STORIES IN STONE: Travels Through Seattle’s Urban Geology
Stories in Stone - Most people do not think of looking for geology from the sidewalks they travel, but for the intrepid geologist any good rock can tell a fascinating story. On this virtual walk, which incorporates illustrations, photographs, and video maps, you will explore a range of rocks equal to any assembled by plate tectonics, from 3.5-billion-year-old gneiss to 120,000 years old travertine; fossils the size of cinnamon rolls, and rock used by the Romans to build the Colosseum.
In this tour of Seattle building stone, based on the book, Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology (which was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award), David B. Williams will discuss history, transportation, and architecture to give you a new way to appreciate urban geology. Plus, you’ll even be able to “visit" a couple of quarries and see where the stone originates.
David B. Williams is an author, naturalist, and tour guide whose award-winning book Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography explores the unprecedented engineering projects that shaped Seattle during the early part of the twentieth century. He is also the author of Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City and Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology, which discusses the geological and cultural history of building stone from the United States and Italy. Williams is also a Curatorial Associate at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. His upcoming book, Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound, will be published in April 2021.
DATE: APRIL 15, 2021
TIME: 5:00 to 6:15 p.m. (PST)
ADMISSION FREE: OPEN TO PUBLIC
