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Exploring Earth Science by Reynolds/Johnson is an innovative textbook intended for an introductory college geology course, such as Earth Science. This ground-breaking, visually spectacular book was designed from cognitive and educational research on how students think, learn, and study.

Nearly all information in the book is built around 2,600 photographs and stunning illustrations, rather than being in long blocks of text that are not articulated with figures. These annotated illustrations help students visualize geologic processes and concepts, and are suited to the way most instructors already teach. To alleviate cognitive load and help students focus on one important geologic process or concept at a time, the book consists entirely of two-page spreads organized into 20 chapters. Each two-page spread is a self-contained block of information about a specific topic, emphasizing geologic concepts, processes, features, and approaches. These spreads help students learn and organize geologic knowledge in a new and exciting way.

Inquiry is embedded throughout the book, modeling how scientists investigate problems. The title of each two-page spread and topic heading is a question intended to get readers to think about the topic and become interested and motivated to explore the two-page spread for answers. Each chapter is a learning cycle, which begins with a visually engaging two-page spread about a compelling geologic issue. Each chapter ends with an Investigation that challenges students with a problem associated with a virtual place. The world-class media, spectacular presentations, and assessments are all tightly articulated with the textbook. This book is designed to encourage students to observe, interpret, think critically, and engage in authentic inquiry, and is highly acclaimed by reviewers, instructors, and students.

Part 1: Earth Materials and Systems

01 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 Earth

05 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 Evolution

09 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 What 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 Oceans

13 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 Universe

19 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?

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