Even if they don’t know much about rocks, most people can name at least one place they have encountered granite. As a rock, granite is speckled, sparkly, and beautiful, and it’s used in products we encounter every day, including countertops, headstones, and flooring. In the natural world granite forms random boulders in fields and many of the planet’s loftiest peaks. Granite is everywhere—from Georgia to Alaska and Maine to California—most states have somewhere that you can go to discover granite. Now, with a new book from Mountain Press, What’s So Great About Granite? everyone can learn more about this enigmatic stone.

What’s So Great About Granite? uncovers a geologic story about magmas and the hidden processes at work inside the earth. By studying granite, geologists can discover how continents formed and what is happening deep beneath today’s volcanoes. Written with the non-geologist in mind, What’s So Great About Granite? will tell you how granite was formed, how old a granitic rock is, and where you can go to find granite.

Written with lively and lucid prose and illustrated with crisp, stunning photographs and informative figures, What’s So Great About Granite? is a must-have for anyone interested in one of the world’s most fascinating rocks.