Earth and Environmental Science: The HSC Course

by Tom Hubble , Chris Huxley , Iain Imlay-Gillespie

• ISBN13: 9780521016636
• ISBN10: 0521016630
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This comprehensive and exciting new text covers all of the syllabus requirements of the NSW Board of Studies HSC course in Earth and Environmental Science. Featuring global, Australian and NSW contexts it provides extensive coverage of core and elective topics and contains up-to-date information with special attention given to providing material for those areas of the syllabus that teachers have found difficult to resource. Also it gives clear sets of outcomes for each section of the text and includes numerous exercises and practical activities with a range of difficulty to address the needs of all students. Students will develop an appreciation of natural phenomena and human interactions with the natural world.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Part I. Tectonic Impacts: 1. Tectonic plates

2. Mountain building

3. How continents evolve

4. Natural disasters and tectonics

5. Climate and tectonics

Part II. Environments Through Time: 6. The ages of the Earth

7. Fossils and evolution

8. Important events of the Archaen and Early Proterozoic

9. Important events of the Late Proterozoic and Phanerozoic

10. Life moves into the terrestrial environment

11. Decimation and regeneration of the Earth's life

Part III. Caring for the Country: 12. Weathering and erosion of Australia's land surfaces

13. Salinity of soils and water

14. Pesticides - Effects and alternatives

15. Maintaining and protecting surface water

16. The impact of the industrial revolution on the atmosphere and hydrosphere

17. Waste management and mine-site rehabilitation

Part IV. Introduced Species and the Australian Environment: 18. Survey of introduced species in Australia

19. Environmental impacts of introduced species

20. Introduced species case studies

21. Rehabilitating ecosystems damaged by introduced species

22. Modern quarantine methods

Part V. Organic Geology - A Non-Renewable Resource: 23. The properties of fossil fuels

24. Environments and processes of fossil fuel formation

25. Exploration methods for coal and oil

26. The processing and uses of fossil fuels

27. The effects of fossil fuels on the environment

28. The search for alternative sources of energy

Part VI. Mining and the Australian Environment: 29. Why mineral deposits are not all ore deposits

30. Mineral exploration

31. From discovery to export, 6.4 Mining society and the law

32. Mining and the environment

Part VII. Oceanography: 33. Collecting data about the oceans

34. The world's oceans

35. Mass motion of the oceans

36. Life in the oceans

37. Hydrothermal vents and their communities

38. Deep-sea sediments

Resources

Index.