Exploring geology

Cover
Exploring Geology
Digital Resources
Brief Contents
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
CHAPTER 1:The Nature of Geology
	1.1 How Does Geology Influence Where and How We Live?
	1.2 How Does Geology Help Explain Our World?
	1.3 What Is Inside Earth?
	1.4 What Processes Affect Our Planet?
	1.5 How Do Rocks Form?
	1.6 What Can Happen to a Rock?
	1.7 How Do the Atmosphere, Water, and Life Interact with Earth's Surface?
	1.8 What Is Earth's Place in the Solar System?
	1.9 CONNECTIONS: How Is Geology Expressed in the Black Hills and in Rapid City?
	1.10 INVESTIGATION: How Is Geology Affecting This Place?
CHAPTER 2:Investigating Geologic Questions
	2.1 What Can We Observe in Landscapes?
	2.2 How Do We Interpret Geologic Clues?
	2.3 How Do We Depict EarthÕs Surface?
	2.4 How Do We Depict Earth's Heights, Slopes, and Subsurface Geology?
	2.5 How Are Geologic Problems Quantified?
	2.6 How Do Geologists Refer to Rates and Time?
	2.7 How Do We Investigate Geologic Questions?
	2.8 How Do Scientific Ideas Get Established?
	2.9 What Does a Geologist Do?
	2.10 CONNECTIONS: How Did This Crater Form?
	2.11 INVESTIGATION: What Is the Geologic History of Upheaval Dome?
CHAPTER 3:Plate Tectonics
	3.1 What Are the Major Features of Earth?
	3.2 Why Do Some Continents Have Matching Shapes?
	3.3 Where Do Earthquakes and Volcanoes Occur?
	3.4 What Causes Tectonic Activity to Occur in Belts?
	3.5 What Happens at Divergent Boundaries?
	3.6 What Happens at Convergent Boundaries?
	3.7 What Happens Along Transform Boundaries?
	3.8 How Do Plates Move and Interact?
	3.9 How Is Paleomagnetism Used to Determine Rates of Seafloor Spreading?
	3.10 What Geologic Features Does Plate Tectonics Help Explain?
	3.11 CONNECTIONS: Why Is South America Lopsided?
	3.12 INVESTIGATION: Where Is the Safest Place to Live?
CHAPTER 4: Earth Materials
	4.1 What Is the Difference Between a Rock and a Mineral?
	4.2 How Are Minerals Put Together in Rocks?
	4.3 How Do We Distinguish One Mineral from Another?
	4.4 What Controls a Crystal's Shape?
	4.5 What Causes Cleavage in Minerals?
	4.6 How Are Minerals Classified?
	4.7 What Is the Crystalline Structure of Silicate Minerals?
	4.8 What Are Some Common Silicate Minerals?
	4.9 What Are Some Common Nonsilicate Minerals?
	4.10 Where Are Different Minerals Abundant?
	4.11 What Are the Building Blocks of Minerals?
	4.12 How Do Atoms Bond Together?
	4.13 How Do Chemical Reactions Help Minerals Grow or Dissolve?
	4.14 CONNECTIONS: How Are Minerals Used in Society?
	4.15 INVESTIGATION: What Minerals Would You Use to Build a House?
CHAPTER 5: Igneous Environments
	5.1 What Textures Do Igneous Rocks Display?
	5.2 How Are Igneous Rocks Classified?
	5.3 What Are Some Other Igneous Rocks?
	5.4 How Do Temperature and Pressure Vary Inside Earth?
	5.5 How Do Rocks Melt?
	5.6 How Do Igneous Rocks Form?
	5.7 How Does Magma Move?
	5.8 How Does Magma Solidify?
	5.9 How Does Magma Form Along Divergent Plate Boundaries?
	5.10 How Does Magma Form Along Convergent Plate Boundaries?
	5.11 How Is Magma Generated at Hot Spots and Other Sites Away from Plate Boundaries?
	5.12 How Do Large Magma Chambers Form and How Are They Expressed in Landscapes?
	5.13 How Are Small Intrusions Formed and Expressed in Landscapes?
	5.14 CONNECTIONS: How Did the Sierra Nevada Form?
	5.15 INVESTIGATION: What Types of Igneous Processes Are Occurring Here?
CHAPTER 6: Volcanoes and Volcanic Hazards
	6.1 What Is and Is Not a Volcano?
	6.2 What Controls the Style of Eruption?
	6.3 What Features Characterize Basaltic Volcanoes?
	6.4 How Do Shield Volcanoes Form?
	6.5 What Causes Flood Basalts?
	6.6 What Are the Hazards of Basaltic Eruptions?
	6.7 What Are Composite Volcanoes?
	6.8 What Disasters Were Caused by Composite Volcanoes?
	6.9 How Do Volcanic Domes Form?
	6.10 Why Does a Caldera Form?
	6.11 What Disasters Were Related to Calderas?
	6.12 What Areas Have the Highest Potential for Volcanic Hazards?
	6.13 How Do We Monitor Volcanoes?
	6.14 CONNECTIONS: What Volcanic Hazards Are Posed by Mount Rainier?
	6.15 INVESTIGATION: How Would You Assess Hazards on This Volcano?
CHAPTER 7: Sedimentary Environments AND ROCKS
	7.1 What Sedimentary Environments Occur on Land?
	7.2 What Sedimentary Environments Are Near Shorelines and in Oceans?
	7.3 Where Do Clasts Come From?
	7.4 What Are the Characteristics of Clastic Sediments?
	7.5 What Types of Rocks Do Clastic Sediments Form?
	7.6 What Are Nonclastic Sedimentary Rocks and How Do They Form?
	7.7 Why Do Sedimentary Rocks Have Layers?
	7.8 Where Do Breccia and Conglomerate Form?
	7.9 Where Does Sandstone Form?
	7.10 How Do Fine-Grained Clastic Rocks Form?
	7.11 How Do Carbonate Rocks Form?
	7.12 How Do Changing Environments Create a Sequence of Different Kinds of Sediments?
	7.13 How Do We Study Sedimentary Sequences?
	7.14 Why Are Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks Important to Our Society?
	7.15 CONNECTIONS: How Did Sedimentary Layers West of Denver Form?
	7.16 INVESTIGATION: What Is the Sedimentary History of This Plateau?
CHAPTER 8: Deformation and Metamorphism
	8.1 How Do Rocks Respond to Stress?
	8.2 How Do Rocks Respond to Changes in Stress, Temperature, and Fluids?
	8.3 How Do Rocks Fracture?
	8.4 What Are Different Types of Faults?
	8.5 What Are Folds and How Are They Shaped?
	8.6 What Are Some Metamorphic Features?
	8.7 What Are Some Common Metamorphic Rocks?
	8.8 How Does Metamorphism Occur?
	8.9 Where Does Metamorphism Occur?
	8.10 What Processes Occur in Extensional and Strike-Slip Settings?
	8.11 How Are Different Structures and Metamorphic Features Related?
	8.12 How Are Geologic Structures and Metamorphic Rocks Expressed in the Landscape?
	8.13 How Do We Study Geologic Structures and Metamorphic Features?
	8.14 CONNECTIONS: What Is the Structural and Metamorphic History of New England?
	8.15 INVESTIGATION: What Structural and Metamorphic Events Occurred Here?
CHAPTER 9: Geologic Time
	9.1 How Do We Infer the Relative Ages of Events?
	9.2 How Do We Study Ages of Landscapes?
	9.3 What Is the Significance of an Unconformity?
	9.4 How Are Ages Assigned to Rocks and Events?
	9.5 What Are Fossils?
	9.6 How and Why Did Living Things Change Through Geologic Time?
	9.7 How Are Fossils Used to Infer Ages of Rocks?
	9.8 How Was the Geologic Timescale Developed?
	9.9 What Is the Evidence for the Age of Earth?
	9.10 What Events Occurred Early in EarthÕs Historyand How Did Earth Change Over Time?
	9.11 What Were Some Milestones in the Early History of Life on Earth?
	9.12 What Were Some Milestones in the Later History of Life on Earth?
	9.13 How Do We Reconstruct Geologic Histories?
	9.14 Why Do We Investigate Geologic History?
	9.15 CONNECTIONS: What Is the History of the Grand Canyon?
	9.16 INVESTIGATION: What Is the Geologic History of This Place?
CHAPTER 10:The Seafloor and Continental Margins
	10.1 How Do We Explore the Seafloor?
	10.2 What Processes Occur at Mid-Ocean Ridges?
	10.3 What Are Major Features of the Deep Ocean?
	10.4 How Do Oceanic Islands, Seamounts, and Oceanic Plateaus Form?
	10.5 What Processes Form Island Arcs?
	10.6 How Did Smaller Seas of the Pacific Form?
	10.7 How Did Smaller Seas Near Eurasia Form?
	10.8 How Do Reefs and Coral Atolls Form?
	10.9 What Is the Geology of Continental Margins?
	10.10 How Do Marine Evaporite Deposits Form?
	10.11 How Did Earth's Modern Oceans Evolve?
	10.12 CONNECTIONS: How Did the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Region Form?
	10.13 INVESTIGATION: How Did These Ocean Features and Continental Margins Form?
CHAPTER 11: Mountains, Basins, and Continents
	11.1 Why Are Some Regions High in Elevation?
	11.2 Where Do Mountain Belts and High Regions Form?
	11.3 How Do Local Mountains Form?
	11.4 Where Do Basins Form?
	11.5 How Do Mountains and Basins Form at Convergent Continental Margins?
	11.6 How Does Continental Extension Occur?
	11.7 What Are the Characteristics and History of Continental Hot Spots?
	11.8 What Features Characterize the Interiors of Continents?
	11.9 What Are Tectonic Terranes?
	11.10 How Do Continents Form?
	11.11 How Did the Continents Join and Split Apart?
	11.12 Connections 1: How Did the Appalachian and Ouachita Mountains Form?
	11.13 Connections 2: What Is the Geologic History of the Western United States?
	11.14 INVESTIGATION: Where Will Mountains and Basins Form in This Region?
CHAPTER 12: Earthquakes and Earth's Interior
	12.1 What Is an Earthquake?
	12.2 How Does Faulting Cause Earthquakes?
	12.3 Where Do Most Earthquakes Occur?
	12.4 What Causes Earthquakes Along Plate Boundaries and Within Plates?
	12.5 How Do Earthquake Waves Travel?
	12.6 How Do We Determine the Location and Size of an Earthquake?
	12.7 How Do Earthquakes Cause Damage?
	12.8 What Were Some Major North American Earthquakes?
	12.9 What Were Some Recent Large Earthquakes?
	12.10 How Does a Tsunami Form and Cause Destruction?
	12.11 How Do We Study Earthquakes in the Field?
	12.12 Can Earthquakes Be Predicted?
	12.13 What Is the Potential for Earthquakes Along the San Andreas Fault?
	12.14 How Do We Explore Earth's Subsurface?
	12.15 What Do Seismic Waves Indicate About Earth's Interior?
	12.16 How Do We Investigate Deep Processes?
	12.17 CONNECTIONS: What Happened During the Great Alaskan Earthquake of1964?
	12.18 INVESTIGATION: Where Did This Earthquake Occur, and What Damage Might Be Expected?
CHAPTER 13: Climate, Weather, and Their Influences on Geology
	13.1 What Causes Winds?
	13.2 What Causes Some Local and Regional Winds?
	13.3 Why Does It Rain, Snow, and Hail?
	13.4 How Does Rising Air Cause Precipitation?
	13.5 How Do Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Other Storms Develop?
	13.6 What Is the Global Pattern of Surface Currents?
	13.7 How Do Ocean Currents Influence Climate?
	13.8 What Causes Short-Term Climatic Variations?
	13.9 What Controls the Location of Rain Forests?
	13.10 What Are Deserts and How Do They Form?
	13.11 How Does Wind Transport Material?
	13.12 What Features Are Common in Deserts?
	13.13 What Is the Evidence for Climate Change?
	13.14 What Factors Influence Climate Change?
	13.15 What Are the Consequences of Climate Change?
	13.16 What Is the Relationship Among Climate, Tectonics, and Landscape Evolution?
	13.17 CONNECTIONS: What Happened During Hurricane Sandy?
	13.18 INVESTIGATION: What Kinds of Climate and Weather Would Occur in This Place?
CHAPTER 14: Glaciers, Coasts, and Changing Sea Levels
	14.1 What Are Glaciers?
	14.2 How Do Glaciers Form, Move, and Vanish?
	14.3 How Do Glaciers Erode, Transport, and Deposit?
	14.4 What Are the Landforms of Alpine Glaciation?
	14.5 What Are the Landforms of Continental Glaciation?
	14.6 What Features Are Peripheral to Glaciers?
	14.7 What Is the Evidence for Past Glaciations?
	14.8 What Happened During Past Ice Ages?
	14.9 What Starts and Stops Glaciations?
	14.10 What Processes Occur Along Coasts?
	14.11 What Causes High Tides and Low Tides?
	14.12 How Do Waves Form and Propagate?
	14.13 How Is Material Eroded, Transported, and Deposited Along Coasts?
	14.14 What Landforms Occur Along Coasts?
	14.15 What Are Some Challenges of Living Along Coasts?
	14.16 How Do We Assess the Relative Risks of Different Stretches of Coastline?
	14.17 What Happens When Sea Level Changes?
	14.18 What Causes Changes in Sea Level?
	14.19 CONNECTIONS: What Would Happen to Sea Level if the Ice in West Antarctica Melted?
	14.20 INVESTIGATION: What Is Happening Alongthe Coast of This Island?
CHAPTER 15: Weathering, Soil, and Unstable Slopes
	15.1 What Physical Processes Affect Earth Materials Near the Surface?
	15.2 How Do Chemical Processes Affect Earth Materials Near the Surface?
	15.3 How Does the Type of Earth Material Influence Weathering?
	15.4 How Do Climate, Slope, Vegetation, and Time Influence Weathering?
	15.5 How Is Weathering Expressed?
	15.6 How Do Caves Form?
	15.7 What Is Karst Topography?
	15.8 How Does Soil Form?
	15.9 Why Is Soil Important to Society?
	15.10 What Controls the Stability of Slopes?
	15.11 How Do Slopes Fail?
	15.12 How Does Material on Slopes Fall and Slide?
	15.13 How Does Material Flow Down Slopes?
	15.14 Where Do Slope Failures Occur in the U.S.?
	15.15 How Do We Study Slope Failures and Assess the Risk for Future Events?
	15.16 CONNECTIONS: What Is Happening with the Slumgullion Landslide in Colorado?
	15.17 INVESTIGATION: Which Areas Have the Highest Risk of Slope Failure?
CHAPTER 16: Streams and Flooding
	16.1 What Is a Drainage Network?
	16.2 How Do Streams Transport Sediment and Erode Their Channels?
	16.3 How Do Stream Systems Change Downstream or Over Short Time Frames?
	16.4 What Factors Influence Profiles of Streams?
	16.5 Why Do Streams Have Curves?
	16.6 What Happens in the Headwaters of Streams?
	16.7 What Features Characterize Braided Streams?
	16.8 What Features Characterize Low-Gradient Streams?
	16.9 What Happens When a Stream Reaches Its Base Level?
	16.10 How Do Streams Change Over Time?
	16.11 What Happens During Stream Incision?
	16.12 What Is and What Is Not a Flood?
	16.13 What Were Some Devastating Floods?
	16.14 How Do We Measure Floods?
	16.15 CONNECTIONS: How Does the Colorado River Change as It Flows Across the Landscape?
	16.16 INVESTIGATION: How Would Flooding Affect This Place?
CHAPTER 17: Water Resources
	17.1 Where Does Water Occur on Our Planet?
	17.2 How Do We Use Fresh Water?
	17.3 Where Is Groundwater Found?
	17.4 How and Where Does Groundwater Flow?
	17.5 What Is the Relationship Between Surface Water and Groundwater?
	17.6 How Do We Explore for Groundwater?
	17.7 What Problems Are Associated with Groundwater Pumping?
	17.8 How Can Water Become Contaminated?
	17.9 How Does Groundwater Contamination Move and How Do We Clean It Up?
	17.10 CONNECTIONS: What Is Going On with the Ogallala Aquifer?
	17.11 INVESTIGATION: Who Polluted Surface Water and Groundwater in This Place?
CHAPTER 18: Energy and Mineral Resources
	18.1 How Do Oil and Natural Gas Form?
	18.2 In What Settings Are Oil and Gas Trapped?
	18.3 What Are Shale Gas and Shale Oil?
	18.4 How Do Coal and Coal-Bed Methane Form?
	18.5 What Are Other Types of Hydrocarbons?
	18.6 How Do We Explore for Fossil Fuels?
	18.7 How Is Nuclear Energy Produced?
	18.8 How Is Water Used to Generate Electricity?
	18.9 What Are Alternative Energy Sources?
	18.10 What Are Mineral Depositsand How Do They Form?
	18.11 How Do Precious Metal Deposits Form?
	18.12 How Do Base Metal Deposits Form?
	18.13 How Do We Explore for Mineral Deposits?
	18.14 Why Are Industrial Rocks and Minerals So Important to Society?
	18.15 CONNECTIONS: Why Is Wyoming So Rich in Energy Resources?
	18.16 INVESTIGATION: Where Would You Explore for Fossil Fuels in This Place?
CHAPTER 19: Geology of the Solar System
	19.1 How Do We Explore Other Planets and Moons?
	19.2 Why Is Each Planet and Moon Different?
	19.3 What Is the Geology of the Inner Planets?
	19.4 What Is the Geology of Our Moon?
	19.5 What Is Observed on Jupiter and Its Moons?
	19.6 What Is Observed on Saturn and Its Moons?
	19.7 What Is the Geology of the Outer Planets and Their Moons?
	19.8 CONNECTIONS: What Have We Learned About Mars?
	19.9 INVESTIGATION: How and When Did Geologic Features on This Alien World Form?
Glossary
Credits
Index
Tapestry of Time Map of North America