Earth : Portrait of a Planet (4TH 12 Edition)

The Fourth Edition of Earth: Portrait of a Planet provides the perfect balance between an authoritative, yet accessible text and a stunning narrative art program. This makes it the book of choice for instructors and students, who all have their own diverse styles of both teaching and learning. The Fourth Edition of this best-selling text constitutes a major revision, packed with recent updates and new features such as beautiful and innovative narrative figures, stimulating inquiry-based pedagogy, a tightened core narrative, hundreds of new photographs, and coverage of hot topics, like the March 2011 earthquake/tsunami that devastated Japan, the rare element crisis, the shifting price of oil, and the recent tornado outbreaks.

Marshak (U. of Illinois) provides a modified and thoroughly updated fourth edition of his introductory geology textbook. New to this edition are a stronger focus on narrative art, the latest developments in climate change, new components to help reinforce learning, and coverage of planetary geology and geobiology. The text is augmented with an extensive array of illustrations and photographs. In addition to comprehensive coverage of specific geologic features, events, and processes, the author also stresses the fundamental principles of the field. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Stephen Marshak's spectacular geology text for undergraduate, non-science majors is the number-one selling text in the world.

Innovative and up-to-date--the number one Introduction to Geology textbook.

This new edition will only enhance its success. It has been thoroughly revised to ensure current coverage of all major topics, especially earthquakes (including the disaster in Haiti in 2010), volcanoes, and climate change. The drawn art represents the state of the art and is both pedagogically innovative and a feast for the eyes. The Google Earth exercises provide virtual field trips to the entire world.

Stephen Marshak is Professor of Geology and Head of the Department of Geology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, an M.S. from the University of Arizona, and a B.A. from Cornell University. He has served as Chair of the Division of Structural Geology and Tectonics of the Geological Society of America. Dr. Marshak has written numerous research articles on topics in structural geology and tectonics, and has authored or co-authored three other books: Basic Methods of Structural Geology; Earth Structure: An Introduction to Structural Geology and Tectonics; and Essentials of Geology.