Includes index.

01 Introduction: a mighty matter of legend 1 -- Rock types and the rock cycle 3 -- 02 Solid Earth 5 -- Atmosphere and its development 6 -- Earth's interior 7 -- Seismic waves 8 -- Earth's core 10 -- Evidence from magnestism 12 -- Earth's crust and mantle--compositional layers 13 -- Summary of compositional layers 16 -- Another kind of layering--strong and weak 17 -- Earth's heat 19 -- Radiogenic heating 20 -- Radiometric dating and the age of the Earth 21 -- Origin of the Earth and the Solar System 21 -- 03 Earthquakes 25 -- How earthquakes happen 26 -- Measuring earthquakes 27 -- Protecting structures from earthquake damage 29 -- Earthquake preparedness 33 -- Prediction and prevention 33 -- 'Tidal waves' 35 -- 04 Plate tectonics 36 -- Moving plates 37 -- Plates colliding 38 -- Plates moving apart 40 -- Magnetic stripes on the ocean floor 42 -- Break-up of a continent 43 -- Life-cycle of an ocean 44 -- Plates sliding past each other 46 -- Global picture 47 -- What makes it happen? 49 -- 05 Volcanoes 51 -- Magma origin and eruption 52 -- Magmatic gases and explosive eruptions 54 -- Volcanic hazards 56 -- Ignimbrite eruptions 64 -- Volcanoes associated with continental rifting 66 -- Volcanism at ocean ridges 67 -- Hawaiian volcanism 70 -- Iava hazards 72 -- Predicting eruptions 72 -- Widespread effects of eruptions 74 -- 06 Igneous intrusions 75 -- Minerals 76 -- Crystallization of minerals in cooling magma 78 -- Granite 79 -- Basaltic intrusions in the oceanic crust 83 -- Dykes and sills 84 -- Grain sizes in igneous rocks 86 -- 07 Metamorphism 88 -- Thermal metamorphism 89 -- Regional metamorphism 92 -- Metamorphic facies 93 -- Textures of metamorphic rocks 94 -- 08 Erosion and transport 97 -- Chemical breakdown of minerals during weathering 98 -- Physical weathering 99 -- Sand-sized grains in wind and water 101 -- Moving ice 103 -- Glacial landscapes 104 -- Erosion by rivers and streams 105 -- Drainage patterns 106 -- Marine erosion 107 -- 09 Deposition of sedimentary rocks 110 -- Ripples and dunes 111 -- Turbidity currents 114 -- Current directions 116 -- Waves 117 -- Finer and coarser sediments 117 -- Other means of transport 118 -- Using sediments to interpret ancient environments 119 -- Depositional environments associated with rivers 119 -- Flash floods 122 -- Deltas and estuaries 123 -- Prograding deltas 125 -- Logging a sedimentary sequence 127 -- Beaches and other coastal environments 127 -- Evaporite deposits 128 -- Limestone 130 -- Turning sediment into rock 132 -- 10 Deformation of rocks 136 -- Different types of steep fault 137 -- Low-angle faults 140 -- Thrust belts and collision zones 142 -- Brittle faults versus shear zones 145 -- Folds 146 -- Shapes and styles of folding 146 -- Unconformities 149 -- 11 Physical resources 151 -- Reserves and resources 152 -- Origins of oil and gas 154 -- Oil and gas reservoirs 155 -- Exploration for oil and gas 156 -- Origin of coal 158 -- Mining techniques 159 -- Ores and their origins 161 -- Ore exploration 163 -- Mining of ores 164 -- Diagenetic and sedimentary ore bodies 165 -- Non-metallic raw materials 167 -- Making good the damage 168 -- Water resources 168 -- 12 Past life and fossils 170 -- Origin of life 171 -- First bacteria 172 -- More complex cells 173 -- Multicellular organisms 173 -- Major animal phyla appear 174 -- Vascular plants and life on land 176 -- Mammals take over 177 -- Mass extinctions and adaptive radiations 178 -- How fossils form 179 -- Exceptional preservation 182 -- Plant fossils 183 -- Use of fossils in stratigraphy 184 -- 13 A short history of the Earth 188 -- Earth's first crust 189 -- Archean plate tectonics? 192 -- Growth of cratons 192 -- Proterozoic Eon 194 -- Phanerozoic plate configurations 194 -- Climate change 201 -- Future history of the Earth 203 -- 14 Geology on other planets 205 -- Impact craters 206 -- Moon 209 -- Mercury 210 -- Venus 210 -- Mars 212 -- Asteriods 214 -- Lo 215 -- Large icy bodies 216 -- Geology among the stars 219 -- 15 Going into the field 220 -- Things to do in the field 221 -- Field equipment 223 -- Field safety 227 -- Fieldwork code of practice 228 -- Geological maps and guidebooks 228 -- Appendix 1 Minerals 231 -- Appendix 2 Rock names 239 -- Igneous rocks 239 -- Metamorphic rocks 241 -- Sedimentary rocks 243 -- Appendix 3 Geologic time 245.