1001 Questions Answered About the Mineral Kingdom

School Science and Mathematics, Feb 2000 by Oviatt, Charles G

1001 Questions Answered About the Mineral Kingdom

Author

Richard M. Pearl

Dover Publications, Inc.

31 East 2nd Street

Mineola, NY 11501

1995; 326 pages

Paperback

Reviewer

Charles G. (Jack) Oviatt

Department of Geology

Kansas State University

Thompson Hall

Manhattan, KS 66506-3201

If you have ever played the game 20 Questions, and struggled with the whether some object should be considered "animal, vegetable, or mineral," this book supplies abundant facts and insights into one of these three kingdoms, at least as defined by Richard M. Pearl. The book has been around for since 1959, and Pearl, as a professor of geology at Colorado College, was for many years a great popularizer of scientific information and lore on minerals, rocks, and mining. As a budding rock hound and geologist in the 1960s, the first book on minerals I owned was How to Know the Rocks and Minerals, and his writings helped inspire me to pursue a career in the Earth sciences. Pearl had a knack for presenting a large number of facts, some of which would be regarded as trivia, in an interesting and accessible way, yet he made clear distinctions between folklore and scientifically accurate information.

1001 Questions starts with a brief introduction to the mineral kingdom. It then proceeds directly to the questions and their answers, which Pearl divides into 16 categories (chapters), including 12 categories related to rocks and minerals, but also including categories on fossil fuels, mining, water, and mineral collecting. Obviously, the number 001 is arbitrary, but it serves Pearl's purpose well by providing him with plenty of space to ramble through his vast knowledge. Readers should be aware that the book was first published almost 40 years ago, so much of the information may be dated, but some of the facts are historical. In any case, the book is fun to read, and if nothing else, is a good starting place to begin research on a myriad of topics in Earth science.