Visualizing Earth Science (Visualizing Series)

Visualizing EarthScience relies heavily on rich visuals to expand on concepts for students and solidify their understanding of them. This accessible format, coupled with the assumption that students have little knowledge of earth science, allows students to navigate through the material with greater ease the goal being to help them understand the world around them and interpret what they see in a meaningful, accurate and exciting way. Authors Zeeya Merali and Brian Skinner focus on visual learning in their debut of their first edition, Visualizing Earth Science . This text weaves illustrated timelines throughout to exemplify how concepts fit together and develop over time. Students will quickly learn difficult concepts with this innovative, visual approach. Looking for a more cost-effective way to purchase this text? Check out to learn more! Cover Page Half Title Page Title Page Credits Copyright Page Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Contents in Brief Contents 1: Introduction to Earth Science What Is Earth Science? Using the Scientific Method Earth System Science What an Earth Scientist Sees: Island or Open System? Earth in Space The Solar System The Terrestrial Planets What Makes Earth Unique? Humans and Earth Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources Why Study Earth Science? Amazing Places: Earth 2: Minerals: Earth’s Building Blocks Minerals, Elements, and Compounds Elements, Atoms, and Ions Compounds, Molecules, and Bonding What is a Mineral? Composition of Minerals Telling Minerals Apart Case Study: Minerals for Adornment Mineral Families Minerals of Earth’s Crust Silicates: The Most Important Rock Formers Mineral Resources What an Earth Scientist Sees: How Many Minerals and Metals Does It Take to Make a Light Bulb? Amazing Places: The Naica Mine, Chihuahua, Mexico 3: Rocks: Keepers of Earth’s History Rocks: A First Look The Three Rock Families The Rock Cycle Igneous Rocks Rate of Cooling What an Earth Scientist Sees: Putting Rocks Under a Microscope Chemical Composition Sedimentary Rocks Clastic Sediments and Clastic Sedimentary Rocks Lithification of Clastic Sediment Chemical Sediments and Chemical Sedimentary Rock What an Earth Scientist Sees: A Change in the Atmosphere Biogenic Sediments and Biogenic Sedimentary Rock Rock Beds Interpreting Environmental Clues Sedimentary Facies Case Study: Sedimentary Facies and the History of Humankind Metamorphic Rocks The Limits of Metamorphism The Importance of Stress Rocks as Resources Rocks as Construction Materials Mineral Resources in Igneous Rocks Mineral Resources in Chemical and Biogenic Sedimentary Rocks Gold in Metamorphic Rocks Amazing Places: The Navajo Sandstone 4: Weathering, Soils, and Mass Wasting Weathering: The Earth System at Work Weathering: How Rocks Disintegrate Mechanical Weathering: Breaking Rocks Apart What an Earth Scientist Sees: Joint Formation Chemical Weathering: Breaking Rocks by Chemistry Factors Affecting Weathering Soil: The Most Important Product of Weathering Soil Soil Profiles Factors that Influence Soil Formation Case Study: Bad and Good Soil Management Erosion and Mass Wasting: Gravity at Work Erosion by Water Erosion by Wind Erosion by Ice Gravity and Mass Wasting Tectonics and Mass Wasting Resources Formed by Weathering and Erosion Amazing Places: Monadnock—and Monadnocks 5: Water On and Under the Ground The Hydrologic Cycle Water in the Earth System How Water Affects Land Streams and Streamflow Stream Deposits Large-Scale Topography of Stream Systems What an Earth Scientist Sees: Drainage Basins Lakes Surface Water as a Hazard and a Resource Floods Surface Water Resources Case Study: Mono Lake Fresh Water Underground The Water Table How Groundwater Moves Where Groundwater Is Stored Groundwater Depletion and Contamination When Groundwater Dissolves Rocks Amazing Places: Lechuguilla Cave 6: Extreme Climatic Regions: Deserts, Glaciers, and Ice Sheets Deserts and Drylands Types of Deserts Wind Erosion Wind Deposits and Desert Landforms Stream Erosion and Deposition in Deserts Desertification Glaciers and Ice Sheets Components of the Cryosphere Ever-Changing Glaciers What an Earth Scientist Sees: Periglacial Landforms Amazing Places: Death Valley 7: Plate Tectonics: Sculptor of Earth’s Ever-Changing Landscape A Revolution in Earth Science Wegener’s Hypothesis of Continental Drift The Puzzle-Piece Argument Matching the Rocks and Fossils Magnetic Poles that Seem to Wander The Plate Tectonic Model Plate Tectonics in a Nutshell Types of Plate Margins What an Earth Scientist Sees: The Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden Earthquakes and Plate Margins The Search for a Mechanism Earth’s Internal Heat Convection as a Driving Force Mantle Plumes The Tectonic Cycle The Supercontinent Cycle Amazing Places: The Hawaiian Islands 8: Earthquakes and Earth’s Interior Earthquakes and Earthquake Hazards Earthquakes and Plate Motion Earthquake Hazards and Prediction Case Study: The Sumatra-Andaman Tsunami of 2004 Designing for Earthquake Safety The Science of Seismology Seismographs Seismic Waves Locating Earthquakes Measuring Earthquakes What an Earth Scientist Sees: Richter Magnitude: A Logarithmics Cale Looking into Earth’s Interior How Earth Scientists Look into Earth’s Interior—Seismic Methods How Earth Scientists Look into Earth’s Interior—Other Methods What an Earth Scientist Sees: Diamonds: Messengers from the Deep How and Why Rock Breaks Stress and Strain Kinds of Deformation Kinds of Faults Amazing Places: Loch Ness 9: Volcanism and Other Igneous Processes Volcanoes and Volcanic Hazards Eruptions, Landforms, and Materials What an Earth Scientist Sees: Crater Lake Hazards and Prediction Case Study: Lakes of Death in Cameroon Why and How Rocks Melt Heat and Pressure Inside Earth Fractional Melting Magma and Lava Cooling and Crystallization of Magma Fractional Crystallization Bowen’s Reaction Series Plutons and Plutonism Batholiths and Stocks Dikes and Sills Amazing Places: Mt. St. Helens 10: How Old Is Old? The Rock Record and Deep Time Relative Age Stratigraphy What an Earth Scientist Sees: The Principle of Stratigraphic Superposition Gaps in the Record Fossils and Correlation The Geologic Column Eons and Eras Periods and Epochs Numerical Age Early Attempts Radioactivity and Numerical Ages Magnetic Polarity Dating Case Study: Dating Human Ancestors The Age of Earth Amazing Places: The Grand Canyon 11: A Brief History of Life on Earth The Ever-Changing Earth Changes in the Atmosphere and Hydrosphere Early Life Life in Three Not-So-Easy Steps Archean and Proterozoic Life Evolution and the Fossil Record Evolution and Natural Selection How Fossils Form Life in the Phanerozoic Eon The Paleozoic Era What an Earth Scientist Sees: A Sample of Cambrian Life From Sea to Land The Mesozoic Era The Cenozoic Era Mass Extinctions Amazing Places: The Burgess Shale 12: The Oceans The Ocean Basins Ocean Geography Depth and Volume of the Oceans What an Earth Scientist Sees: Undersea Topography The Composition of Seawater and the Movement of Sediment Turbidity Currents Biotic Zones and Deep-Sea Sediments Ocean Water and Its Circulation Ocean Currents The Ocean Conveyor Belt How Oceans Regulate Climate Amazing Places: Monterey Bay, California 13: Where Ocean Meets Land Changes in Sea Level Global Changes in Volume Tides Waves What an Earth Scientist Sees: Breaking Waves Wave Action Along Coastlines Erosion and Transport of Sediment by Waves Tidal Currents Shorelines and Coastal Landforms Rocky Coasts Beaches and Barrier Islands Delta Coasts Coral Reefs Humans versus the Sea Coastal Hazards Protection Against Shoreline Erosion Effects of Human Interference Case Study: The Black Sea Coast Amazing Places: The Florida Keys Reef 14: The Atmosphere: Composition, Structure, and Clouds Earth’s Atmosphere The Thermal Structure of the Atmosphere What an Earth Scientist Sees: The Bora Bora Sunset Moisture in the Atmosphere Changes of State Humidity The Global Energy System Solar Energy Losses in the Atmosphere Albedo Counterradiation and the Greenhouse Effect Formation of Clouds The Adiabatic Principle Clouds Precipitation Orographic Precipitation Convectional Precipitation Thunderstorms and Unstable Air Anatomy of a Thunderstorm Amazing Places: Hole Punch Clouds in Mobile, Alabama 15: Global Circulation and Weather Systems Atmospheric Pressure Air Pressure and Altitude Why Air Moves Pressure Gradients Local Winds Cyclones and Anticyclones Cyclones and Anticyclones Global Wind Patterns Wind Systems Winds Aloft The Geostrophic Wind Global Circulation at Upper Levels Rossby Waves, Jet Streams, and the Polar Front What An Earth Scientist Sees: Jet Stream Clouds Weather Systems Thunderstorms Wave Cyclones Tornadoes Tropical Cyclones Amazing Places: New Orleans Before and After Katrina 16: Global Climates Past and Present Global Climate Change in the Past What We Know How We Know It: The Temperature Record What an Earth Scientist Sees: The Gubbio Sediments Causes of Climate Change Rapid Climate Change: The Younger Dryas Event Global Climates Today Low-Latitude Climates Midlatitude Climates High-Latitude Climates Present-Day Climate Change What We Know What We Think Amazing Places: Barrow, Alaska 17: Earth’s Place in Space Astronomy and the Scientific Revolution Ideas from Antiquity Copernicus’s Challenge Kepler and the New Astronomy Galileo and Newton The Solar System What an Earth Scientist Sees: The Crab Nebula The Sun The Planets What an Earth Scientist Sees: Saturn’s Rings Other Solar Systems Stars and Stellar Evolution The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram Stellar Evolution: Birth to Death The Universe and How It Came to Be Edwin Hubble and the Discovery of Galaxies The Big Bang CASE STUDY: THE AFTERGLOW OF THE BIG BANG The Universe Today Amazing Places: Mars Appendix A: Periodic Table of the Elements Appendix B: Units and Their Conversions Appendix C: Answers to Self-Tests Glossary Photo Credits Text, Table, and Line Art Credits Index "Visualizing Earth Science relies heavily on the integrating of National Geographic and other rich visuals to expand on concepts for students and solidify their understanding of them. This accessible format, coupled with the assumption that students have little knowledge of earth science, allows students to navigate through the material with greater ease--the goal being to help them understand the world around them and interpret what they see in a meaningful, accurate and exciting way." --Publisher's description Visualizing Earth Science relies heavily on the rich visuals to expand on concepts for students and solidify their understanding of them.This accessible format, coupled with the assumption that students have little knowledge of earth science, allows students to navigatethrough the material with greater ease – the goal being to help them understand the world around them and interpret what they see ina meaningful, accurate and exciting way.