Table of Contents
Part 1: Earth Materials and Systems01 The Nature of Earth Science
- 1.1 How Do Earth’s Features and Processes Influence Where and
How We Live?1.2 How Does Earth Science Explain Our World?1.3 What
Forces and Processes Affect Our Planet?1.4 How Do Natural Systems
Operate?1.5 What Are Some Important Earth Cycles?1.6 How Do Earth’s
Four Spheres Interact?1.7 How Do We Depict Earth’s Surface?1.8 How
Do We Depict Earth’s Heights, Slopes, and Subsurface Aspects?1.9
How Do We Describe Locations on Earth?1.10 How Do We Describe Time
and Rates?1.11 What Is Earth’s Place in the Solar System?1.12 How
Do We Approach Earth Science Problems?1.13 How Do We Develop
Scientific Explanations?1.14 How Do Scientific Ideas Get
Established?1.15 CONNECTIONS: How Are Earth-System Processes
Expressed in the Black Hills and in Rapid City?1.16 INVESTIGATION:
How Are Earth Processes Affecting This Place?
02 Minerals and Mineral Resources
- 2.1 What Is the Difference Between a Rock and a Mineral?2.2 How
Are Minerals Put Together in Rocks?2.3 How Do We Distinguish One
Mineral from Another?2.4 What Controls a Crystal’s Shape?2.5 What
Causes Cleavage in Minerals?2.6 How Are Minerals Classified?2.7
What Is the Crystalline Structure of Silicate Minerals?2.8 What Are
Some Common Silicate Minerals?2.9 What Are Some Common Nonsilicate
Minerals?2.10 What Are the Building Blocks of Minerals?2.11 How Do
Atoms Bond Together?2.12 How Do Chemical Reactions Help Minerals
Grow or Dissolve?2.13 What Are Mineral Deposits and How Do They
Form?2.14 CONNECTIONS: How Are Minerals Used in Society?2.15
INVESTIGATION: What Minerals Would You Use to Build a House?
03 Earth Materials
- 3.1 How Do Rocks Form?3.2 What Can Happen to a Rock?3.3 Where
Do Clasts Come From?3.4 What Are the Characteristics of Clastic
Sediments?3.5 What Are Some Common Sedimentary Rocks?3.6 Why Do
Sedimentary Rocks Have Layers?3.7 What Textures Do Igneous Rocks
Display?3.8 What Are Common Igneous Rocks?3.9 What Are Some
Metamorphic Features?3.10 What Are Metamorphic Processes and
Rocks?3.11 CONNECTIONS: How Are Different Rock Types Expressed in
Landscapes?3.12 INVESTIGATION: What Materials Compose These
Landscapes?
04 Earth History
- 4.1 How Do We Infer the Relative Ages of Events?4.2 What Is the
Significance of an Unconformity?4.3 How Are Ages Assigned to Rocks
and Events?4.4 What Are Fossils?4.5 How and Why Did Living Things
Change Through Geologic Time?4.6 How Was the Geologic Timescale
Developed?4.7 What Is the Evidence for the Age of Earth?4.8 How Did
Earth Form and Change Over Time?4.9 What Were Some Milestones in
the Early History of Life on Earth?4.10 What Were Some Milestones
in the Later History of Life on Earth?4.11 How Do We Study Ages of
Landscapes?4.12 CONNECTIONS: What Is the History of the Grand
Canyon?4.13 INVESTIGATION: What Is the Geologic History of This
Place?
Part 2: The Dynamic Earth05 Plate Tectonics
- 5.1 What Is Inside Earth?5.2 What Are the Major Features of
Earth?5.3 Why Do Some Continents Have Matching Shapes?5.4 Where Do
Earthquakes and Volcanoes Occur?5.5 What Causes Tectonic Activity
to Occur in Belts?5.6 What Happens at Divergent Boundaries?5.7 What
Happens at Convergent Boundaries?5.8 What Happens Along Transform
Boundaries?5.9 How Does Seafloor Vary from Place to Place?5.10 What
Features Occur Along Mid-Ocean Ridges?5.11 How Do Oceanic Islands,
Seamounts, and Oceanic Plateaus Form?5.12 What Are the
Characteristics and History of Continental Hot Spots?5.13 How Do
Plates Move and Interact?5.14 How Is Paleomagnetism Used to
Determine Rates of Seafloor Spreading?5.15 CONNECTIONS: Why Is
South America Lopsided?5.16 INVESTIGATION: Where Is the Safest
Place to Live?
06 Volcanism and Other Igneous Processes
- 6.1 How Does Magma Form?6.2 How Does Magma Move?6.3 What Is and
Is Not a Volcano?6.4 What Controls the Style of Eruption?6.5 What
Hazards Are Associated with Volcanoes?6.6 What Volcanic Features
Consist of Basalt?6.7 What Are Composite Volcanoes and Volcanic
Domes?6.8 What Disasters Were Caused by Composite Volcanoes and
Volcanic Domes?6.9 What Are Calderas?6.10 What Types of Volcanism
and Other Igneous Processes Occur Along Plate Boundaries?6.11 How
Do Large Magma Chambers Form and How Are They Expressed in
Landscapes?6.12 How Are Small Intrusions Formed and Expressed in
Landscapes?6.13 What Areas Have the Highest Potential for Volcanic
Hazards?6.14 CONNECTIONS: What Volcanic Hazards Are Posed by Mount
Rainier?6.15 INVESTIGATION: How Would You Assess Hazards on This
Volcano?
07 Deformation and Earthquakes
- 7.1 What Is Deformation and How Is It Expressed in
Landscapes?7.2 How Are Factures Expressed in Landscapes?7.3 How Are
Folds Expressed in Landscapes?7.4 What Is an Earthquake?7.5 How
Does Faulting Cause Earthquakes?7.6 How Do Earthquake Waves
Travel?7.7 How Do We Determine the Location and Size of an
Earthquake?7.8 Where Do Most Earthquakes Occur?7.9 What Causes
Earthquakes along Plate Boundaries and Within Plates?7.10 How Do
Earthquakes Cause Damage?7.11 How Does a Tsunami Form and Cause
Destruction?7.12 What Were Some Recent Large Earthquakes?7.13 What
Were Some Major North American Earthquakes?7.14 CONNECTIONS: What
Is the Potential for Earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault?7.15
INVESTIGATION: Where Did This Earthquake Occur, and What Damage
Might Be Expected?
08 Mountains, Basins, and Continental Margins
- 8.1 Why Are Some Regions High in Elevation?8.2 Where Do
Mountain Belts and High Regions Form?8.3 How Do Local Mountains
Form?8.4 Where Do Basins Form?8.5 How Do Mountains and Basins Form
at Convergent Continental Margins?8.6 How Does Continental
Extension Occur?8.7 What Features Characterize the Interiors and
Margins of Continents?8.8 How Do Marine Salt Deposits Form?8.9 How
Do Reefs and Coral Atolls Form?8.10 How Do Continents Form and
Grow?8.11 How Did the Continents Join and Split Apart?8.12
CONNECTIONS: How Do Oil and Natural Gas Form?8.13 INVESTIGATION:
Where Will Mountains and Basins Form in This Region?
Part 3: Landscape Processes and Evolution09 Sculpting Landscapes
- 9.1 What Can We Observe in Landscapes?9.2 How Does Physical
Weathering Affect Earth’s Surface?9.3 How Does Chemical Weathering
Affect Earth’s Surface?9.4 How Does the Type of Earth Material
Influence Weathering?9.5 How Do Climate, Slope, Vegetation, and
Time Influence Weathering?9.6 How Is Weathering Expressed?9.7 How
Are Landscapes Eroded?9.8 How Do Landscapes Record Transport and
Deposition by Gravity, Streams, Ice, and Waves?9.9 How Do
Landscapes Record Transport and Deposition by Wind?9.10 How Do
Arches and Natural Bridges Form?9.11 How Do Caves Form?9.12 What Is
Karst Topography?9.13 CONNECTIONS: What Formed Diverse Landscapes
of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado?9.14 INVESTIGATION: How Did
These Landscapes Form?
10 Soil and Unstable Slopes
- 10.1 What Is Soil?10.2 How Important Are Water and Organics in
Soil?10.3 How Does Soil Form?10.4 How Do Terrain, Parent Material,
Vegetation, and Time Affect Soil Formation?10.5 What Are the Major
Types of Soil?10.6 What Types of Soils Are Most Influenced by Their
Climate?10.7 What Other Factors Control the Formation and
Distribution of Soils?10.8 What Are the Causes and Impacts of Soil
Erosion?10.9 What Controls the Stability of Slopes?v10.10 How Do
Slopes Fail?10.11 How Does Material on Slopes Fall and Slide?10.12
How Does Material Flow Down Slopes?10.13 Where Do Slope Failures
Occur in the U.S.?10.14 CONNECTIONS: How Do We Assess the Risk for
Problem Soils and Future Slope Failures?10.15 INVESTIGATION: Which
Areas Have the Highest Risk of Slope Failure or Problem Soils?
11 Glaciers, Shorelines, and Changing Sea Levels
- 11.1 What Are Glaciers?11.2 How Do Glaciers Form, Move, and
Vanish?11.3 How Do Glaciers Erode, Transport, and Deposit?11.4 What
Are the Landforms of Alpine Glaciation?11.5 What Are the Landforms
of Continental Glaciation?11.6 What Features Are Peripheral to
Glaciers?11.7 What Happened During Past Ice Ages?11.8 What Starts
and Stops Glacial Episodes?11.9 What Processes Occur Along
Shorelines?11.10 What Causes High Tides and Low Tides?11.11 How Do
Waves Form and Propagate?11.12 How Is Material Eroded, Transported,
and Deposited Along Shorelines?11.13 What Landforms Occur Along
Shorelines?11.14 What Are Some Challenges of Living Along
Shorelines?11.15 What Happens When Sea Level Changes?11.16 What
Causes Changes in Sea Level?11.17 CONNECTIONS: What Coastal Damage
Was Caused by These Recent Atlantic Hurricanes?11.18 INVESTIGATION:
What Is Happening Along the Coast of This Island?
12 Streams, Lakes, and Groundwater
- 12.1 Where Does Water Occur on Our Planet?12.2 How Do We Use
Freshwater?12.3 What Are Stream Systems?12.4 How Do Streams
Transport Sediment and Erode Their Channels?12.5 How Do River
Systems Change Downstream or Over Short Time Frames?12.6 Why Do
Streams Have Curves?12.7 What Features Characterize Steep
Streams?12.8 What Features Characterize Low-Gradient Streams and
Deltas?12.9 What Features Are Associated with Streams?12.10 What Is
and What Is Not a Flood?12.11 Where Is Groundwater Found?12.12 How
and Where Does Groundwater Flow?12.13 Wh at Is the Relationship
Between Surface Water and Groundwater?12.14 What Problems Are
Associated with Groundwater Pumping?12.15 How Can Water Become
Contaminated?12.16 How Does Groundwater Contamination Move and How
Do We Clean It Up?12.17 CONNECTIONS: What Is Going On with the
Ogallala Aquifer?12.18 INVESTIGATION: Who Polluted Surface Water
and Groundwater in This Place?
Part 4: Atmosphere and Oceans13 Energy and Matter in the Atmosphere
- 13.1 What Is the Atmosphere?13.2 What Is Energy and How Is It
Transmitted?13.3 What Are Heat and Temperature?13.4 What Is Latent
Heat?13.5 What Is Electromagnetic Radiation?13.6 What Causes
Changes in Insolation?13.7 Why Do We Have Seasons?13.8 What
Controls When and Where Sunrise and Sunset Occur?13.9 How Does
Insolation Interact with the Atmosphere?13.10 What Is Ozone and Why
Is It So Important?13.11 How Much Insolation Reaches the
Surface?13.12 How Does Earth Maintain an Energy Balance?13.13 How
Do Insolation and Outgoing Radiation Vary Spatially?13.14 Why Do
Temperatures Vary Between Oceans and Continents?13.15 CONNECTIONS:
How Are Variations in Insolation Expressed Between the North and
South Poles?13.16 INVESTIGATION: How Do We Evaluate Sites for
Solar-Energy Generation?
14 Atmospheric Motion
- 14.1 How Do Gases Respond to Changes in Temperature and
Pressure?14.2 What Causes Winds?14.3 What Causes Some Local and
Regional Winds?14.4 What Are Some Significant Regional Winds?14.5
How Do Variations in Insolation Cause Global Patterns of Air
Pressure and Circulation?14.6 How Does Air Circulate in the
Tropics?14.7 How Does Air Circulate in High Latitudes?14.8 How Does
Surface Air Circulate in Mid-Latitudes?14.9 How Does Air Circulate
Aloft over the Mid-Latitudes?14.10 CONNECTIONS: What Causes
Monsoons?14.11 INVESTIGATION: What Occurs During Seasonal
Circulation Shifts?
15 Atmospheric Moisture
- 15.1 How Does Water Occur in the Atmosphere?15.2 What Is
Humidity?15.3 How Do Specific Humidity and Dew Point Vary from
Place to Place and Seasonally?15.4 What Happens When Air Rises or
Sinks?15.5 How Does the Surface Affect the Rising of Air?15.6 What
Mechanisms Can Force Air to Rise?15.7 What Do Clouds Tell Us About
Weather?15.8 What Conditions Produce Fog?15.9 How Does
Precipitation Form?15.10 How Do Sleet and Freezing Rain Form?15.11
What Is the Distribution of Precipitation?15.12 CONNECTIONS: What
Caused the Recent Great Plains Drought?15.13 INVESTIGATION: How Do
Global Patterns of Humidity, Water Vapor, and Precipitation
Compare?
16 Weather and Storms
- 16.1 Why Does Weather Change?16.2 What Are Fronts?16.3 Where Do
Mid-Latitude Cyclones Form and Cross North America?16.4 What
Conditions Produce Thunderstorms?16.5 Where Are Thunderstorms Most
Common?16.6 What Causes Hail?16.7 What Causes Lightning and
Thunder?16.8 What Is a Tornado?16.9 Where and When Do Tornadoes
Strike?16.10 What Are Some Other Types of Wind Storms?16.11 What Is
a Tropical Cyclone?16.12 What Affects the Strength of a Tropical
Cyclone?16.13 CONNECTIONS: What Happened During Hurricane
Sandy?16.14 INVESTIGATION: Where Would You Expect Severe
Weather?
17 Oceans and their Interactions with Other Earth Systems
- 17.1 What Causes Ocean Currents?17.2 What Is the Global Pattern
of Surface Currents?17.3 How Do Sea-Surface Temperatures Vary from
Place to Place and Season to Season?17.4 What Causes Water to Rise
or Sink?17.5 What Are the Global Patterns of Temperature and
Salinity?17.6 What Processes Affect Ocean Temperature and Salinity
in Tropical and Polar Regions?17.7 How Are Oceans Coupled with the
Atmosphere and Cryosphere?17.8 What Connects Equatorial Atmospheric
and Oceanic Circulation?17.9 What Are the Phases of ENSO?17.10 What
Are the Effects of ENSO?17.11 CONNECTIONS: What Types of Life
Reside in the Oceans?17.12 INVESTIGATION: What Oceanic and
Atmospheric Patterns Are Predicted for a Newly Discovered
Planet?
18 Climates Around the World
- 18.1 How Do We Classify Climates?18.2 What Are the Most Common
Climate Types?18.3 What Is the Setting of Tropical Climates?18.4
What Conditions Cause Arid Climates?18.5 What Causes Warm Temperate
Climates?18.6 What Are the Settings of Mid-Latitude Climates?18.7
What Causes Subarctic and Polar Climates?18.8 What Is the Role of
Carbon in the Climate?18.9 What Is the Evidence for Climate
Change?18.10 What Factors Influence Climate Change?18.11 What Are
the Consequences of Climate Change?18.12 How Do We Use Computers to
Study Climate Change?18.13 CONNECTIONS: What Are Non-Fossil Fuel
Sources of Energy?18.14 INVESTIGATION: What Climates and Weather
Would Occur Here?
Part 5: Solar System and Universe19 Our Solar System
- 19.1 How Do We Explore Other Planets and Moons?19.2 Why Is Each
Planet and Moon Different?19.3 What Can We Observe on the Inner
Planets?19.4 What Is On the Surface of Our Moon?19.5 What Is
Observed on Jupiter and Its Moons?19.6 What Is Observed on Saturn
and Its Moons?19.7 What Do We Observe on the Planets and Their
Moons?19.8 CONNECTIONS: What Have We Learned About Mars?19.9
INVESTIGATION: How and When Did Geologic Features on This Alien
World Form?
20 Our Universe
- 20.1 How Do We Observe the Universe?20.2 What Is Our Framework
for Observing the Universe?20.3 What Forces and Motions Are
Important in the Universe?20.4 How Do We Measure Light and
Distance?20.5 What Are Stars?20.6 How Do Stars and Evolve?20.7 What
Are Nebula and Supernovae?20.8 What Are White Dwarfs, Pulsars, and
Neutron Stars?20.9 What Is a Black Hole?20.10 What are
Galaxies?20.11 CONNECTIONS: What Is the Origin of the
Universe?20.12 INVESTIGATION: How Did These Astronomical Features
Form?
About the Author
Stephen J. Reynolds received a B.A. from the University of Texas at
El Paso, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in geosciences from the University
of Arizona. Dr. Reynolds is a professor in the School of Earth and
Space Exploration at Arizona State University, where he has taught
regional geology, earth resources, evolution of landscapes, field
studies, and teaching methods. He has directed the geologic
framework and mapping program of the Arizona Geological Survey,
completing a new Geologic Map of Arizona. As a National Association
of Geoscience Teachers distinguished speaker, he has traveled
across the country presenting talks and workshops on how to infuse
active learning and inquiry into large introductory geology
classes. He is a commonly invited speaker to national workshops and
symposia on active learning, visualization, and teaching. Dr.
Reynolds is the author of the highly successful Exploring
Geology.
Julia K. Johnson earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in structural geology and
geoscience education. Dr. Johnson is a full-time faculty member in
the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State
University (ASU), where she teaches Introduction to Geology to
nearly 1,000 students a year and supervises the associated
introductory geology labs. She also coordinates the introductory
geology teaching efforts of the School of Earth and Space
Exploration, helping other instructors incorporate active learning
and inquiry into large lecture classes. The main focus of her
geoscience education research is on student- and
instructor-generated sketches for learning, teaching, and
assessment in college geology classes. Before coming to ASU, she
conducted groundwater studies of copper deposits and taught full
time in the Maricopa County Community College District, teaching
physical geology and environmental geology.