Best historical geology books according to redditors

TL;DR The site's real, the clip is misleading.

The structures at Gobekli Tempe are real, and their origins are indeed something of a mystery. There is real, honest-to-goodness archaeology going on at the site. This video clip however, shows quite clearly why a great deal of the programming on the History Channel needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Here are a few issues I have with the clip that's been presented.

1. The overly dramatic tone which is more of an irritant than anything else. We get it, History Channel, this place is old and not much is known about it. Do we really need the ominous music?
   
   
2. 'Experts'. They're not - at least, they're not experts in the subject of the video. The first is Linda Moulten Howe, who's primary 'expertise' seems to lie in the area of crop circles and cattle mutilations, not ancient archaeology. Why she is here is puzzling... until you meet expert number two; Graham Hancock.
   
   Hancock is famous for writing such 'alt-history' books as 'Fingerprints of the Gods' and 'Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization', which assert that all human civilizations are the product of an ancient, hyper-advanced civilization (like Atlantis, for example), that either inspired or outright taught the younger civilizations that followed. His views are, to put it mildly, not supported by either the archaeological community, nor by the archaeological evidence.
   
   Expert number three is Robert M. Schoch, a geologist and geophysicist who's current pet theory is that all ancient pyramids (Egyptian, Mayan, etc.) are the products of an ancient, global civilization that was destroyed by some pre-historical cataclysm in ages past, possibly by a century-long rain of asteroids.
   
   Next on our list of History Channel approved 'experts', is one Andrew Collins, author of 'Gateway to Atlantis', a book which alleges that ancient Middle-Eastern civilizations may have had transoceanic contact with ancient meso-Americans, possibly via contact with Atlantis or some other ancient global civilization.
   
   Oh Gawd... at 6:00 in the clip, the 'documentary' begins to speculate if this find has anything to do with Noah's Ark.
   
   Next up, Phillip Coppens: ancient aliens, 2012, ancient global civilizations and catastrophes. Seeing the pattern here?
   
   Most, if not all of these 'experts' are cult archaeologists who have, at one time or another, flirted with or explicitly endorsed the concept of 'hyperdiffusion', which is the belief that all ancient cultures sprang from an older, advanced, global culture such as Atlantis, Lemuria, or Mu. This is one species of pseudohistory that has been quite popular over the years. The ideas that are stated (or sometimes simply implied) in this clip are a fairly obvious attempt to graft the assertions of the pseudoarchaeologists onto an actual archaeological site. The video even concludes by splashing a 'See the Evidence: Check out Ancient Aliens on History Channel' graphic. Others in this thread have warned against dismissing a claim because one doesn't approve of the source, and that is generally a good rule to follow, but in this case, a fair degree of skepticism is warranted. A good analogy here would be that these 'experts' are to the field of archaeology what homeopaths are to the field of medicine. This clip isn't history; it's pseudohistorical speculation attempting to masquerade as legitimate archaeological inquiry.
   

This is a great sedimentology book I used during my geology degree:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Sedimentology-Stratigraphy-Wiley-Desktop-Editions-Gary-Nichols/1405135921

Buy and read some textbooks that cover the required undergrad courses at a university. Here are a few that come to mind: structural geology and tectonics, sedimentology/stratigraphy, geophysics, earth materials (mineralogy), earth systems, petrography and petrogenesis, field methods and maybe volcanism and oceanography.


But back to your question... If you're mainly concerned with rock formations (sed/strat) then just read this book or this one, they will help you tremendously. Hope this helps!

Annals of the Former World It is still on my to be read shelf at home, but my father in law is a geology buff who cannot recommend this book enough.

One thing you might want to take a look at is an introductory historical geology textbook.

I read an older edition of this (http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Geology-Reed-Wicander/dp/1111987297) and it was generally pretty good. Very expensive there, but I'm sure a PDF is available for free with a bit of looking.

It covers the very basics of many fields (plate tectonics, Earth composition and structure, radiometric dating techniques) and then moves through major time periods of Earth's history, including dinosaurs and all sorts of other organisms.

You might find it somewhat unsatisfying in that it is covering such a vast amount of material that it can't go too in-depth proving its points every step of the way, but it does a pretty good job considering it's scope, and has lots of good photos of fossils and/or diagrams.

As a single book aimed at understanding Earth's history, I'm not sure you could do much better.

Whilst I don't know where you could learn online, I highly recommend looking up publicly available field courses in basic geology. You would learn alot and be able to go out hiking!

If you're interested in sedimentary geology, Gary Nichol's book is excellently written, organised, and I would say is very accessible by the layman.

I'd also recommend the different Geology Field Guide Books as they are small, easily looked through and designed to be taken into the field. They have one for sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic and structural I think, very good books that would definitely get you through at least the first 2 years of an undergrad bachelors in Geology.

EDIT: on further investigation I think I meant the Field Description book series. Either look pretty good for a basic grounding.

EDIT 2: I also forgot to mention they're relatively cheap compared to most academic texts!

Try a historical geology class.
Here's a [historical geology textbook] (http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Geology-Reed-Wicander/dp/1111987297) used for several, and a freebie historical book, although this looks like a combination of Physical and Historical more than strictly historical.

Course slides with excellent diagrams for the basic principles of how rocks are deposited.

List of Internet resources for historical geology

BBC Earth Story Part 1/8 This series is a great intro. In addition, if you want a book, or rather a series of books Annals of the Former World is a really accessible, easy to read (albeit a bit lengthy) book that I for one loved.

Go to the library and look for a historical geology textbook. You will probably have everything you need if you find just one. If you have a choice, this is a good book covering the paleo part, and any historical geology textbook should have a nice long chapter on the Paleocene. For a map, there are a number of good ones, but this is one site I use sometimes (be sure to cite references properly!). There is not a Paleocene map, but you can use the K-T and Eocene maps to get beginning/end conditions. The time period is a fairly interesting one, particularly for the story of development of life. Good luck, and if you make a nice poster, be sure to upload a picture of it!

BTW- that's an entire series. Since it's right next door, there's one for Pennsylvania as well.

Do you have a college or community college nearby? You can take Geo 101 and 102 there, maybe even as summer courses.

Just remembered another book that's worth looking into - Sedimentation and Stratigraphy if you want a good summary of sedimentary rocks etc