Dig deep to discover our rocky planet, packed with natural wonders. Earth's extraordinary minerals, gems, shells, and fossils are all on a dazzling display in this essential visual encyclopedia for children. Feast your eyes on the ultimate treasure trove that any pirate would envy. More than 1,000 stunning photographs showcase rocks and gems in glorious detail, ensuring you can recognize sedimentary from sandstone, metamorphic from marble, and pyrite from pearl. The unique qualities of each eye-catching material are described in-depth, together with their broad range of uses in art, industry, architecture, and science. Keep your eyes open for rainbow rocks, fluorescent minerals, priceless diamonds, and meteor showers on your geological journey of discovery. Meet dinosaurs in the prehistoric period to understand how fossils form, join the pyramid builders of ancient Egypt to investigate the limestone bricks and take a dip in the ocean on the hunt for clams, cowries, and cockles. Treasure seekers, get set to start your own collection with The Rock and Gem Book.
The Rock & Gem Book is yet another gorgeous DK book, loaded with fascinating illustrations. This is a 210-page hardcover book that offers much more than you would expect from the title. After a brief introduction on the formation of the earth and the cyclical creation of various types of rocks, the book is divided into five sections on Rocks, Minerals and Gems, Fossils, Shells, and Famous Treasures. Surprisingly, the last three sections comprise almost half of the book.
smithsonian rock and gem book
I love the way the author combines images of the rocks and minerals themselves with a few images of things made from them or natural formations containing them. For example, for sandstone on pages 34-35, we see images of Arches National Park in Utah; the Palace of the Winds in Jaipur, India; a sandstone grinding stone; a Buddha statue; and a sandstone bowl.
Designed in DK's signature style, the pages are filled with highly visual spreads that show off the depth and unique quality of each gemstone, rock, and fossil. See the past with fossils, learn about the ocean through shells, and find out what makes gold so special in The Rock and Gem Book.
Titles in this Set:1. Rock & Fossil Hunter: Experiments & Activities2. Rock & Fossil Hunter: How to be a rock3. Shells : From Sea Snails to Scallops4. Fossils: From Ammonites to mammoth5. Minerals: Other Minerals & Organic6. Minerals: Gemstones & Jewels7. Minerals: Metals & Ores8. Minerals: What is a Mineral?9. Rocks: Sedimentary Rocks10. Rocks: Igneous & Metamorphic Rocks
Smithsonian Kids books feature engaging and educational content for little learners that reflect the integrity of the Smithsonian. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book goes to support the Smithsonian's educational mission.
Starting with the Big Bang creation of the universe, Bonewitz (a geologist specializing in crystal chemistry with secondary training in archaeology per his New Age spiritually-oriented Web site) introduces types of rocks, minerals, gemstones and fossils to novice collectors. The well-illustrated guide, published in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution, includes a glossary.
When I bought this, for some reason, I pictured the gems and rocks to be spread out inside the sand, making it a bit of a challenge to find them all. But I was wrong. All 11 stones are right in the centre of the block in one clump. Find one; you find them all. Once you find one, they all just fall out. A little disappointing, and made the activity quite short.
What is a rock? And what's the difference between a rock, a mineral, and a gem? Kids are sure to discover the answer in this addition to our Smithsonian Kids First Discovery Books Every page of the board book is filled with interesting facts from the different layers of rocks which make up the earth, to the identification of precious and semi-precious gems. Do you know why the Hope Diamond's color is named "French Blue"? Learn the answer to that question and more in this fascinating book.
Earth's extraordinary minerals, gems, shells, and fossils are all on a dazzling display in this essential visual encyclopedia for children. Feast your eyes on the ultimate treasure trove that any pirate would envy. More than 1,000 stunning photographs showcase rocks and gems in glorious detail, ensuring you can recognize sedimentary from sandstone, metamorphic from marble, and pyrite from pearl. The unique qualities of each eye-catching material are described in-depth, together with their broad range of uses in art, industry, architecture, and science.
Keep your eyes open for rainbow rocks, fluorescent minerals, priceless diamonds, and meteor showers on your geological journey of discovery. Meet dinosaurs in the prehistoric period to understand how fossils form, join the pyramid builders of ancient Egypt to investigate the limestone bricks and take a dip in the ocean on the hunt for clams, cowries, and cockles.
Chapters are organized according to scientific classifications with straightforward explanations that bring each specimen to life. From the quartz in watches to the limestone in the Great Pyramids, the earth's natural treasures are used in architecture, art, and science. Get up close to diamonds, rubies, pearls, and sapphires, and study the different types of rocks, from granite to meteorites.
Back in 2000, when DK publishers released the second edition of Gemstone, I bought it. The little 160-page book covered 130 gems. A mini encyclopedia, it reviewed everything with concise direct text and loads of pictures and graphs. Teenagers may have been the intended audience for the publication, but I found it irresistible. The dynamic layout and gems tidily group together in glorious colors just grabbed me. It made the science of stones fun. I am not alone in my affection for the little book. The publications sold over five million copies worldwide. You read that right, five million copies.
Now the publisher has released an epic new book, Gem: The Definitive Visual Guide in collaboration with The Smithsonian. It is executed in the same delightful style as Gemstone but there is more information, lots more. Gems are covered from A to Z. Styles of jewelry over the centuries and from around the world are reviewed. To name but a few, there is Renaissance jewelry, Indian jewelry and ancient Egyptian styles. The science of minerals and metals is gathered together in a captivating manner. Several of the most exciting sections are true jewelry history stories that seem almost too fantastical to be real. One of the most amazing reviews the saga of the Russian Amber Room. There are also the tales of Marie Antoinette diamond earrings, the Hope Diamond and the Koh-I-Nor among many others. 2ff7e9595c
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