Geology

Geologist Elisabeth Ervin-Blankenheim reveals the history of our planet through a geologic lens and explains why everyone should care about it. Ervin-Blankenheim explores geologic principles of deep time, plate tectonics, and change in life forms in plain English. The book is illustrated with striking maps, diagrams, and pictures, allowing her to dissect everything from how a roiling, molten planet cooled to how the first cyanobacteria began to oxygenate the atmosphere to how the atmosphere has changed over time. Ervin-Blankenheim journeys through the science with ease and provides narrative sections about pioneering geologists and their groundbreaking discoveries. In viewing the planet as the integrated ecosystem it is, Ervin-Blankenheim showcases how land, water, life, and the atmosphere maintain an elegant yet delicate balance - one that, based on the author's evidence of current trends in the context of past planetary cataclysm, appears to be under imminent threat. At times both gripping and lovingly poetic, Song of the Earth shows not only how Earth has influenced life, but also how life has distinctly shaped our planet.

A concise, fully illustrated introduction to modern geomorphology. Geomorphologists pay much attention to the measurement of present day processes in attempting to develop explanations of landscape evolution, and this book reflects this approach by deliberately emphasising processes in humid environments.

Presents the advances that have been made since the establishment of plate tectonics in the 1960s, highlighting, on the 50th anniversary of the theory, the contributions of a small number of scientists who have never been widely recognized for their discoveries. Beginning with the publication of a short article in Nature by Vine and Matthews, the book traces the development of plate tectonics through two generations of the theory. First generation plate tectonics covers the exciting scientific revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, its heroes and its villains. The second generation includes the rapid expansions in sonar, satellite, and seismic technologies during the 1980s and 1990s that provided a truly global view of the plates and their motions, and an appreciation of the role of the plates within the Earth "system". The final chapter bring us to the cutting edge of the science, and the latest results from studies using technologies such as seismic tomography and high-pressure mineral physics to probe the deep interior. Ultimately, the book leads to the startling conclusion that, without plate tectonics, the Earth would be as lifeless as Venus.

Learning to draw field sketches is an essential task for geologists, however it is often overlooked. This book presents simple techniques, useful tips and detailed examples to teach geologists how to draw rocks successfully. Field sketches are the best way to record the natural world, and yet they are one of the most difficult parts of fieldwork to master. This book shows how to go about drawing the key elements of geology in and out of the field and is a practical guide that will help you improve your diagrams and the quality of your notes. Through simple rules, useful tips and detailed examples the author describes how to go about drawing outcrops, structures, hand specimens and thin-sections and what features need to be observed and recorded. If you've ever wished you could draw geology better, this book is for you.

A free, expert-reviewed collection of content contributed by scholars, professionals, educators, practitioners and other experts who collaborate and review each other's work. The content is presented in a style intended to be useful to students, educators, scholars, professionals, as well as to the general public.