Geology of the United States A slice of the Earth from the Pacific Ocean through the Pacific Northwest might look something like the adjacent image. Beneath the Cascades, a dense oceanic plate plunges beneath the North American Plate; a process known as subduction. As the oceanic slab sinks deep into the Earth's interior beneath the continental plate, high temperatures and pressures allow water molecules locked in the minerals of solid rock to escape. The water vapor rises into the pliable mantle above the subducting plate, causing some of the mantle to melt. This newly formed magma rises toward the Earth's surface to erupt, forming a
To the Ends of the Earth To the Ends of the Earth To the Ends of the Earth is the name given to a trilogy of nautical, relational novels—"Rites of Passage" (1980), "Close Quarters" (1987), and "Fire Down Below" (1989)—by British author William Golding. Set on a former British man-of-war transporting migrants to Australia in the early 19th century, the novels explore themes of class (assumed status) and man's reversion to savagery when isolated, in this case, the closed society of the ship's passengers and crew. The first of the books, "Rites of Passage," was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 1980. The trilogy as a