The topics covered in Physical Geology by Steven Earle are broad and wide ranging. How do I view solution manuals on my smartphone? This form of navigation is helpful when one navigates away from an online PDF version only to return to the title page of the PDF. The use of end of chapter questions and exploratory experiments students may conduct on their own help drive home important concepts. in any fashion. Writing and assembling a text is a major effort and I applaud the author for doing so, and making it freely available. Sorry, there was a problem loading this page. Some topics are covered more thoroughly than others. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we dont use a simple average. I like the structure of each chapter: it begins with learning objectives, it has practice and application questions throughout the chapter, has a chapter summary, and review questions. I think the tone, terminology, and prose are wonderful. The text is both internally and externally consistent. The free alternative is possible, but it does require much more effort and time on the part of already overworked instructors. capitalization, names, etc. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. He has no plans to leave Vancouver Island. The text is extremely comprehensive in terms of its breadth of general geology topics that would be covered in an introductory geologic textbook. There are also a lot of Canada-specific parts. The textbook covers all of the standard Earth science topics in a complete manner. The hyperlinks are very helpful, and I can think of only a few other glossaries in similar texts that have a feature similar to this. The text was well-organized and the flow between chapters and sections works very well. There is discussion of human interaction with the Earth, and a bit about First Nations, but that's about as much as is discussed in the book. I usually cover this topic from the standpoint of society needs, career choices, and future geologic record. In the print PDF version of the text, all the links visible in the digital PDF version are still present, although the links are static (not clickable). These types of examples are scant in the book, as one would expect for an introductory science textbook. However, for readers not familiar with the locales mentioned (i.e. Geology: a Complete Introduction: Teach Yourself by David Rothery (English) Pape. I prefer really soft plastic solid containing very minor amounts of dispersed melt. Within the text, there key words highlighted in red that you can click to show the definition of the term. Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader. The tone of the writing is also consistent throughout. In one example, the author refers to a volcanic eruption 250 years ago at Tseak River Cone that killed 2000 people, according to Nisga'a oral history. Using a different OER test for an intro to geology course recently, I found it difficult organize reading assignments because I had to spend a fair amount time going through the text directing students specifically which portions of a section to read and which to skip because the chapters were quite long and not broken into individual section pages. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It just mentions that there are different types of fault, and that normal faults accommodate extension, reverse faults accommodated compression, etc. Topics are described clearly, with many references to photos and tables in order to better convey the information. What's universally described as the Si-O tetrahedron is described in the book as a "silica tetrahedron". Please try again. The book is divided into four parts. These are the only issues I find with the book's interface. Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. For example, section 4.2 starts As noted in the previous section, the types of magma produced in the various volcanic settings can differ significantly. Later in the section it reads First, as weve already discussed, felsic magmas tend to be more viscous because they have more silica, and hence more polymerization. This is already discussed in section 3.2 These silica chains have the important effect of making the magma more viscous (less runny), and as well see in Chapter 4, magma viscosity has significant implications for volcanic eruptions. Each chapter in the text has four to six subsections, that should be read in order, I believe they cant easily be read independently. It's written with an economy of words and in particular jargon. Given the numerous definitions of the word organic, it might not be a bad thing to leave it to upper division classes to discuss this. Overall, the level of material is appropriate for an introductory physical geology textbook. No other problems encountered. The interface is easy to navigate and well laid out. read more. Learn more. I am used to the more "sophisticated" art presented in say, Pearson's geology and geography texts, so the simplicity of the art in Earle's text will take some getting used to. As other reviewers have noted, there is no index. . I will continue using it in my classes and am looking forward to seeing future editions developed. read more. I was favorably impressed by Dr. Earle's effort to produce a free and overall robust textbook in Physical Geology. Physical Geology Today by Nance, Damian, Murphy, Brendan. But, I so really wish it had an index too! read more. The chapter on soils of Canada makes it clear that Canada uses a different classification system from the U.S. Many of the figures are well done, including photographs the author took. It wasn't even necessary to purchase it from my class, because my professor was an awesome lecturer, but the authors of the book really made everything very interesting, as my professor, and I pretty much read every chapter which helped me improve my test scores. The book in its layout is very similar to commercial text that I have used in my classes throughout the years. One of the first things that stuck out to me when skimming through the 1st edition was that the in text images were a bit small. is Professor of Earth Sciences at St. Francis Xavier University. On page 501, the photos for Exercise 15.2 are partially cut off on the right-hand side. 2003-2022 Chegg Inc. All rights reserved. It should be easy for an instructor to help students in particular areas of geology that can be more challenging to the neophyte, and to clarify doubts referencing the textbook. The text is accurate, and as far as I can free from major errors (none that I noticed). Thought-provoking and challenging exercises supplement core concepts such as determining shear strength and failure conditions, calculating the depth needed for borings, reading and analyzing maps, and constructing stratigraphic cross sections. Topics are presented well. For example, in this same chapter discussed above, the idea of faulting is introduced but there is a lack of detail on how we define different types of faults (dip-slip vs. strike-slip), and we can determine the difference between the two with illustration. I think the coverage of mineral resources could be expanded, especially into the background of The fact that the textbook lacks an index was surprising to me. For instance, in chapter 1 there is a quick synopsis of plate tectonics before chapter 10 where plate tectonics is fully discussed. Moreover the bookmarks of the chapters are in the wrong section (under acknowledgments), but as I noticed before, these can be easily rearranged. Please try again. Reviewed by Melinda Hutson, Adjunct Faculy, Portland State University on 2/8/17, The book covers all of the topics typically covered in a short introductory physical geology textbook. Overall, it is a good textbook that can be considered for adoption in introductory physical geology courses. I found chapter 21, Geological History of Western Canada, unnecessary for my use teaching in the United States, but it could be used in institutions in Canada and other regions where a case study of Canada may be of interest. I found no instances of cultural insensitivity or offensive references/language, etc. Science is a relatively slow process with new ideas and discoveries filtered into textbooks over time. The book is organized well and flows from one topic to another adequately. However, Chapter 19 deals with the properties of weather and climate with enough detail within the context of climate change. Overall, this book is very comprehensive for a semester course in earth science or physical geology. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club thats right for you for free. Physical Geology Today Damian Nance; Brendan Murphy eISBN-13: 9780190218799 eBook Features Read Anywhere Digital Notes and Study Tools Offline Access ( 10% ) Printing ( 10% ) Already purchased in store? Thus, the reader does need to go back and forth between the figure in one place/monitor and the caption in another place/monitor. I did not notice any sections or text that would be considered culturally insensitive or offensive. Often, this text goes on to describe geological formations in the BC/ Vancouver area due to the author's location. All the images are live linked, so it is possible to access higher resolution versions, and they seem all hosted on the same site (https://opentextbc.ca), reducing the possibility that those links might become broken. To see our price, add these items to your cart. I teach up to 600 students per semester in this course, so that is an incredible amount of money saved! One chapter is devoted to geologic time, followed by structural/tectonic aspects of the Earth, including earthquakes. The Physical Geology textbook is very up to date in its science. , Dimensions The book does a great job in the breakdown of rock origins, soil layers, and groundwater. With this I mean that it does need to have a more in depth examination of each topic, and a better high quality visual support. I find that when I teach I often do the same thing, leaving breadcrumbs of information about topics when needed before delving deeply into the subject. Each chapter starts with a summary introduction, then the main body of the chapter itself, and finally a summary with review questions. The book covers all of the topics typically covered in a short introductory physical geology textbook. Hit a particularly tricky question? The emphasis there is graphics - the text accompanies the graphics (not the other way around which is the standard). This is where the book falls short when compared with commercial products, however this is not to be considered as a strong criticism of the final result. My only negative comment has to do with the artwork. Please try again. Though useful for a thumbprint, I tend to shy away from Wikipedia links only because anyone can edit the Wiki content. with figures and tables) that could be improved. This text book covers the content that the most popular introductory physical geology textbooks cover in similar detail, and probably exceeds the detail in some areas without feeling over lengthy. Chapters that are dedicated to Canadian geology, seems to provide Canadian cultural relevant material for Canadian students. The HTML version also contains hyperlinked table of contents. This isn't terribly relevant to a geology text, but the it was culturally relevant (especially if you are in western Canada). Physical Geology Today Damian Nance and Brendan Murphy Deep integration of plate tectonics throughout every chapter and in unique end-of-chapter discussions. It's unclear why they are not inserted larger, unless to keep the size of the PDF (over 100 MB) down. Reviewed by Jennifer Sliko, Assistant Teaching Professor, Penn State Harrisburg on 2/1/18, The textbook covers all of the standard Earth science topics in a complete manner. The online version scrolls easily through each chapter, with a navigation bar on the left side linking to subsections and other chapters. It does mention the First Nation peoples of Canada mining obsidian as an example of historical resources exploitation. This also makes it easy to add to and/or update information at any time. metre instead of meter; sulphur instead of sulfur, etc. It would be better to not see every single section and subsection but rather have each chapter separate as such and then simply click on that link or tab to open it to sections and subsections. Some images of localities around the world are also shown. One can click on the figures to see them larger if needed and then zoom-in further. Free shipping. As mentioned above, each chapter is divided into smaller sections in this textbook. Due to the slow progress of geological time, this book is absolutely relevant and not likely to be out of date any time soon. Examples used in the book came from a variety of geographic locations around the world. I really like this book! Overall, the book interface functions well in both PDF and online formats. The book largely follows the standard order of subjects as taught in an intro course, beginning with basic principles, minerals, and the rock cycle before progressing to major processes and Earth history. On the other hand, the topic of mass wasting mitigation would have benefited from a description of the various mitigation strategies (e.g., rock bolts, avalanche chutes) and how they work. In looking at the Table of Contents, the book includes 22 chapters that cover all of the topics one would expect in a comprehensive physical geology textbook. Sold by itemspopularsonlineaindemand and ships from Amazon Fulfillment. The words I picked were used an average of 4 times (not counting the glossary), typically where first defined, again in the text, in a figure & caption, and often later in a secondary usage. Few grammatical errors noticed. The textbook is Canada-centric. But once I found them, I thought their location is well implemented. Some examples were given of other areas in the world. Use by faculty teaching in the United States might require some additional examples, perhaps an additional homegrown chapter or two emphasizing local examples when appropriate. It has a strong emphasis on examples from western Canada, especially British . While the emphasis is on what we know, it does so in a easy to read fashion and doesnt come across like an encyclopedia. Cultural sensitivity is not pertinent to the subject matter. It studies about the materials of which the planet is made, the processes that act on the materials, its life forms and the history of the planets. One further proofreading of the text would clear up the minor stand out grammatical errors. It is more comprehensive than most, and does a good job incorporating the quantitative nature of the geosciences. These examples do focus primarily on Western Canada, which may be slightly less engaging for students not working in that area. Each chapter starts off with an Introduction, which includes "Learning Objectives," followed by the "Body" of the chapter -- which includes figures and exercises. I think this book is more than sufficient for an open-source book. This textbook could easily be cut up into its chapters for classroom exercises, but within chapters (like say from 5.2-5.3) are not interchangeable. The 2nd edition of this text appears to be up to date with the latest information on the topics discussed. The lack of an index is noted at the back of the book, but may be less important for a digital version of a text that can be more easily searched. Also pillow lava is common in subglacial eruptions not just on the seafloor. The author introduces tectonics in Ch. This process-approach presents the important concepts and principles in a clear manner that demonstrates the relevancy of geology to readers lives and current events. Each chapter is laid out in a consistent fashion, with a box at the beginning of every chapter outlining the learning objectives and giving a broad overview of the concept of each chapter. , Item Weight Other readers might be initially confused, though, if they are not familiar with such spellings of words. While it lacks a robust weather and climate chapter, that is remedied by supplementing the text with readings from other open sources- either textbooks or government agencies. Another example is that the book ignores the inorganic part of the definition of a mineral. A glossary is provided, along with hyperlinks to the chapter where each term is introduced. Please try again. : For the print PDF version, perhaps those could be removed, although that would seem to be a large undertaking, it is realized. Bookmark it to easily review again before an exam. There are no issues with the text layout aside from what is pushed around by some of the images and tables which leave mostly blank pages. Rather, it gives me an opportunity to supplement the text information with references that are more local to where my students are geographically. The book's Canada flavor is interesting, however as a U.S. educator, I would be supplementing with more U.S. examples. Overall the book was laid out in a logical and manageable fashion for someone who wishes to use the book from cover to cover in the order it is presented. Section 1.6, Ma and [sic] ka is defined differently than in the glossary. Learn more about the program. This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location. For the most part, the chapters are arrange in a very similar order to almost every other geology textbook I have used/reviewed. This information is clearly presented at a level understandable to the reader, and it is timely, considering the content of the chapter. Aside from those particulars, the author does a good job tying together anthropogenic issues back to geology in many of the sections which is particularly important for student's ability to identify with the subject. The framework of this book lends itself easily to modularity. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version. Additional material is offered in the course, along with online video lectures, but still .. an essentially self-contained textbook is in my opinion still necessary. Please note that this review is for the print PDF version of the newer 2nd edition of this book, published in September 2019. they point to a section covered in an earlier chapter that presented foundational information important to the topic being discussed). That's not strictly correct. You bet! There is some inherent overlap of content in this field, but the book handles that as best as you can, and could be divided up (by chapter?) ), which I dont see as an issue. The organization and flow of the textbook are logical. There are subtle points one could argue over. the author put a lot of time and thought into how the themes would be connecting. For example, in Chapter 4, the text does a good job on the inter-relationships of magma viscosity and volatile content and their relationship with the potential explosivity of the magma. There's plenty of material here to fill any normal IPG course, but it's likely that specialists will find that some of their favorite topics are not covered in their go-to chapters. The problems and equations are free of error. This textbook covers all the material required for an introductory course in Physical Geology, to a reasonably detailed extent. Unable to add item to List. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. I did not notice any grammatical errors or typos in the chapters I examined. However, the majority of the examples are rooted in Canada (where the publishers are). I actually believe this text is more comprehensive than most introductory texts as it has stand alone chapters on Earth's interior, Geology of the Oceans, Climate Change, and Origin of the Earth and the Solar System. I don't see terms like submarine or subglacial eruptions mentioned in Chapter 4. The authors present an excellent, progressive history of the development of plate tectonics that students should be able to follow. Also, because the discussion of geologic concepts is not generally linear (for instance its really hard to understand the formation of rocks without understanding minerals and to understand both you need some understanding of plate tectonics), the textbook had a way of quickly discussing topics necessary for understanding before fully delving into the topic in its own particular chapter. Also, one can do a simple search to find all relevant terms within the textbook. While the general flow is similar to other IPG texts, and much IS accurate, one starts to anticipate the next not-quite accurate statement, which is uncomfortable. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. I was very pleased to find a book I could use for my Earth Science course that touches on the same topics I use in my class that is obviously affordable to my students. I do like the introduction to the rock cycle in the first chapter on rock and how it is reference again in subsequent chapters. Realistically, it's an accomplishment to get many students simply to read the assigned chapters; to get them to do/think a little extra is a good bonus. Partly, the presence of fewer subdivisions is based on the choice of topics. Free shipping. In fact, it was very well done and devoid of any technical issues. Each chapter could be assigned individually in a course without too much problem. Not really. All illustrations are created by hand and give a real classroom feel to the book. The divisions into sections and subsections are fine. Physical Geology Today by Brendan E. Murphy and Damian Nance (2015, Trade. The textbook is very clear and there is little jargon. Its like they hyperlinked the terms in the glossary to make-up for the lack of an index. I do this in my class when presenting a new chapter or two within each new module in my LMS course shell. You had to click on them if you really want a good look at the figures. The descriptions of subduction zone magmatism provided in the Igneous Rocks, Volcanism, and Plate Tectonics chapters are consistent with the generally accepted model for the origin of magmas at subduction zones. Thanks. The book is neither more nor less modular than any in print short introductory textbook. Example, the description of how Wegener came upon his theory of continental drift is a bit wordy. As an introduction to Earth Science text, the book is fairly balanced in the use of technical jargon. $17.18. These links will need to be tested periodically to ensure the book is not broken. But, when you remove one chapter from the text to make it into its own small PDF file, it breaks the hyperlinks. R. Damian Nance. Exercises are presented in boxes spread throughout the text alongside the relevant subject matter, in addition to review questions at the end of every chapter. Almost all introductory-level books make simplifications (and oversimplifications) that can be perceived as incorrect by experts in the field, but don't have a negative impact on student learning. Few if any of the books I have used in my classes do that. The book is available in multiple formats, including both a digital PDF and a version of the PDF that is designed for printing. The text would benefit from one more additional proof reading. Minerals are far from "pure substances" (whatever that means), and feldspar, mica, and amphiboles are not minerals, they're families of minerals (some 130 amphiboles). The author is succinct in description and uses clear and concise language when describing scientific content. I tell my students, "In geology, there are often at least five different ways to say the same thing." From the material I have sampled I have not discovered any inaccuracies. There are some areas where the book could delve deeper. The Appendix includes thorough answers to all of the Review Questions and Exercises throughout the book. read more. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club thats right for you for free. A student should have no problem navigating the text. This text is basically the same as any other intro geology text, that happens to freely available online. Authors of Physical Geology: Investigating Earth present the material in a clear, consistent voice, appropriately focusing on the core concepts of physical geology, with an emphasis on plate tectonics and the dynamic nature of Earth. The content provided is accurate and I found no significant errors in content or grammar or spelling. Later material in the text does of course, to a certain extent, build on earlier chapters -- but if one is careful to assign earlier foundational material -- it is easy to reorder the sequence of chapters (topics) presented. It uses an earth systems approach to discuss the planet as a whole, plate tectonics, rocks and rock formation, surface processes, oceans/atmospheres, and resources. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Some of the chapters can be rated as rather short, and thus lacking detail that other IPG texts do have, but this makes the book (conservatively) a few hundred pages shorter than many IPG books, and probably puts it closer to the shortest of the for-profit texts. The chapter topics and chapter order is conventional. I didn't see any major problems with the interface (I am using a .pdf). In some sections, the text could use a little less technical jargon when introducing a topic, and find some more everyday examples to illustrate a concept. Any further information on weather processes may be supplemented from other open sources. Learning objectives are clearly stated at the beginning of each chapter, which closes with a summary of information and a number of review questions. Content is accurate. There are even some additional topics such as weather and soil that don't always make it into a standard Earth Science textbook. Reviewed by Jennifer Hargrave, Geology Instructor, University of Louisiana at Lafayette on 11/10/19, The book covers the usual topics from physical geology books. For instance, in the Minerals chapter, one exercise has the students create paper models of silica tetrahedra and link them together, which may appeal to a kinesthetic learner. Examples of minerals are feldspar, quartz, mica, halite, Links in the table of contents jumped quickly to the correct location in the book. In an online asynchronous class students are supposed to face most of the work by themselves (albeit of course the instructor is always available to help), hence the support textbook has to be as exhaustive as possible. Each chapter can be read independently. To some, this is rather nice, rather than the staccato style subdivisions of some IPG books. There is clearly the typical difference in spelling between British English vs. American English. Overall I was very pleased with this textbook for my introductory level geology courses. Reviewed by Noah Fay, Instructor, Pima Community College on 2/8/17, This text is comprehensive - it thoroughly covers all the topics of a typical introductory geology class, and the index and glossary are useful.
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