Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I have found reading this text to be an awful lot of fun. Does that sound strange? Learning how the physical features and materials of the Earth came to be has always been fascinating to me. Part of it is because of the vast amounts of time involved, but also because how the descriptions of what has been observed connects so well with what we have come to know. Certainly, there is a lot left to explain, but many things are pretty well documented.
While the concept of Continental Drift has been around for many decades, I remember some of the descriptions of Plate Tectonics when I was a kid in the 60s and the hoopla the idea of floating continents caused. Adults debated back and forth what they heard in the news without much real information about the ideas. Here we are four decades further on and a great deal of confirming discoveries have been made.
The authors write with a lively style what could have been a dry as dust textbook. I love the way it is organized, the wonderful illustrations, and the "Students Sometimes Ask" feature. Each chapter is summarized well with the main concepts in bullet points. There are review questions so you see if you have internalized the material enough to formulate a proper answer. A list of key terms is also provided (with the page numbers so you can pop back into the chapter to dig into those words that haven't quite stuck in your brain).
The authors also list web sources for materials they provide on their Prentice Hall website. A particularly nice CD comes with the text that not only presents animated slides of the material for each chapter, but it is also narrated. There is also a chapter quiz for the material presented on the CD. This disk is a very nice feature for our more visually oriented age. Sure, I prefer the text, but I bet I could sell studying the CD to young people quite easily.
The physical geology of the Earth is covered very well in the book's (and CD's) twenty-four chapters. After the introduction we dive into plate tectonics, minerals, igneous rocks weathering & soil, sedimentary rocks, metamorphism and a lot more. And like all science texts, the concept of climate change is presented.
I think general readers like myself can enjoy this book and get a great deal from it.
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To understand timely issues such as natural disasters and environmental challenges–and to evaluate solutions to related problems–the average citizen needs a basic awareness of the scientific principles that influence our planet. This trusted book makes an often-complex subject accessible to readers with a strong focus on readability and illustrations. Offers a meaningful, non-technical survey that is informative and up to date for learning basic principles and concepts. Includes a revised and expanded GEODe Earth CD-ROM. Updates and revises art and illustrations to include dozens of new high-quality, photographs carefully selected to aid understanding and add realism. Provides a wealth of new special-interest boxes, including "Earth as a System," "People and the Environment," and "Understanding Earth." A useful reference for anyone interested in learning more about Earth's geology.
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