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.

Geology is a core science, along with physics, chemistry, and biology. It uses rigorous methods of inquiry that illuminate the history of the earth and its present-day geological activity. Geology allows us to discover how earth‰ŰŞs history and activity determine the state of the planet and its life forms. The study of geology also shows us how human behavior affects the earth. Topics we will cover include plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, rocks, minerals, geologic time, glaciers, rivers, geologic structures, layers of the earth, and reading maps. This course includes laboratory work and lab credit.Login: guest_oclPassword: ocl

This observational inquiry activity involving careful descriptions of rocks and fossil including age will be used to create a scalar accurate geologic time scale. Students will observe and learn that the geologic time scale was created based on changes in fossil, rock, and atmospheric changes.