Geology For Dummies. Alecia M. Spooner

6: Minerals: The Building Blocks of Rocks Meeting Mineral Requirements Making Crystals Identifying Minerals Using Physical Characteristics Realizing Most Rocks Are Built from Silicate Minerals Remembering the Nonsilicate Minerals Gemstones Chapter 7: Recognizing Rocks: Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic Types Mama Magma: Birthing Igneous Rocks Merging Many Single Grains of Sand: Sedimentary Rocks Stuck between a Rock and a Hard Place: Metamorphic Rocks Tumbling through the Rock Cycle: How Rocks Change from One Type to Another

      5  Part 3: One Theory to Explain It All: Plate Tectonics Chapter 8: Adding Up the Evidence for Plate Tectonics Drifting Apart: Wegener’s Idea of Continental Drift Coming Together: How Technology Sheds Light on Plate Tectonics Chapter 9: When Crustal Plates Meet, It’s All Relative Density Is Key Two of a Kind: Continental and Oceanic Crust Understanding Why Density Matters: Isostasy Defining Plate Boundaries by Their Relative Motion Shaping Topography with Plate Movements Chapter 10: Who’s Driving This Thing? Mantle Convection and Plate Movement Running in Circles: Models of Mantle Convection Using Convection to Explain Magma, Volcanoes, and Underwater Mountains Shake, Rattle, and Roll: How Plate Movements Cause Earthquakes

      6  Part 4: Superficially Speaking: About Surface Processes Chapter 11: Gravity Takes Its Toll: Mass Wasting Holding Steady or Falling Down: Friction versus Gravity Focusing on the Materials Involved Triggering Mass Movements Moving Massive Amounts of Earth, Quickly A More Subtle Approach: Creep and Soil Flow (Solifluction) Chapter 12: Water: Above and Below Ground Hydrologic Cycling Streams: Moving Sediments toward the Ocean Eroding a Stream Channel to Base Level Seeking Equilibrium after Changes in Base Level Leaving Their Mark: How Streams Create Landforms Flowing beneath Your Feet: Groundwater Chapter 13: Flowing Slowly toward the Sea: Glaciers Identifying Three Types of Glaciers Understanding Ice as a Geologic Force Eroding at a Snail’s Pace: Landforms Created by Glacial Erosion Leaving It All Behind: Glacial Deposits Where Have All the Glaciers Gone? Chapter 14: Blowing in the Wind: Moving Sediments without Water Lacking Water: Arid Regions of the Earth Transporting Particles by Air Deflating and Abrading: Features of Wind Erosion Just Add Wind: Dunes and Other Depositional Wind Features Paving the Desert: Deposition or Erosion? Chapter 15: Catch a Wave: The Evolution of Shorelines Breaking Free: Waves and Wave Motion Shaping Shorelines Categorizing Coastlines

      7  Part 5: Long, Long Ago in This Galaxy Right Here Chapter 16: Getting a Grip on Geologic Time The Layer Cake of Time: Stratigraphy and Relative Dating Show Me the Numbers: Methods of Absolute Dating Relatively Absolute: Combining Methods for the Best Results Eons, Eras, and Epochs (Oh My!): Structuring the Geologic Timescale Chapter 17: A Record of Life in the Rocks Explaining Change, Not Origins: The Theory of Evolution The Evolution of a Theory Putting Evolution to the Test Against All Odds: The Fossilization of Lifeforms Correcting for Bias in the Fossil Record Hypothesizing Relationships: Cladistics