Beneath Our Feet

In 2001, geologist Ron H. Vernon published Beneath Our Feet: The Rocks of Planet Earth. Although Vernon is an Emeritus Professor of Geology at the ARC National Key Centre for Geochemical Evolution and Metallogeny of Continents at Macquarie University in Sydney Australia, this book is not aimed at fellow academics. Instead, it is written as a guide to anyone with an amateur interest in rocks and minerals, such as rock collectors or others who want to learn about natural history. Vernon avoids overly scientific language in favor of clear, concise explanations that are aimed at readers from high school age upward—particularly those who do not already have a background in the sciences. The book is not intended as a field guide to identifying rocks; rather, it is an explanation of how rocks are formed, why they are interesting to study, and how to start to appreciate their variability and understand their component parts.

The book’s text is illustrated by compelling photographs that critics and readers rave about. A mix of landscapes, hand specimen photos, and microscopy photos that magnify interior structures, the photographs clarify and deepen the text’s explanations of what rocks are, how they are formed, and how to appreciate their beauty and variety. As a reviewer in Science Books & Films puts it, “This attractive book defies classification […] it deserves a place on public-library shelves as a splendid geology-for-nongeologists treatment.” The Journal of Geoscience Education goes one step further, suggesting that Beneath Our Feet “is one of the most beautifully illustrated books that I have ever seen. It should be in every high school and public library.”

Vernon shows readers how to discover the rocks around them through several different approaches.



The microscopic photos of their crystalline structures demonstrate how rocks are composed of different minerals and in various arrangements. These differences create the varied appearance of rocks both above and beneath the planet’s surface.

Vernon also discusses the startling fact that although rocks seem completely solid, they are actually parts of a flowing system that exists in continuous slow motion deep inside the earth, forming rocks through the heating and melting inside the planet mantle and crust. The explanation for how this process works is illustrated with folded rock formations in Antarctica and Australia.

Earth’s rocks are also created when ejected through volcanic eruptions, by the erosion of the earth’s surface during earthquakes, and through being shaped by water and glacial ice. Vernon demonstrates the last process by explaining how glaciers affect the formation of limestone, fossils, and diamonds.



Another section of the book describes rocks whose origins are extraterrestrial, and which we come across after they have crashed onto our planet. Vernon delves into what we know about meteorites and gives readers tips on how to use their newfound knowledge when out in nature.