Can you describe an aspect of the research for Rough-Hewn Land that you find particularly fascinating?                   
Researching and writing the book allowed me to combine three of the great passions of my life: geology, American history, and outdoor exploration. In researching the book, I got to visit numerous outcrops and landscapes that reveal the geologic birth of the modern West. It was “big picture” geology, and in absorbing it all, I was unencumbered by any obligation to do any specialized research of my own. Rather, I got to skim the cream off the hard work of many Cordilleran geologists, and I got to travel wherever my whims and interests took me. The entire experience was the most fun, satisfying, and enriching of my entire professional life.

The book intertwines Earth history with human history. Why did you decide to incorporate human history?
My reasons for adding large doses of human history to the book are mostly personal—I’m a history buff. But I think the history also adds a human element that is missing in some science books. I’ll give you an example: In one chapter, I explain the geologic formation of the Great Basin. That’s a fascinating scientific story by itself, but I think it became more interesting when I combined it with the discovery of the Great Basin by the explorer John C. Fremont in the mid-19th century. Before Fremont’s explorations, people thought that large rivers flowed all the way from the Rockies to the California coast. Fremont’s recognition of a previously unimagined geography—a great topographic bowl where rivers simply die—was a profound moment of human understanding about the West. 

Anything else?
The book would not be what it is without the generous help of Bill Dickinson. WRD supported the work going all the way back to my book proposal to the University of California Press four years ago, and generously provided a full manuscript review last year. His support and expertise stand behind much of what I produced. Eldridge Moores also contributed a very helpful manuscript review. I am indebted to these two giants of Cordilleran geology.

Keith Meldahl is a professor of geology at Mira Costa College.

"Unfold a map of North America," Keith Heyer Meldahl writes, "and the first thing to grab your eye is the bold shift between the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains." In this absorbing book, Meldahl takes readers on a 1000-mile-long field trip back through more than 100 million years of deep time to explore America's most spectacular and scientifically intriguing landscapes. He places us on the outcrops, rock hammer in hand, to examine the evidence for how these rough-hewn lands came to be. We see California and its gold assembled from pieces of old ocean floor and the relentless movements of the Earth's tectonic plates. We witness the birth of the Rockies. And we investigate the violent earthquakes that continue to shape the region today. Into the West's geologic story, Meldahl also weaves its human history. As we follow the adventures of John C. Frémont, Mark Twain, the Donner party, and other historic characters, we learn how geologic forces have shaped human experience in the past and how they direct the fate of the West today.