Essentials of Geology, Fifth Edition, integrates Marshak's popular and proven text approach with exciting new media and assessment resources that guide students to a clearer understanding of the course material. Marshak has personally applied his expertise, with an emphasis on the visuals, to this robust suite of videos, animations and simulations, art, and interactive assessment questions that get students seeing and engaging with geologic concepts as a geologist would.
Prelude: And Just What Is Geology?
1. The Earth in Context
2. The Way the Earth Works: Plate Tectonics
3. Patterns in Nature: Minerals
Interlude A: Rock Groups
4. Up from the Inferno: Magma and Igneous Rocks
5. The Wrath of Vulcan: Volcanic Eruptions
Interlude B: A Surface Veneer: Sediments and Soils
6. Pages of Earth’s Past: Sedimentary Rocks
7. Metamorphism: A Process of Change
Interlude C: The Rock Cycle
8. A Violent Pulse: Earthquakes
Interlude D: The Earth’s Interior Revisited: Insights from Geophysics
9. Crags, Cracks, and Crumples: Crustal Deformations and Mountain Building
Interlude E: Memories of Past Life: Fossils and Evolution
10. Deep Time: How Old is Old?
11. A Biography of Earth
12. Riches in Rock: Energy and Mineral Resources
Interlude F: An Introduction to Landscapes and the Hydrologic Cycle
13: Unsafe Ground: Landslides and Other Mass Movements
14. Streams and Floods: The Geology of Running Water
15. Restless Realm: Oceans and Coasts
16. A Hidden Reserve: Groundwater
17. Dry Regions: The Geology of Deserts
18. Amazing Ice: Glaciers and Ice Ages
19. Global Change in the Earth System
Stephen Marshak is Professor of Geology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he is also the Director of the School of Earth, Society, and Environment. He holds an A.B. from Cornell University, an M.S. from the University of Arizona, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Steve's research interests lie in structural geology and tectonics. This work has taken him into the field on a number of continents. Steve loves teaching and has won his college's and university's highest teaching awards. In addition to research papers and Essentials of Geology, Steve has authored Earth: Portrait of a Planet; and has co-authored Laboratory Manual for Introductory Geology; Earth Structure: An Introduction to Structural Geology and Tectonics; and Basic Methods of Structural Geology.