How the earth works / Michael E. Wysession.

Course No. 1750

"Lecture transcript and course guidebook"--Front cover.

Includes bibliographies.

[v.1] : Lectures 1-24. Geology's impact on history -- Geologic history--dating the earth -- Earth's structure--Journey to Earth's center -- Earth's heat--conduction and convection -- The basics of plate tectonics -- Making matter--the Big Bang and big bangs -- Creating Earth--recipe for a planet -- The rock cycle--matter in motion -- Minerals--the building blocks of rocks -- Magma--the building mush of rocks -- Crystallization--the rock cycle starts -- Volcanoes--lava and ash -- Folding--bending blocks, flowing rocks -- Earthquakes--examining Earth's faults -- Plate tectonics--why continents move -- The ocean seafloor--unseen lands -- Rifts and ridges--the creation of plates -- Transform faults--tears of a crust -- Subduction zones--recycling oceans -- Continents collide and mountains are made -- Intraplate volcanoes--finding the hot spots -- Destruction from volcanoes and earthquakes -- Predicting natural disasters -- Anatomy of a volcano--Mount St. Helens.

[v.2] : Lectures 25-48. Anatomy of an earthquake--Sumatra -- History of plate motions--where and why -- Assembling North America -- The sun-driven hydrologic cycle -- Water on Earth--the blue planet -- Earth's atmosphere--air and weather -- Erosion--weathering and land removal -- Jungles and deserts--feast or famine -- Mass wasting--rocks fall downhill -- Streams--shaping the land -- Groundwater--the invisible reservoir -- Shorelines--factories of sedimentary rocks.-- Glaciers--the power of ice -- Planetary wobbles and the last ice age -- Long-term climate change -- Short-term climate change -- Climate change and human history -- Plate tectonics and natural resources -- Nonrenewable energy sources -- Renewable energy sources -- Humans--dominating geologic change -- History of life--complexity and diversity -- The solar system--Earth's neighborhood -- The lonely planet--Fermi's paradox.