Geology of the Earth

Geology of the Earth:From the Birth of Earth to Continents in MotionCourse-ResearchVita HarwoodSeries 'In Twelve Evenings' BOOK 27What Do I Already Know About This?Test your knowledge!How can anyone know the age of Earth when no one witnessed its birth? Why do continents move? How can geologists tell that an ocean once existed where mountains stand today? Why do some volcanoes erupt quietly while others explode? And what can science really tell us about the future of our planet?Geology of the Earth: From the Birth of Earth to Continents in Motion introduces geology as an investigation rather than a catalogue of rocks and minerals.Across twelve evenings, readers follow the evidence from an ordinary stone to Earth’s hidden interior, from the planet’s formation to plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, erosion, ancient oceans, and changing continents. Along the way, they discover how geologists date rocks, reconstruct events that happened billions of years ago, explain why mineral resources occur where they do, compare Earth with the Moon and Mars, and explore what we can, and cannot, predict about Earth’s geological future.Each lesson begins with a question worth solving. The course includes stories of scientists and discoveries, surprising but verified facts, key geological terms, simple observations and activities, and a ten-question test. Full answers with explanations are collected at the end of the book, making the course easy to follow independently.Written for curious readers, this is an accessible introduction for anyone who wants to understand geology without being talked down to and without turning the subject into a school textbook.If you have ever looked at a mountain, a cliff, or a stone and wondered what happened here millions of years ago, this book will show you how geologists begin to answer that question.