Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations and units; 1. An Australian perspective; 2. The Earth: a geology primer; 3. Telling geological time; 4. Building the core of Precambrian rocks: the cratons; 5. Paleozoic orogenic rock systems and mountain building; 6. Warm times: tropical corals and arid lands; 7. Icehouse: Carboniferous and Permian glaciation; 8. Mesozoic warming: the great inland plains and seas; 9. Birth of modern Australia: flowering plants, mammals and deserts; 10. Fossils and the Australian record of past life in context; 11. Eastern highlands and volcanoes barely extinct; 12. Building the continental shelf and coastlines; 13. Great Barrier Reef: a unique part of the continental shelf; 14. Cycles in a continental journey; Epilogue; Sources and references; Index.

Promotional Information

From Uluru to the Great Dividing Range, The Geology of Australia explores the timeless forces that have shaped this continent.

About the Author

Robert Henderson is an Emeritus Professor at James Cook University, North Queensland. He joined the academic staff of James Cook University in 1969 following a post-doctoral post as a Fulbright Fellow and Frank Knox Memorial Fellow at Harvard University, Massachusetts, and served as President of the Geological Society of Australia from 1998 to 2000. David Johnson holds an adjunct position as a Senior Principal Research Fellow in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, North Queensland.