"This treatise seamlessly combines an elementary introduction to the theories, facts, and principles defining modern earth science with an up-to-date integration of the present state of knowledge regarding the geologic architecture and geohistory of southern California. Hall, the world's leading expert on this region, has delivered a spectacularly illustrated compendium that should be required reading for the southern Californian geologist, naturalist, botanist, and generally inquisitive hiker."--W. G. Ernst, Stanford University