Earth System History / With Cd-rom - 99 edition

by Steven M. Stanley

Earth System History / With Cd-rom (ISBN10: 0716733773; ISBN13: 9780716733775)

ISBN13: 978-0716733775
ISBN10: 0716733773

Summary: Designed for a new generation of readers, Stanley's Earth System History is a reforging of his Exploring Earth and Life Through Time. Adopting an earth system approach throughout, Earth System History shows students how Earth's ecosystem has developed over time and how events in the past provide a perspective for dealing with present and future changes. Clear and concise, this introduction to historical geology is perfect for one-term non-majors ...show more courses.

Earth system history approach--the text takes a whole-earth approach to the study of geology.
"Visual Overviews" provide students with vivid illustrations of the key themes and concepts. Expanded from the Major Events diagrams in the previous edition, Visual Overviews concisely portray major geologic events and cycles. A review question at the end of each chapter challenges the student to use the Visual Overview to synthesize key points of each chapter.
"For The Record" boxes offer an in-depth look at an environmental, or resource oriented, evolutionary example in Earth system history. Ranging from the extinction of the dinosaurs to drilling for oil off the shore of New Jersey, "For The Record" offers real-world examples of Earth system history in action.
A full-color illustration program includes new three-dimensional block diagrams that illustrate crucial cycles and concepts in Earth system history. Many black-and-white illustrations and photographs from previous editions now appear in full-color.
Student CD-ROM (see separate entry)
New Chapter 2, "Minerals and Rocks: Composition and Structure," introduces important groups of rocks and rock-forming minerals, explains how they relate to one another within the rock cycle, and includes information on how chemical bonds and structures affect the properties of minerals. The chapter works as a primer for students who haven't taken physical geology and a refresher for those who have.
New Chapter 3, "Fossils and the Diversity of Life," reviews the biology and classification of the six kingdoms of organisms and introduces methods of phylogenetic reconstruction. This chapter assumes no background in biology on the student's part, but provides a context for subsequent discussions of the history of life.
New Chapter 10, "Major Chemical Cycles," uses an approach never before seen in an introductory textbook. Using simple diagrams and real-world examples, this chapter clearly explains how oxygen and carbon cycles have affected Earth in the past and their possible consequences for the future.
New Chapter 20, "The Holocene," describes Earth's complicated emergence from the most recent glacial maximum. This chapter emphasizes climatic and sea-level changes in recent geologic history and their consequences to the environment, offering, in essence, an overview of the state of the earth today.

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Edition/Copyright: 99
Cover: Hardcover
Publisher: W.H. Freeman
Published: 10/15/1998