Essentials of Geology

by Marshak, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9780393928150
• ISBN10: 0393928152
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-29
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

This accessible introduction integrates traditional geologic concepts with the most recent theoretical advances, among them theories of plate tectonics and Earth systems science. The Second Edition has been carefully updated, including coverage of recent events such as Hurricane Katrina, and offers unparalleled multimedia tools for instructors and students.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xvii
Prelude: And Just What Is Geology?	p. 1
In Search of Ideas	p. 1
The Nature of Geology	p. 2
Themes of This Book	p. 4
Science Toolbox: The Scientific Method	p. 6
The Earth in Context	p. 8
Introduction	p. 8
The Modern Image of the Universe	p. 9
Forming the Universe	p. 9
Making Order from Chaos	p. 12
We Are All Made of Stardust	p. 14
Featured painting: The Birth of the Earth-Moon System	p. 16
Welcome to the Earth System and Its Neighborhood	p. 20
The Atmosphere	p. 21
Land and Oceans	p. 22
What Is the Earth Made of?	p. 23
Discovering That the Earth Has Layers	p. 25
What Are the Layers Made of?	p. 27
The Rest of the Story: Meteors and Meteorites	p. 28
The Lithosphere and the Asthenosphere	p. 29
Featured painting: The Earth, from Surface to Center	p. 30
The Way the Earth Works: Plate Tectonics	p. 35
Introduction	p. 35
Wegener's Evidence for Continental Drift	p. 36
Paleomagnetism and Apparent Polar-Wander Paths	p. 39
Science Toolbox: Some Fundamentals of Magnetism	p. 40
Setting the Stage for the Discovery of Sea-Floor Spreading	p. 45
Harry Hess and His "Essay in Geopoetry"	p. 48
Marine Magnetic Anomalies: Evidence for Sea-Floor Spreading	p. 48
Deep-Sea Drilling: Further Evidence	p. 53
What Do We Mean by Plate Tectonics	p. 53
Divergent Plate Boundaries and Sea-Floor Spreading	p. 56
Convergent Plate Boundaries and Subduction	p. 59
Transform Plate Boundaries	p. 63
Special Locations in the Plate Mosaic	p. 64
The Birth and Death of Plate Boundaries	p. 68
What Drives Plate Motion?	p. 69
The Velocity of Plate Motions	p. 71
Featured Painting: The Theory of Plate Tectonics	p. 72
Patterns in Nature: Minerals	p. 78
Introduction	p. 78
What Is a Mineral?	p. 79
Science Toolbox: Some Basic Definitions from Chemistry	p. 80
Beauty in Patterns: Crystals and Their Structure	p. 81
How Can You Tell One Mineral From Another?	p. 85
Organizing Our Knowledge: Mineral Classification	p. 89
Something Precious-Gems!	p. 91
The Rest of the Story: Where Do Diamonds Come From?	p. 92
Rock Groups	p. 95
Introduction	p. 95
What Is Rock?	p. 96
Rock Occurrences	p. 97
The Basis of Rock Classification	p. 97
Studying Rock	p. 100
Up from the Inferno: Magma and Igneous Rocks	p. 102
Introduction	p. 102
The Formation of Magma	p. 104
What Is Magma Made Of?	p. 105
The Movement of Magma and Lava	p. 107
The Rest of the Story: Bowen's Reaction Series	p. 108
Extrusive Versus Intrusive Environments	p. 109
Transforming Magma into Rock	p. 111
Featured Painting: The Formation of Igneous Rocks	p. 114
Igneous Rock Textures	p. 116
Classifying Igneous Rocks	p. 117
A Surface Veneer: Sediments, Soils, and Sedimentary Rocks	p. 121
Introduction	p. 121
Weathering: The Formation of Sediment	p. 122
Soil	p. 128
Classes of Sedimentary Rocks	p. 131
Sedimentary Structures	p. 138
Sedimentary Environments	p. 143
Sedimentary Basins	p. 147
Featured Painting: The Formation of Sedimentary Rocks	p. 148
Diagenesis	p. 150
Metamorphism: A Process of Change	p. 153
Introduction	p. 153
What Is a Metamorphic Rock?	p. 154
Causes of Metamorphism	p. 154
Types of Metamorphic Rocks	p. 158
The Intensity of Metamorphism	p. 161
The Rest of the Story: Metamorphic Facies	p. 163
Metamorphism in the Context of Plate Tectonics	p. 164
The Human Angle: Pottery Making-An Analog for Thermal Metamorphism	p. 167
Featured Painting: Environments of Metamorphism	p. 168
Bringing Metamorphic Rocks Back to the Earth's Surface	p. 170
Where Do You Find Metamorphic Rocks?	p. 171
The Rock Cycle	p. 174
Introduction	p. 174
A Case Study of the Rock Cycle	p. 175
Rates of Movement Through the Rock Cycle	p. 175
What Drives the Rock Cycle in the Earth System?	p. 177
Featured Painting: Rock-Forming Environments and the Rock Cycle	p. 178
The Wrath of Vulcan: Volcanic Eruptions	p. 180
Introduction	p. 180
The Products of Volcanic Eruptions	p. 182
The Architecture and Shape of Volcanoes	p. 186
Featured Painting: Volcano	p. 188
Eruptive Styles: Will It Flow, or Will It Blow?	p. 190
The Human Angle: Volcanic Explosions to Remember	p. 192
Plate Boundary and Rift Eruptions	p. 194
Hot-Spot Eruptions	p. 194
Volcanoes in the Landscape	p. 197
Beware: Volcanoes Are Hazards!	p. 198
Protection from Vulcan's Wrath	p. 201
Volcanoes and Climate	p. 202
Volcanoes on Other Planets	p. 203
A Violent Pulse: Earthquakes	p. 206
Introduction	p. 206
Causes of Earthquakes	p. 207
Seismic Waves	p. 212
Measuring and Locating Earthquakes	p. 212
Featured Paining: Faulting in the Crust	p. 216
Where and Why do Earthquakes Occur?	p. 220
Damage from Earthquakes	p. 226
Predicting the "Big One"	p. 234
Earthquake Engineering and Zoning	p. 237
Seeing Inside the Earth	p. 240
Introduction	p. 240
The Movement of Seismic Waves Through the Earth	p. 240
The Reflection and Refraction of Wave Energy	p. 241
Discovering the Crust-Mantle Boundary	p. 242
Defining the Structure of the Mantle	p. 243
Discovering the Core-Mantle Boundary	p. 244
Discovering the Nature of the Core	p. 244
Fine-Tuning Our Image of the Earth's Layers	p. 245
An Integrated View of the Earth: New Discoveries	p. 246
Crags, Cracks, and Crumples: Crustal Deformation and Mountain Building	p. 248
Introduction	p. 248
Mountain Belts and the Concept of Orogeny	p. 249
Rock Deformation in the Earth's Crust	p. 249
Joints: Natural Cracks in Rocks	p. 254
The Rest of the Story: Describing the Orientation of Structures	p. 254
Faults: Fractures on Which Sliding Has Occurred	p. 256
Folds: Curving Rock Layers	p. 258
Tectonic Foliation in Rocks	p. 260
Uplift and the Formation of Mountain Topography	p. 261
Featured Painting: The Collision of India with Asia	p. 264
Causes of Mountain Building	p. 267
Cratons and the Deformation within Them	p. 268
Measuring Mountain Building in Progress	p. 270
Memories of Past Life: Fossils and Evolution	p. 273
The Discovery of Fossils	p. 273
Fossilization	p. 274
Classifying Life	p. 278
Classifying Fossils	p. 278
The Fossil Record	p. 279
Is the Fossil Record Complete?	p. 280
Evolution and Extinction	p. 280
Deep Time: How Old Is Old?	p. 283
Introduction	p. 283
The Concept of Geologic Time	p. 284
Physical Principles for Defining Relative Age	p. 284
Adding Fossils to the Story: Fossil Succession	p. 285
Unconformities: Gaps in the Record	p. 287
Stratigraphic Formations and Their Correlation	p. 289
The Geologic Column	p. 293
Numerical Age and the Radiometric Clock	p. 295
Featured Painting: The Record in Rocks: Reconstructing Geologic History	p. 298
The Rest of the Story: Carbon-14 Dating	p. 300
Adding Numerical Ages to the Geologic Column	p. 301
The Age of the Earth	p. 302
Picturing Geologic Time	p. 304
A Biography of Earth	p. 306
Introduction	p. 306
The Hadean Eon: Hell on Earth?	p. 307
The Archean Eon: The Birth of the Continents and the Appearance of Life	p. 308
The Proterozoic Eon: Transition to the Modern World	p. 310
The Phanerozoic Eon: Life Diversifies, and Today's Continents Form	p. 313
The Paleozoic Era: From Rodinia to Pangaea	p. 313
Science Toolbox: Stratigraphic Sequences and Sea-Level Change	p. 315
The Mesozoic Era: When Dinosaurs Ruled	p. 319
The Cenozoic Era: The Final Stretch to the Present	p. 322
Featured Painting: The Evolution of Earth	p. 326
Riches in Rock: Energy and Mineral Resources	p. 329
Introduction	p. 329
Sources of Energy in the Earth System	p. 330
Oil and Gas	p. 330
Making an Oil Reserve	p. 331
Oil Exploration and Production	p. 334
The Rest of the Story: Types of Oil and Gas Traps	p. 335
Alternative Reserves of Hydrocarbons	p. 336
Coal: Energy from the Swamps of the Past	p. 338
Nuclear Power	p. 341
Other Energy Sources	p. 343
Energy Choices, Energy Problems	p. 345
Featured Painting: Power from the Earth	p. 348
Introducing Mineral Resources	p. 350
Metals, Ores, and Ore Deposits	p. 350
Ore-Mineral Exploration and Production	p. 355
Nonmetallic Mineral Resources	p. 356
Global Mineral Needs	p. 357
The Human Angle: The Sidewalks of New York	p. 357
Featured Painting: Forming and Processing Earth's Mineral Resources	p. 360
An Introduction to Landscapes, and the Hydrologic Cycle	p. 364
Introduction	p. 364
Shaping the Earth's Surface	p. 364
Factors Controlling Landscape Development	p. 366
The Hydrologic Cycle	p. 367
Featured Painting: The Hydrologic Cycle	p. 368
Landscapes of Other Planets	p. 370
Geologic Case Study: Water on Mars?	p. 371
Unsafe Ground: Landslides and Other Mass Movements	p. 373
Introduction	p. 373
Types of Mass Movement	p. 374
Geologic Case Study: The Storegga Slide and the North Sea Tsunamis	p. 377
Why Do Mass Movements Occur?	p. 380
How Can We Protect Against Mass-Movement Disasters?	p. 384
Featured Painting: Mass Movement	p. 386
Streams and Associated Flooding: The Geology of Running Water	p. 391
Introduction	p. 391
Draining the Land	p. 392
Discharge and Turbulence	p. 395
The Work of Running Water	p. 396
How Streams Change Along Their Length	p. 398
Streams and Their Deposits in the Landscape	p. 400
The Evolution of Drainage	p. 404
Raging Waters	p. 408
Featured Painting: River Systems	p. 410
Rivers: A Vanishing Resource?	p. 414
Restless Realm: Oceans and Coasts	p. 418
Introduction	p. 418
Landscapes Beneath the Sea	p. 419
Ocean Water and Currents	p. 423
Science Toolbox: The Coriolis Effect	p. 425
The Tides Go Out ... The Tides Come In...	p. 426
Wave Action	p. 427
Where Land Meets Sea: Coastal Landforms	p. 431
Causes of Coastal Variability	p. 438
Coastal Problems and Solutions	p. 439
Featured Painting: Oceans and Coasts	p. 440
A Hidden Reserve: Groundwater	p. 450
Introduction	p. 450
Where Does Groundwater Reside?	p. 451
Permeability: The Ease of Flow	p. 452
The Water Table	p. 452
Groundwater Flow	p. 454
Tapping the Groundwater Supply	p. 456
Hot Springs and Geysers	p. 457
The Human Angle: Oases	p. 459
Groundwater Usage Problems	p. 461
Caves and Karst: A Spelunker's Paradise	p. 464
Featured Painting: Caves and Karst Landscapes	p. 466
Dry Regions: The Geology of Deserts	p. 473
Introduction	p. 473
What Is a Desert?	p. 474
Types of Deserts	p. 475
The Rest of the Story: Convection in the Atmosphere and Generation of Prevailing Wind	p. 476
Weathering and Erosional Processes in Deserts	p. 478
Depositional Environments in Deserts	p. 482
Desert Landscapes	p. 485
Featured Painting: The Desert Realm	p. 486
Desert Problems	p. 489
Amazing Ice: Glaciers and Ice Ages	p. 493
Introduction	p. 493
The Nature of Glaciers	p. 494
Carving and Carrying by Ice	p. 502
Deposition Associated with Glaciation	p. 505
Featured Painting: Glaciers and Glacial Landforms	p. 510
Other Consequences of Continental Glaciation	p. 512
Periglacial Environments	p. 515
The Pleistocene Ice Ages	p. 516
The Human Angle: So You Want to See Glaciation?	p. 518
The Causes of Ice Ages	p. 520
Will There be Another Glacial Advance?	p. 522
Global Change in the Earth System	p. 525
Introduction	p. 525
Unidirectional Changes	p. 526
Physical Cycles	p. 528
Biogeochemical Cycles	p. 529
Global Climate Change	p. 530
The Human Angle: Global Climate Change and the Birth of Legends	p. 533
Anthropogenic Changes in the Earth System	p. 535
Featured Painting: The Earth System	p. 538
The Future of the Earth: A Scenario	p. 543
Scientific Background: Matter and Energy	p. A-1
Metric Conversion Chart	p. A-12
Glossary	p. G-1
Credits	p. C-1
Index	p. I-1
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