There are no published textbooks on laboratory techniques in the geosciences at the undergraduate level. This project is creating learning modules on scientific analysis and analytical methods that will be delivered in a blended learning format.

Open access textbook about paleontology for advanced high school and introductory level college students.https://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/learn/

This textbook is written for an audience of introductory college students in a non-science degree program. It is intended to provide a detailed comprehensive knowledge of Planet Earth, including basic aspects of physics, chemistry, geology and biology. As a major scientific overview of the entirety of Planet Earth, the intention is to only present key concepts that will enhance, enrich, and engage the readers interest in Earth Sciences. It is intended to make any reader, such as yourself, at least a little more knowledgeable of the amazing place that we all live within. Hosted as a WikiBook.

This space collects OER materials on volcanoes and earthquakes and their associated hazards with a focus on the Pacific Northwest.

This book is divided into two parts. Part 1: Reconciliation offers pedagogical strategies to support Reconciliation in the early childhood classroom and provides links to resources that will offer specific information on Reconciliation in Australia. Part 2: Intercultural Education suggests pedagogical strategies to support intercultural and multicultural education in the early childhood classroom and includes links to resources that also offer information on the topics. Each chapter highlights the importance of respecting, valuing and celebrating cultural diversity for the Culturally Competent Educator.

When you ask the question “What is geology?” most people will initially respond that it is the study of rocks. This is true, but geology is also so much more than that. The truth is that geology is an intricate part of your everyday life.

The online geology lab for community college students was developed during two years of forced online synchronous learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. This open educational resource is a cohesive laboratory manual intended for two-year, non-major college students from the New York area. Each lab is accompanied by a Teacher’s Guide and an online answer sheet (formatted for the Blackboard learning management system). A multiple-choice format is used for many questions, making the labs easy to grade.

Geology can roughly be divided into physical geology, which studies the materials of the Earth and the processes operating in it, and historical geology, which aims at a reconstruction of the history of the Earth. Historical geology requires some knowledge of physical geology for its elucidation. (Imagine, by way of analogy, forensic scientists diagnosing cause of death as a gunshot wound, which is a historical question. It would obviously be necessary for them to know something about the behavior of guns, which would be a physical question.) However, the aim of historical geology is to understand the past, and knowledge of physical geology is merely an adjunct to this aim.

Introduction to Earth Science is a 530+ page open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses.

This text includes various important features designed to enhance the student learning experience in introductory Earth Science courses. These include a multitude of high-quality figures and images within each chapter that help to clarify key concepts and are optimized for viewing online. Self-test assessment questions are embedded in each online chapter that help students focus their learning. QR codes are provided for each assessment to allow students using print or PDF versions to easily access the quiz from an internet-capable device of their choice.

Adapted from openly-licensed works in geoscience, the sequence of the book differs from mainstream commercial texts in that it has been arranged to present elementary or foundational knowledge regarding rocks and minerals prior to discussion of more complex topics in Earth Science. Unlike prominent commercial texts for Earth Science, this book dedicates an individual chapter to each of the three major rock types, the processes of mass wasting, geological time, Earth history, and the origin of the universe and our solar system. Book content has been further customized to match the Pathways General Education Curriculum at Virginia Tech with a focus on Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for Pathways Concept 4, Reasoning in the Natural Sciences.

Are you a professor reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Instructors adopting or reviewing this text are encouraged to record their use on this form: https://bit.ly/interest_intro_earth_science. This helps the book's sponsors to understand this open textbook's impact.

How to Access the Book
This text is available in multiple formats including PDF, a low-resolution PDF which is faster to download, and ePub [coming mid 2023]. These are available at: https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. The book is also available in HTML/Pressbooks at https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/introearthscience. Softcover print versions with color interior are available at the manufacturer’s lowest price at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1957213361. The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience.

PDF: ISBN 978-1-957213-34-7
HTML/Pressbooks: ISBN 978-1-957213-33-0
https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/introearthscience
Print: ISBN 978-1-957213-36-1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1957213361
ePub: ISBN 978-1-957213-35-4 [expected mid 2023]

Table of Contents
1. Understanding Science
2. Plate Tectonics
3. Minerals
4. Igneous Processes and Volcanoes
5. Weathering, Erosion, and Sedimentary Rocks
6. Metamorphic Rocks
7. Geologic Time
8. Earth History
9. Crustal Deformation and Earthquakes
10. Mass Wasting
11. Water
12. Coastlines
13. Deserts
14. Glaciers
15. Global Climate Change
16. Energy and Mineral Resources
17. Origin of the Universe and Our Solar System

Find, Adapt, and Share Resources
If you wish to share resources you build from this book or find those shared by other adopters of this book, please join the Instructor Resource Portal in OER Commons at https://www.oercommons.org/groups/introduction-to-earth-science-instructor-group/12785

Attribution
This work includes content from multiple sources reproduced under the terms of Creative Commons licenses, Public Domain, and Fair Use. Specifically: Chapters 1-16 are adapted from An Introduction to Geology https://slcc.pressbooks.pub/introgeology (CC BY NC SA) by Chris Johnson, Matthew D. Affolter, Paul Inkenbrandt, and Cam Mosher. Chapter 17 is adapted from Section 22.1 of Chapter 22 “The Origin of Earth and the Solar System” by Karla Panchuk in Physical Geology, 2nd edition (CC BY) by Steven Earle https://opentextbc.ca/physicalgeology2ed/part/chapter-22-the-origin-of-earth-and-the-solar-system, with Sections 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4 of Chapter 7 “Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System” https://openstax.org/books/astronomy-2e/pages/7-1-overview-of-our-planetary-system from OpenStax Astronomy, 2nd edition https://openstax.org/details/books/astronomy-2e (CC BY). And, figures are from a variety of sources; references at the end of each chapter describe the terms of reuse for each figure. Version notes located at the end of the book describe author changes made to these materials by chapter.

About the Author
Laura Neser, Ph.D. is an Instructor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. Dr. Neser earned her B.S. in Geosciences at Virginia Tech in the spring of 2008 and completed her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 2014. Her doctoral research focused on the structural geology, sedimentology, and stratigraphy of formations that were deposited along the flanks of the Beartooth Mountains as they rose during late Paleocene-Eocene time. Dr. Neser has worked as an athletic tutor and online instructor at The University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), in temporary positions as an Adjunct Instructor at Chowan University (Murfreesboro, NC) and Full-Time Lecturer at Indiana State University (Terre Haute, IN), and as a Professor at Seminole State College (Sanford, FL) before starting as an Instructor at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2021.

Although she is currently focused on teaching online sections of Introduction to Earth Science, Earth Resources, Society and the Environment, and Climate History, her teaching background is significantly broader and includes Environmental ‬Science, Astronomy, Environmental ‬Ethics, Earth History, Structural Geology, and Field Geology‬.

Suggested Citation
Neser, Laura (2023). Introduction to Earth Science. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences. https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0.

Report Errors: https://bit.ly/report_error_intro_earth_science
View Errata: https://bit.ly/errata_intro_earth_science

Funding and Project Support
This publication was made possible in part through funding and publishing support provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech.

Accessibility Statement
Virginia Tech Publishing is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Pressbooks (HTML) and ePub versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability.

Disclaimer
This work may contain components (e.g., illustrations, or quotations) not covered by the license. Every effort has been made to clearly identify these components but ultimately it is your responsibility to independently evaluate the copyright status of any work or component part of a work you use, in light of your intended use. Please check the references at the end of each chapter before redistributing.

This text is provided to you as an Open Educational Resource which you access online. It is designed to give you a comprehensive introduction to Geology at no or very nominal cost. It contains both written and graphic text material, intra-text links to other internal material which may aid in understanding topics and concepts, intra-text links to the appendices and glossary for tables and definitions of words, and extra-text links to videos and web material that clarifies and augments topics and concepts. Like any new or scientific subject, Geology has its own vocabulary for geological concepts. For you to converse effectively with this text and colleagues in this earth science course, you will use the language of geology, so comprehending these terms is important. Use the intra-text links to the Glossary and other related material freely to gain familiarity with this language.

This textbook is a comprehensive lab manual for the core curriculum Introductory Geosciences classes with both informational content and laboratory exercises. Topics include basic laws and theories in Geology, the Earth's interior and plate tectonics, water and climate change, igneous rocks and volcanoes, and earthquakes.

Free Open Educational Resources for the Geosciences. The landing page provides links to three textbooks designed for use with introductory courses in Physical Geology, Historical Geology, and Mineralogy. Content contained within each of these books can be utilized across many related courses. The text is written as much as possible at a high school level. Interactive content and quizzes are sprinkled throughout for a better student experience.

This textbook was designed especially for Community College students, as a resource to instill the knowledge and adventure that the discipline of geography holds for so many of us. The following units will cover a wide array of topics such as: Earth’s grid system, rivers, oceans, deserts, basic geology, and cartography.

The text has 19 units;
Unit 1: Introduction to Geography as a Discipline
Unit 2: Earth’s Place within the Cosmos
Unit 3: Introduction to Geology & Geologic Time
Unit 4: Mapping Earth’s Surface
Unit 5: Earth-Sun Relationships: Reasons for the Seasons
Unit 6: Earth’s Atmosphere
Unit 7: Elements of Weather & Climate
Unit 8: Basic Mineral Development
Unit 9: Igneous Rocks
Unit 10: Sedimentary Rocks
Unit 11: Metamorphism & Metamorphic Rocks
Unit 12: Weathering & Soils
Unit 13: Earths Dynamic Surface: Plate Tectonics
Unit 14: Earths Dynamic Surface: Tectonics Force
Unit 15: Earths Dynamic Surface: Volcanoes
Unit 16: Shaped by Coastal Processes
Unit 17: Shaped by Rivers & Running Water
Unit 18: Shaped by Wind as a Geomorphic Agent
Unit 19: Shaped by Glaciers

Physical Geology is a comprehensive introductory text on the physical aspects of geology, including rocks and minerals, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciation, groundwater, streams, coasts, mass wasting, climate change, planetary geology and much more. It has a strong emphasis on examples from western Canada, especially British Columbia, and also includes a chapter devoted to the geological history of western Canada. The book is a collaboration of faculty from Earth Science departments at Universities and Colleges across British Columbia and elsewhere.

Physical Geology - H5P Edition is an interactive comprehensive introductory text on the physical aspects of geology, including rocks and minerals, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, mass wasting, climate change, planetary geology, and more. It has a strong emphasis on examples from western Canada. It is adapted from Physical Geology, First University of Saskatchewan Edition.

Physical Geology - H5P Edition is an interactive comprehensive introductory text on the physical aspects of geology, including rocks and minerals, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, mass wasting, climate change, planetary geology, and more. It has a strong emphasis on examples from western Canada. It is adapted from Physical Geology, First University of Saskatchewan Edition.

A Practical Guide to Introductory Geology is a comprehensive laboratory manual covering the physical aspects of geology, including rocks and minerals, plate tectonics, streams, structural geology, and much more. This manual provides ample background information to assist students learning remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The text has a strong emphasis on examples from western Canada, especially Alberta and British Columbia, and includes a diverse set of exercises intended to accompany the GEOL 1101 curriculum at Mount Royal University. This laboratory manual is an adaptation of Physical Geology - 2nd Edition by Steven Earle.

The principles of rock mechancis explains the fundamental concepts of continuum mechanics and rheology as applied in studies of rock deformation. A thorough understanding of rock behavior is essential for strategic planning in the petroleum and mining industry, in construction operation, and in locating subsurface repositories. The formation of geological structures or rock deformation patterns, studied by geodynamicists and tectonicians, is, also governed by the mechanical principles outlined in this textbook. The aim of the present book is obvious: to inspire a new generation of positively forward-thinking geoscientists and engineers, skillful in and favorable to the practical application of mechanics to rock structures.

This is an open-access lab manual for a historical geology lab focused on student observations. We have uploaded this book to Lulu Press so that you may have them print a copy for you. The cost is $19.67 plus shipping. We believe in free access to educational materials, therefore we collect no revenue from Lulu. The price you pay is simply the cost Lulu charges to print the materials for you. You can also download a printable PDF version to print on your own.

The discipline of structural geology studies the architecture of the solid Earth and other planets. Rock deformation patterns are exciting features beacause of their aesthetic beauty and their economic interest to man. Knowledge of the subsurface structure is vital for the success of a variety of engineering and mineral exploration pograms. A thorough understanding of rock structures is essential for strategic planning in the petroleum and mining industry, in construction operations, in waste disposal surveys and for water exploration. Deformation structures in the country rock are important further for locallizing hazard zones, such as potential rockslide masses, ground subsidence, and seismic faults. Research activities concentrate on rock defomation structures in he shallow continental crust.