Patrick Abbott is a native San Diegan on the faculty of San Diego state university. Pat earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in geology at The University of Texas at Austin. He benefited greatly from the depth and breadth of the faculty in the Department of Geological Sciences at Austin; this was extended by the requirement to take five additional graduate courses outside the department. Developing interests in many topics helped lead to writing this textbook.

Pat’s research has concentrated on the Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. Studies have focused on reading the history stored within the rocks – depositional environments, provenance, paleoclimate, palinspastic reconstructions, and high-energy processes.

Pat has long been involved in presenting earth knowledge to the public, primarily through local TV news. At present, he has embarked on producing videos for TV broadcast in a series called Written In Stone. The first video, The Rise and Fall of San Diego, won 2002 awards in the Videographers (Award of Distinction) and AXIEM (Silver Axiem) competitions. The second video, Earthquake Country-Los Angeles, has just been completed.