In which Max revisits Goethe’s weird claim about America lacking basalt with some expert help

In which Max asks why Goethe once said in a poem that America has no basalt (huh?)

In which Max considers the suggestion that archeology is distinctive in its frequent use of arguments from absence, and finds it wanting

In which Max hits the road to see the oldest intact surface rocks in the United States

In which Max completes his essay on dangerous speculation in geohistory by analyzing the reception of the Triassic kraken, Nemesis, and vendobiont hypotheses