Customer Reviews

Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology (9th Edition)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

I recently wrapped-up a Geology course and this was the book we used. The book played an instrumental role in the passing grade ("A") that I received due to its clear and informative way of explaining things. Logically it helps when you have a great professor like the one I had.

The book is structured so that images (lots of them) accompany the text, thus allowing us, the reader, to be able to grasp the concept through visualization and reading comprehension. TRUE it is expensive, yet you can offset the price by purchasing a used one. As with most college material you must look at it for what it is...an investment in our future.

Javier Lizano, Los Angeles, California- USA

This book is great for a general geology class and goes throught all of the major themes presented in geology to understand many aspects of our earth. The CD that normally comes with the book is extremely helpful and goes over the themes of the book without having to go through all the wording.

Came in just as it was described. Book was in great condition and I am very happy with this purchase

This book was way cheaper than if I got it at the book store and it came exactly when I needed it. Thank you.

This book was an easy to read text with helpful graphics. The text is clear, concise, and informative. I found this book interesting because it was able to provide information in an easy to read manner and the sections were organized. For every section there was a picture, a graph, or some kind of visual to aid in the understanding. At the end of the chapters there is also a summary and questions to use as study material.

I had this book for a 100 level geology class. It was helpful, if you are taking a class and need this book defenently get it.

This is the second edition of this text I've had. I consider it the best basic(or basic+) geology text I've ever seen. It's complete, well organized and introduces the subject in a way which makes the newcomer want to delve further. Its readable format presents the information as more than just pages of cold facts. After more than 50 years as an amateur geologist, I still find myself referring to it.

Book worked out very well for the class, very well written, accurate on the facts, easy to understand.

The delivery was quick, 4 days, book was used but still in pretty good condition, included the CD and online code (unused). Cover had a few dents, back cover was curled a little at the corners but overall it was a good deal for $14.95, down from over $100 something