Physical Geology

This is a discount Black and white version. Some images may be unclear, please see BCCampus website for the digital version.This book was born out of a 2014 meeting of earth science educators representing most of the universities and colleges in British Columbia, and nurtured by a widely shared frustration that many students are not thriving in courses because textbooks have become too expensive for them to buy. But the real inspiration comes from a fascination for the spectacular geology of western Canada and the many decades that the author spent exploring this region along with colleagues, students, family, and friends. My goal has been to provide an accessible and comprehensive guide to the important topics of geology, richly illustrated with examples from western Canada. Although this text is intended to complement a typical first-year course in physical geology, its contents could be applied to numerous other related courses.

"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."--BC Campus website.

This book offers a high-level summary of shallow magmatic systems (dykes, sills and laccoliths) to support geoscience master and PhD students, scientists and practicing professionals. The product of the LASI (Laccoliths and Sills conference) workshop, it comprises thematic sections written by one or more experts on the respective field. It features reviews concerning the physical properties of magma, geotectonic settings, and the structure of subvolcanic systems, as well as case studies on the best-known systems. The book provides readers a broad and comprehensive understanding of the subvolcanic perspective on pluton growth, which is relevant for mineralogical processes as well as the genesis of mineral deposits.

"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"--BCcampus website.

Physical Geology is a vast subject and it is not possible to cover all aspects in one book. This book does not invent the wheel but merely put together sets of updated but concise material on Physical Geology with lots of illustrations. All illustrations are created by hand and give a real classroom feel to the book. Students or readers can easily reproduce them by hand. This is a book, where a diagram says it all. The book is divided into four parts. The first part “The Solar System and Cosmic Bodies” deals with elements of our Solar System and the cosmic bodies around it (like meteorites, asteroids, etc.). The second part “The Earth Materials” deals with Earth and its internal structure. The third part “The Hydrologic System” is more exhaustive and deals with the hydrological system of the Earth including Weathering and Mass Wasting, Streams, Groundwater, Karst, Glaciers, Oceans and Aeolian Processes and Landforms. The fourth and the final part “The Tectonic System” deals with different aspects of Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes and Volcanoes.