Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology (10th Edition)

With its strong focus on readability and illustrations, this trusted best seller makes an often complex subject accessible to beginning students. This textbook offers a meaningful, non-technical survey that is informative and up-to-date for learning basic principles and concepts.

For the Tenth Edition, the text's design and figures have been updated, and the chapter on climate change has been revised significantly.

The GEODe: Earth CD-ROM is now available online with a new interface.

Ed Tarbuck and Fred Lutgens have been good friends and colleagues since 1970.  Between them, they have more than 57 years of experience teaching geology to undergraduates, and both have been recognized with awards as excellent and inspiring professors.  They share a special interest in introducing geology to beginning students and a belief in the value of field experiences for students of all levels.

Lutgens and Tarbuck published their first college text, Earth Science, in 1976.  That book, winner of the McGuffy Award from the Text and Academic Authors Association, is now going into its tenth edition.  In 1983, as the first edition of Earth was being prepared, gifted geology illustrator Dennis Tasa joined the author team.  Since then the three have collaborated on more than twenty projects.  Not only do Tarbuck, Lutgens, and Tasa work well together creatively; they also enjoy spending time in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Tasa’s New Mexico studio

Tarbuck enjoys downhill skiing in Colorado, fly fishing near his childhood home in Northern Minnesota, and spending time in the Cascades.  Lutgens is an avid runner, and when he can make the time, truly enjoys hiking the canyons of the Colorado Plateau.  Although Lutgens and Tarbuck think alike on many issues, they don’t agree on everything.  Lutgens is devoted to jazz and classical music, whereas Tarbuck prefers pop artists or a good country station.

1. An Introduction to Geology
2. Plate Tectonics: A Scientific Revolution Unfolds
3. Matter and Minerals
4. Magma, Igneous Rocks, and Intrusive Activity
5. Volcanoes and Volcanic Hazards
6. Weathering and Soil
7. Sedimentary Rocks
8. Metamorphism and Metamorphic Rocks
9. Geologic Time
10. Crustal Deformation
11. Earthquakes and Earthquake Hazards
12. Earth’s Interior
13. Divergent Boundaries: Origin and Evolution of the Ocean Floor
14. Convergent Boundaries: Origin of Mountains
15. Mass Wasting: The Work of Gravity
16. Running Water
17. Groundwater
18. Glaciers and Glaciation
19. Deserts and Winds
20. Shorelines
21. Global Climate Change
22. Earth’s Evolution through Geologic Time
23. Energy and Mineral Resources
24. Planetary Geology