village—half-a-mile away to
windward, before setting up my camera by the side of a bush, where I
await the progress of events.
For some time we hear nothing but the familiar lu-lu-lu-ing of the
women in all keys, soprano and alto, piano and fortissimo, as if the
company, standing in a dense crowd behind the double house,
wished to practise a little before making their appearance.
Meanwhile, they are growing more and more shiny—they are
anointing themselves with castor oil till they drip with it. They are
also wearing peleles of a size I have never yet seen. Suddenly, the
scene changes—seven women come forward out of the crowd
carrying a long pole, and walk quickly towards the open space on the
left of the likuku. As they approach we see that the pole is really a
huge flag-staff—a whole length of brand-new coloured cotton print
hangs down it from one end to the other. “Nini hii?” (“What is this?”)
I ask Sefu. It is the fee for the instructresses, among whom it will
soon be divided, but before being cut up, it is to be shown in all its
beauty to the people.
From the moment of their first coming forward, the seven women
have been chanting: “Watata wadihauye akalumbane kundeka
unguwanguwe.” Sefu says that this means:—“My father has treated
me badly—he gave me a bad husband, who ran away from me, and
now I am left alone.” I cannot make out what this song has to do with
the chiputu, but have no time for speculation on the subject, for the
whole company is beginning to enact a kind of “Walpurgisnacht!” At
least, should an African Goethe attempt to depict a festival on the
heights of Kilimanjaro analogous to the famous scene in Faust, he
would probably do it on the lines of what we see before us. Pigs,
broomsticks, and other traditional paraphernalia of the venerable
profession are here entirely wanting, but the illusion is more than
sufficiently maintained by the white disc in the upper lip, the huge
stud in the nose; the combs stuck in the woolly hair, the heavy
bangles on arms and ankles, and, finally, the unhappy baby on the
back of every young witch, and, strangely enough, on those of a good
many elderly ones as well. Clapping their hands, and uttering their
shrill, vibrating cry, the whole troop run, jump, and dance wildly in
and out till the spectator’s senses are completely bewildered.
Suddenly, the noise ceases, and the figures of the five novices,
closely huddled together, stooping low, swathed in new, gaudy cloths
which cover them all over, appear from the “wings” in the same way
as their predecessors. The silence lasts till they have taken their
places in the arena, but then a din breaks loose to which what I have
described as the “Walpurgisnacht” was merely a gentle murmur, for
in addition to the voices we have now the roll and thunder of the
half-dozen drums forming the inevitable band. Meanwhile, the chaos
has hastily arranged itself into a large circle, in the centre of which
the five bundles, now quite a familiar sight to me, stand in the same
stooping posture as at Niuchi. The drums have by this time
moderated their pace and volume, and the women glide and shuffle
round the ring to the accustomed rhythm. Finally, the performers
change places as on the previous occasion, the instructress comes
forward, the rest of the women being now merely accessories, and
the novices proceed to show their proficiency in the dance before
alluded to. This trial being over, it seems as if the girls were receiving
congratulations, and then the whole mass moves towards the double
hut, the five girls walking backwards. All vanish into the dusk of the
interior, but while the grown-up women remain there, the girls re-
appear after a few minutes’ interval, and, walking in Indian file, a
short distance apart, they cross the arena,—not backwards this time,
but in the ordinary way—and silently vanish into the thick bush.
The exit of the five girls seems to mark the official close of the
ceremony, as the women do not appear again. The lords of creation,
however, now come into action, and man after man, as if drawn by a
magnet, moves towards one of the two doors and enters, while no
one is seen to come out again. This interests me, and approaching
the entrance of the hut, to discover the cause of this singular
phenomenon, I find that preparations are being made for a beer-
drinking on a large scale:—the ground inside the hut is occupied by
rows on rows of huge pombe-jars, waiting to fulfil the object of their
being. We have not been invited to the feast—an omission due, we
may be certain, not to any want of hospitality, but probably to
timidity, and a feeling that the admission of a stranger to a share in
their tribal mysteries is something unfitting. We should have liked to
be asked, all the same.
MAKONDE WOMEN GOING TO DRAW WATER. FROM A
DRAWING BY PESA MBILI
 CHAPTER XIII
THE HARVEST OF KNOWLEDGE

Newala, towards the end of September, 1906.

Having witnessed—thanks to Sefu, and to a favourable conjuncture

of circumstances—the festive ceremonies of the unyago, I have been
trying to study the theory and the details of the whole process of
initiation for both sexes. I find this extremely difficult. It is true that I
have gradually obtained a complete view of the boys’ unyago, though
it cost me endless trouble to ascertain all the rules; but the other part
of the problem seems to be absolutely bewitched, so many
accumulated obstacles oppose themselves to its solution. Under
other circumstances, this might drive the most patient inquirer to
despair; but on the Makonde plateau, happily, there is no time for
despair, for with this question are associated a hundred others, not
less interesting and important, and therefore demanding an answer
with equal insistency.
But I see that I must arrange the account of my inquiries and their
principal results in a systematic way in order to present them in a
form which can be satisfactorily grasped by the reader.
Taken all round, the whole environment of Newala is such as to
offer a sort of resistance to every kind of intense intellectual work.
Not that we suffer from the heat here, at a height of about 2,460 feet
above sea-level, to the same degree as we did in the plain, which had
gradually become something like a baker’s oven. It is true that the
temperature of about 80° F. indicated by the maximum thermometer
in our baraza during the early hours of the afternoon, causes the
same severe headache as the 86° F. and over of the plain; but, on the
one hand, one gets used to having one’s work suspended by the heat,
and, on the other, the natives generally sleep through the hottest part
of the day, so that I lose nothing by inactivity at that time. Much
more trying is the loss of time resulting from the cumulative effect of
a series of other circumstances, which may seem almost comical to
those not immediately concerned, and even occasionally prove
amusing to ourselves, but which are serious hindrances none the
less.
In the first place, we have the daily changes of temperature. In the
grey dawn, wrapped up warmly in two blankets, I hear heavy drops
falling on the tent-roof, think half-consciously, that it is raining, and
doze off again, soon to be awakened by sounds of creaking and
groaning which make me sit up with a start. On opening my eyes I
see the ropes so tightly stretched that the tough ashen poles are bent
over almost into a half-circle. With an imprecation on the careless
sentinel, I jump from beneath my mosquito-net, call him up along
with the two previously on duty, and make them lengthen the ropes
as a punishment. By the time this is accomplished, not without
severe exertion, it is quite light, and I do not find it worth while to go
to sleep again. Now comes the pleasantest event of the day—the
morning bath; at six a.m. the temperature is between 57° and 58°,
perfectly Arctic for Africa. The long row of gourds treated the day
before with alum contain water which feels ice-cold; and the bath
and the rub down afterwards, are truly delicious. Kibwana, in his
capacity of valet, has long ago become accustomed to my white skin;
but there are plenty of eyes staring through the gaps in the boma
palisade or the headman’s fence, in astonished enjoyment of this
daily spectacle. When I get out, I find there is not a vestige of rain—it
was only the heavy morning dew, dripping from the thick-foliaged
mango-trees under which our tents are pitched. The sun is as yet
invisible; Newala is shrouded in a thick mist—not even the lofty trees
in the burying-ground outside the gateway being recognizable in this
rolling sea of white. Instinctively, Knudsen and I put on the winter
clothes already described, and I add a muffler in the shape of a
folded handkerchief, while he buttons his overcoat up to his chin.
 TWO NEWALA SAVANTS

This has brought us to about half-past six; and, quite ready for
work, I leave the tent at the moment when the soldiers are reporting
for the two hours’ daily drill, which I introduced at Masasi, to keep
them from becoming confirmed loafers. Hemedi Maranga comes up
to me to make his report. This smart fellow has already improved the
appearance of the company; he is a born soldier, while his
predecessor, Saleh, was more of a hunter. Saleh has been sent by the
District Commissioner to the Central Lukuledi Valley to get rid of the
lions which are still decimating the unhappy inhabitants, numerous
lives having been lost even since we passed through in July. All
success to him in his perilous task!
While I am amusing myself with my breakfast—cocoa made very
thick, and the usual large omelette with bananas—the corporal and
his division have marched out into the pori, to practise bush-fighting
or go through their drill. “Legt an! Feuer! Geladen!” The word of
command, strange enough in the mouth of a native, rings out from a
distance as clearly and sharply as if spoken by the smartest of
German non-commissioned officers. But I have no time to listen to
this reminder of far-off home scenes, for already my wise elders are
arriving with the slow, dignified pace of the old native. It was agreed
yesterday that they should be here by seven. This may sound
surprising, considering that the natives have neither clocks nor
watches, and would be unable to read them if they had; but it was
arrived at in the following way. When we stopped work at sunset
yesterday, all, white and black alike, too tired to sit up any longer, I
said to the fifteen old men, getting Sefu to interpret my words into
Kimakua and Kima-konde: “You are to come again to-morrow, saa”
(at the hour of), and completed my sentence by stretching out my
arm to the east at an angle of 15° with the horizon. The men watched
me attentively. In order to make sure, I had them asked whether they
understood, and each forthwith raised one arm and held it at exactly
the same angle. Fifteen degrees is the height reached by the sun an
hour after rising, and therefore equivalent to seven o’clock; if I want
them at a later hour, I enlarge the angle accordingly. This is no
invention of mine, but the universal custom of the country; and the
people can indicate accurately the relative position of the sun at
periods separated by the smallest intervals of time.
A couple of hours have sped quickly enough, filled up with
questions and answers relating to various points of custom and
tradition, and the old gentlemen are still squatting round me in a
semicircle, on a huge mat. On the first day of our work in common,
one of them was so far from putting any restraint on himself as to
send a jet of tobacco-juice, sailor-fashion, through his teeth just in
front of my feet. “Mshenzi!” (“You savage!”) I growled, half
involuntarily, and since then I have had no occasion to complain of
the smallest breach of good manners. It is true that they bring with
them a strong effluvium of perspiration and rancid oil, so that I feel
worse and worse as the hours pass; and they are accompanied by a
cloud of flies, which go on doing their level best to transfer to the
white stranger the ophthalmic affections from which the natives
suffer; but otherwise their behaviour is deserving of all respect. The
observation which I have made in all places hitherto visited, that
these savages have a strong natural sense of tact, holds good here
also. If we compare their behaviour with that of certain circles and
strata of our home population, we are forced to the conclusion that
we Europeans, though we imagine ourselves to have taken a long
lease of all the culture and tact on earth, are, after all, not very much
more favourable specimens of humanity.
But the shed has all this time been growing hotter, and the
northern style of clothing is no longer called for. Off with the heavy
boots, then, and the thick woollen stockings, as well as the warm
flannel shirt, waistcoat, and neckcloth, to be replaced by thin tropical
garments affording free passage of the air. At noon the khaki coat is
flung into a corner, and a thin silk jacket assumed instead of it. This
completes the negative process, which has to be reversed again as the
sun declines. The dreaded evening gale of Newala sets in with a
sharp, icy squall, and Knudsen and I, by a simultaneous and violent
sneeze, prove that our chronic catarrh, though latent by day, is as
vigorous as ever. There is no help for it; we must put on again, piece
by piece, our whole winter stock, and, moreover, by a habit which
has now become an instinct, wrap ourselves up in overcoats when
the gale, now arrived at its height, whirls clouds of dirt and dust
through our dwelling. In the course of the four weeks we have spent
here, we have had to close in this abode more and more. The mats
originally put up to protect the open side have long since been
replaced by a solid wall of thatch, which has swallowed up one panel
after another, so that now by the end of the month only one large
window remains to admit light. In the evening the carriers tie a large
tarpaulin in front of this opening, but even this complete shutting off
of the wind does not make the place comfortable. When, about ten, I
have finished developing my plates and come, bathed in
perspiration, out of the tent which serves me for a dark-room into
the baraza, I find my Norwegian friend a shapeless bundle, wrapped
in all the available blankets, but his teeth chattering all the same.
Each of us then makes haste to creep into his warm tent. The tents,
by the bye, have only become really warm since we have had a screen
of millet-straw, strengthened by strong stakes, built in front of them
to windward. Before this was done, they were in danger of being
blown over every night. These are the daily cares of clothing and
lodging: their amount is not excessive, but in any case they take up a
certain fraction of my precious time, on which still further inroads
are made by the necessary provision for food and health.
Next to the bush, the greatest peculiarity of the Makonde Plateau
is the fact that its surface is quite waterless; the soil, down to a
considerable depth, consisting of a loose stratification of sandy loam
and loamy sand. In the west these strata belong to the upper chalk
formation, and are called Makonde beds, in the east they are tertiary,
and are called Mikindani beds. Both are extraordinarily pervious to
water, so that all atmospheric moisture, if not evaporated or retained
by the abundant vegetation, rapidly sinks through them till stopped
by the impervious strata—the inclined plane of the Newala sandstone
or the primæval granite core (of the same nature as the insular
mountains yonder in the Masasi plain), which we must suppose to
exist in the depths of the Makonde Plateau. The water, flowing down
along these strata, does not, of course, come to the surface till it
reaches the declivity of the plateau, which, in contrast with the upper
level, is a region abounding even to excess in springs and brooks.
One might therefore expect to find the plateau itself uninhabited,
and all the people settled at its edges. That is the course which would
have been followed by Europeans like ourselves skilled in the
rationale of colonization. As a matter of fact, not a human being lives
below, but on the heights there are over 80,000 Makonde, nearly
5,000 Wangoni, thousands of Wayao and Wamakua, and a—to me—
unknown number of Wamatambwe. In recent times, however, the
tendency to come further and further down into the well-watered
lowlands, has been gaining ground. This has been caused by the
cessation of the Mafiti raids and the firm rule of the German
Administration. This tendency, however, only affects the more
progressive elements, the Yaos and Makuas, not the Makonde. The
latter follow the practice which has been usual with them from time
immemorial. So soon as the most necessary work has been done in
house and garden, father and son, or mother and daughter take on
their shoulders a pole, some yard and a half or two yards long, to
each end of which is fastened a large gourd, or perhaps two. They
hurry along at a rapid walk to the edge of the plateau, from which
their hamlet is inconveniently distant, scramble down a steep
declivity by a difficult path, remain for a while in the marshy bottom
and return with their load up the almost vertical ascent of several
hundred yards. At last, having accomplished the toilsome climb, they
draw a deep breath, and walk, or rather trot, back to their village.
The Makonde are said to devote the greater part of their lives to
tillage—which I find true as far as I have gone, though I have not
reached their main centre of distribution—but beyond all doubt the
second largest share of their time is absorbed by these long
excursions—so foolish a waste of time according to our ideas—in
search of water. If half the family has to spend two hours, or even
more, daily in bringing in, at the cost of severe labour, just enough
water to cook their pittance of ugali and allow every one a muddy
draught all round, it is surely an economic absurdity.
 DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
 FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
 Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.