Best products from r/geology

Hi, I'm an OU student doing Geosciences (finishing next year!), and I can recommend some of these books as a great starting point :

The TY (Teach Yourself) series of books is a great starting point if you have no previous knowledge, and the books themselves are relatively inexpensive as they are smaller than textbook size.

The TY Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis was the first geology-related book I ever read, and forms the basis of an OU short course of the same name. It gives a good introduction to plate tectonics and the scientific terminology used to describe tectonic processes, as well as great explanations of how these three types of events occur.

The TY Geology seems to be a new addition, but covering more of the less dramatic aspects of geology. It's written by the same author - all of the books I linked were written by Dr David Rothery, who I find explains things in a very straightforward manner.

If you're interested in planetary geology (as I am) then his other books on planets might be of interest to you - I particularly like the Intro to Planetary Science / Astrobiology textbooks - but they're slightly more advanced, and more expensive!

If you're not so much in study mode, but would still like a good geology-related read, may I suggest The Map that Changed the World which tells the story of William Smith, who created the world's first geological map. It's a fascinating story, and you'll learn a bit about UK geology at the same time!

Engineering will have more examples applicable to real-world scenarios. And by real-world I mean, they might happen but they're usually ideal situations and wouldn't never really happen. A Calc I example would be: A conveyor is dumping sand in a cone shaped pile at a rate of X vol/min. Find the rate at which height is changing when the diameter is x feet.

A calc II example would be something like a integral or easy differential equation.

A benefit of taking engineering calculus is that you're taking it with engineering students. If you need help, you have a shit ton of people who should be pretty good at math available to help you out. A not-so-benefit is there may be some computer science/programming related things you have to do in your assignments like MAPLE or MATLAB. In that case, you still can always ask someone who gets it for help.

Regardless I recommend looking into getting a TI-89 calculator or a program like MathCAD to help with calc and higher level math.

Hi there and congratulations on your acceptance to such an excellent choice of degree!

Your A-levels will serve you very well here, though once you start to get your teeth into the geology degree properly you may be surprised at the amount of chemistry involved! Anyway, a virtually identical question was posted here a few days ago, so I’ll regurgitate my answer from that thread:

Seeing as you mentioned A-Level you must be in the UK, so check out The Geology of Britain by Peter Toghill. Its at A-level standard, so shouldn’t cause you much trouble at the moment and will be very readable once you’ve made a little headway in the first year. It also has lovely large colour photographs and illustrations throughout, which is particularly useful when just starting to read about these things. Which uni are you off to? Probably many of the locations in the Toghill book you will end up going on field trips to.

A dictionary of geology terms is essential for first year (and all years really), the Oxford one is great. For getting to grips with the basics of thin sections, I also found this little handbook absolutely invaluable.

If you are more inclined towards the paleontology side of things, then I quite like this book too. Again, I would say it’s written at an A-level depth, and is actually much more than just the title suggests. After the initial pages with global paleomaps it covers many key periods in Earth history and the history of life.

Fossils at a Glance by Milsom & Rigby is a nice introduction to many key fossils and I like the way it has info laid out on a two page spread for each organism/topic, makes for a great reference.

Somebody else in the previous thread also recommended Earth Story: The Shaping of Our World by Simon Lamb, as a regular book to just read casually which introduces all the key concepts of geology.

A good chisel to go along with her rock hammer is great for sampling

Also, a scratcher/scribe with a neodymium magnet on the end is incredibly useful for testing hardness and magnetics of a rock

I use a compact mineral identification guide a ton as well. There are many out there, but this one is the one I use - others may be better

Edit: And the most (imo) important part of fieldwork are the notes you take, so a waterproof field notebook is a must-have if she'll be mapping in a rainy environment. This one has geological charts and diagrams in it as well


Above are good lower priced items, but if you really want to go all-out, good boots and a rain jacket are indispensable , but they have to fit very well so she may be better off picking those out herself (at least that's the way I feel about them)

Hope this helps!

So John McPhee books are generally pretty great and won't be too... much? For somebody just getting into it. The problem with most geology books is that they're going to get a little technical, and it can be easy to feel out of your depth (especially considering even basic terms aren't really taught in science classes in grade school). Anyway, Assembling California is a good one. Annals of the former world is another one by him that's really great, but it's a little thick.

There have to be some decent youtube videos, but even sites like Lynda don't have anything geology-wise.

If you want to get into it a little more casually, follow (legit) science groups/publications on social media. AGU is pretty active and posts on a wide variety of geologic topics (they have some good blogs, too); the NSF and NOAA also post cool stuff, but it's not specifically geology-related.

Honestly, your best bet is to try a class though. Geology is a pretty varied field, and even if intro-level courses are generally kind of... dumbed down (in a lot of schools they're called "rocks for jocks")? They'll still get you more than you might out of random googling.

Phew lets see if I can set you straight. The Himalayas were formed by continent-continet collision (i.e., India with Asia). These plates will never 'merge' although they may become sutured together. Collision zones such as these generally remain zones of weakness due to structures that form during the collision and in some cases these areas are spatially associated with rift zones if/when the plates diverge (e.g., the Appalachians mark a collisional zone but eventually rifted along the east coast). Again these concepts we are discussing are generally only applicable to continent-continent collision. When ocean plates collide with continental plates a whole different series of events is expected (see any intro geology book).

As to you second question rifting can break apart any tectonic plate. Continents are not themselves strictly the plate. These are just portions of the plate that are dominated by more buoyant crustal material. Look at a map of tectonic plates and you will notice the the continental margins don't strictly correspond to plate boundaries. Plumes do produce extensional effects however they are generally separate from regular tectonic processes. Strictly speaking rifting is caused by high heat flow and mantle convection processes. Furthermore, most plate motions are heavily influenced by dynamic mantle flow. We are just now beginning to understand in detail how differential plate motions relate to mantle flow (we've known about it for a while but many of the complexities and the importance of 3D motions are coming to light).

Long story short the Earth is one big thermo-gravitational engine. Convection in the mantle is driven by the core which in turn drives differential plate motions and related interactions. Complicated yes, but can be understood.

Hehe....hope that helps unfortunately there are a large number of concepts that go into truly 'understanding' tectonic processes and if you are just generally interested I would recommend and intro geology textbook. Or if you want a better novel style read check out this book by Richard Fortey its a great read!

http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Intimate-History-Richard-Fortey/dp/0375706208

Cheers

So it sounds like you are looking for some thing at the pretty basic level?

For David Attenborough books, try something coffee-table-y like the Smithsonian Earth guide. It's about much more than geo, but it's got everything you listed above and lots of pretty pictures and interesting things.

For something more academic, but still introductory, try Understanding Earth. Easy to read yet descriptive. If you don't want to pay $120, try going back a couple of editions.

One more step up might be Planet Earth: Cosmology, Geology, and the Evolution of Life and Environment which has a few less pretty pictures and a few more maths (optional). Even though this book is supposedly "below" my educational level I still love it. I also wish I'd read it back when I was first starting down the scientific path - it really covers the basics of just about everything you'd every need to know.

It sounds like you have an Intro Geology book.

For a nice overview of historical geology, I was enraptured by "The Earth: An Intimate History" by Richard Fortey. It starts slow but delves into the major developments and ideas of geology as the author visits many significant locales around the world.

Stephen Jay Gould was a very prolific science-writer across paleontology and evolution.

John McPhee has several excellent books related to geology. I would recommend "Rising from the Plains" and "The Control of Nature."

Mark Welland's book "SAND" is excellent, covering topics of sedimentology and geomorphology.

If you are interested in how society manages geologic issues, I would recommend Geo-Logic, The Control of Nature mentioned before, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, and Cadillac Desert.

These are some of the texts I used in university:

• Nesse's Introduction to Mineralogy
  
• Winter's Principles of Metamorphic and Igneous Petrology
  
• Twiss and Moore's Structural Geology
  
• Bogg's Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
  
• Burbank and Anderson's Tectonic Geomorphology
  
• Davis's Statistics and Data Analysis in Geology
  
• Burbank and Anderson's Tectonic Geomorphology
  
• Fetter's Applied Hydrogeology
  
• White's Geochemistry (pdf online)
  
• Shearer's Seismology
  
• Copeland's Communicating Rocks
  

I have a few geology guide books, but by far my favorite is my Audubon society field guide to rocks and minerals. It encompasses many different kinds of rocks and minerals, and has clear pictures of each one along with more information about various characteristics of each one, how they are formed, how to identify them, etc... The Audubon society always does a great job with their field guides, and for someone interested in geology I guarantee it will not disappoint.

Here is the link to the guide on amazon. I know the book is geared toward North America but I imagine it will still work in Europe. Enjoy!

If you've never done Petrology before aquiring a good lab guide will be very useful, the one my university recommended us to get was:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rocks-Minerals-Thin-Section-Colour/dp/1874545170/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1451826653&sr=1-1
This helped in my first semester of Petrology a great deal. To accompany this I also, as Of-Quartz said, took pictures using my phone of the thin section down the microscope. I then created a study guide to accompany these pcitures, Example for Olivine:
http://imgur.com/7KBPGE4
The exam itself was based more around the theory side of petrology, End member diagrams such as Kynaite, Silimanite and Andalusite, along with general questions about Bowen's recation series and other figures that help explain why the thin section you're looking at, looks like that.

As for Sedimentology and strat you'll be looking at photos of outcrops and sedimentary successions alot. Sedimentary logs, Bouma sequences and identifying features such as Load casts, flame structures and dessictaion cracks to name a few.

Just make sure you understand the fundamentals and everything else should come to you easily.

3rd Year geology student (UK), Taken Sed/Petro classes every semester.

How far along is she in her major? Do you know if she has completed field camp yet? You could always look into getting her a nice rock hammer, a nice hand lense (make sure it is 10x magnification), a rite in the rain book specifically for writing notes outside - these have some good geology guides in the back, or even like a "field pouch". All or any of these things she will need at some point as a geo undergrad

I'd recommend about geology (http://geology.about.com/) which has a comprehensive discussion on most aspects of the subject, but geology is a subject where there is a fair amount of crossover with other subjects (which in my opinion makes it so fascinating), so you shouldn't just hem yourself into looking at straight, pure geology.

If you're willing to buy a book I'd recommend you to read http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Intimate-History-Richard-Fortey/dp/0375706208 which gives a great overview of the history of the earth.

I really like Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms or any book by Richard Fortey, really if paleontology and the biological history of the earth is interesting to you.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded is also great, especially if you like volcanoes. And sort of similarly is Eruptions that Shook the World.

I also second The Seashell on the Mountaintop that /u/ap0s suggested. It's very good!

My daughter is only two so I haven't done anything with this book yet, but I had to grab it when I saw it at Costco.

I have flipped through it and it looks like there is a lots of good ideas, it also emphasizes the importance of taking notes and recording findings and all that good science stuff.

Check out what your local university or college has listed for their physical geology text book(s), visit their book store and see if they fit the bill. A very useful book for identification, surprisingly, can be in the form of a lab book as well. If those are too costly, perhaps they would make a good future investment or you can find them online as pdf's, or e-books. In the mean time, there are also plenty of field guides, for example that may interest you, or even that you can print out (pdf) for basic identification.

I think it's pattern recognition more than anything. By looking at the minerals as much as possible in different samples you can really get an idea of their key properties and the best things to distinguish them.

Gribble & Hall has probably been one of the most useful books for me; it really helps you make your own mind up about what you're looking at, by using the mineral properties. Looking at pictures may help but you really need to build up your own mental checklist.

Saying that though, I would get a book with a good collection of mineral images in. I don't know of any ones that I actually like, although the Imperial Rock Library, the UCL library and this one from the Univeristy of North Carolina should get you started.

For books:

• Someone the other day posted [this link] (http://earthds.info/) to a basic introductory textbook which may tide you over.
  -I find this field book to be the best newbie friendly to "what's that rock?"
  
• Raiding your local thrift store/used books for anything geology related may help.
  
  Get your students to talk about geology they've seen in their life to connect it to what's being taught in lecture. I'm learning more about the natural history and geology of my home city of L.A. on the opposite coast than I did living there for half my life by talking in class.

Get a good mineral/rock ID book (I suggest buying this one ahead of time).

You will probably have really good mineral specimens in lab so you won't need a hand lens just yet, but you should buy one anyway (I suggest this one).

When the semester starts, spend a lot of time in lab alone looking at the minerals and memorizing a few key characteristics (name, formula, crystal habit, hardness, streak) of each one. Seriously, get used to being in there on the weekend, bring a beer (brown bag it). If you are good at identifying minerals in hand specimen, it will help out tremendously when you get into Petrology and out in the field. Don't rely on your instructor alone, look around for mineralogy websites from other universities. I found this series of lectures by Doug Haywick to be helpful.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rocks-Minerals-Handbooks-Chris-Pellant/dp/1405359889/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407925317&sr=8-1&keywords=dk+rock+and+minerals

Lots of pretty pictures for him just now, and the text will be easy enough to read by age 10(ish), maybe younger if he maintains a really big interest like I did with dinosaurs at around that age.

I too have trouble with this, but I'm making slow progress purely through practice. I find this book quite helpful: Rocks and Minerals in Thin Section. Other good resources I've found online is Alex Herriot's collection and this collection of thin section from the Bushveld Complex

Rock hammer, leather rock hammer holster, a nice hand lens, nice quality outdoor gear for the myriad of field trips and field camp..

Oh! Get her the Rite in the Rain geological field notebook. Those things are freaking awesome.

http://www.amazon.com/Rite-Rain-Weather-Geological-Field/dp/B0011DGJSC

In regards for background and fundamentals rather textbooks the story of William 'Strata' Smith making the first geological map of the UK is amazing, and he pretty much did the whole thing as a hobby.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Map-That-Changed-World-Tale-Rocks-Redemption/0140280391

Assuming your from US, perhaps the John Wesley Powell book is also of interest.

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Hundredth-Meridian-Wesley-Opening/dp/0140159940

This book might be of interest for you. I picked it up at Costco for my daughter, she's not old enough for it yet (16mo) but it looks like it will be a lot of fun.

Are you interested in a particular aspect of geology?

Are you perhaps interested in sub/related disciplines? If so, I have some paleoclimate, geochemistry, etc. recommendations.

It might be blasphemy on this subreddit, but in a similar thread a ways back, a few people were really singing the praises of The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester. I frankly found it to be more than a little boring, even taking Winchester's digression-heavy style into account.

I recently started Krakatoa (also by Winchester) and it seems a bit more like what I was hoping for.

"Light" geology reading is kind of a tough needle to thread, I think.

this is an overview of everything related to geology and earth science.. its and awesome book and goes into enough detail about everything and has tons of awesome pictures

http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Michael-Allaby/dp/0789496437

Yes. Yes. Yes. Always build a strong relationship with your professor and classmates. The most important thing you can do is to look at as many resources as possible beyond your assigned text to fully learn a new concept. If you just can't grasp a concept, make sure when you go to a professor or classmate for help approach them with the knowledge you have gained opposed to stating that you simply don't know anything.

As far as my experience I was better at lab work, but when it came to the straight theoretical and conceptual I always had trouble. There are always folks in the same boat as you and quite frankly their weaknesses might be your strengths.

I actually learned the very basic fundamentals using Audubon's field guide to rock and mineral identification beyond my assigned text. It covers the very basic to the complex compositions, structures, and formation. Link to Field Guide

https://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Alteration-Petrographic-Hydrothermal-Minerals/dp/0919216595

https://www.amazon.com/Ore-Textures-Interpretation-Roger-Taylor/dp/3642017827

These two are basically picture books with heaps of photos of altered rocks. Honestly though, recognising alteration is 90% experience, because your rocks will never look exactly like the photos. Everyone struggles a bit straight out of uni. Its harder now, but ideally move around a bit early in your career so you can see different rocks (and learn different ways of doing things).


https://www.amazon.com/Geology-Ore-Deposits-John-Guilbert/dp/1577664957

Guilbert & Park is good on alteration in terms of the minerals and chemical reactions involved, but its text with a few B&W diagrams.

not sure if this book is readily available in the UK, but I've read it and it's good

https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Portrait-Planet-Stephen-Marshak/dp/0393935183

(deliberately linked 4th edition to save you money)

I don't think this is quite what you're looking for, but I love this as a reference guide for sed deposits. Not a bad price point for a full colour guide. https://www.amazon.com/Sedimentary-Rocks-Field-Colour-Guide/dp/1874545693

Portrait of a planet
It's a very good book. Basic when you first read it, but you'll get deeper every time you go through it. My first and best geology book.

Thanks! This will be my first attempt at doing anything out in the field so I'm hugely excited about it, even if it will be slow going and clumsy. =)

Got any recommendations for field identification books? I've got the Dorling Kindersley and the Philips guides at the moment - but they seem a bit light on the details. Are there any "classic" field guides worth picking up?

I'm a professional mineralogist and I have that book at my desk, It's a pretty helpful guide sometimes. I also recommend Simon & Schuster's Guide to Rocks & Minerals and Introduction to the Rock-Forming Minerals

this book is a good general reference on all things rocks and minerals. the layout is simple to follow and the language is easy to understand (specialised knowledge not required).

Rocks and Minerals

it is a general guide so it probably wont cover every possible example but it is a good starting place.

Are you looking for a textbook? I like "Introduction to Mineralogy" by William Nesse. It's pretty comprehensive on mineral ID and info, including occurrence, alteration, uses, cleavage, etc.

I enjoyed Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester.

Also, and this one isn't strictly geo, but it's awesome, The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean. Basically a history of the periodic table. And it's really funny too.

One book I found particularly interesting was: Eruptions that shook the world by Oppenheimer https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eruptions-Shook-World-Clive-Oppenheimer/dp/0521641128
I am sure you can get it cheaper elsewhere, but it gives a good background to eruptions.

http://www.amazon.com/Simon-Schusters-Guide-Rocks-Minerals/dp/0671244175/ref=zg_bs_290105_7

My favorite handbook. Some essential rockhound tools would be a rock hammer, chisel, hand loupe, etc.

I as well am currently using this book for an ore deposits class. it is well written and easy to fallow. Another book I have for more technical indepth descriptions of specific deposits is The Geology of Ore Deposits by Gilbert and Park, this book has just about everything.

The end-all mineral book. Not ideal for field identification, but amazing for the information it does contain. It's the one reference book that I have kept around and used throughout my academic and professional career.

I'd start reading books such as Geology of the SF Bay Region and, one of my favorites, Assembling California. You might be able to borrow these from your uni.

These will give you a good start/background and from there find more detailed publications with maps on USGS website.

http://www.amazon.com/Colour-Atlas-Rocks-Minerals-Section/dp/1874545170/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462489109&sr=8-1&keywords=An+Atlas+of+Minerals+in+Thin+Section

Get this book! It's awesome for minerals.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 is a great read.

[This book] (http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Michael-Allaby/dp/0789496437) is great for a general concept of a lot of things you'd learn in your BSc geology. It's not just geology, it also has info about the oceans and the atmosphere which you'd also encounter in your studies.

Reflected light microscopy is a bit of a lost art. I was never taught it formally, and had to learn it later. You'll want to look for old used books, but for most silicates reflected light isn't the way to go. Are you looking at ore samples? Because that is really when it becomes useful.

This is my go-to book for mineral identification:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199827389/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=1944687462&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0199846278&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=JH49Y9MM8HG4CQ9X8A0G

If your working with thin sections i'd suggest Gribble and Halls book, Not sure what level of detail your looking for but MacKenzie's rocks and minerals in thin section good to get the basics of optical mineralogy from.

Thirding the suggestion for Nesse. I have this version, but the old text we keep in the lab has also been incredibly helpful, although it's nice to have coloured charts and more detailed diagrams. A new edition's supposed to come out soon from what I understand, but I could be wrong. Probably isn't going to be too different, though.

These are the two favorites of the ones I have.
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Minerals-Gemstones-Walter-Schumann/dp/0395511372
http://www.amazon.com/Simon-Schusters-Guide-Rocks-Minerals/dp/0671244175

If you can get hold of Marshak: portrait of a planet, its an excellent introduction book to geology and really easy to understand. Its a slippery slope though, once you start to understand your rocks it becomes dangerous to drive through mountains as you spend half your time spotting faults and looking at outcrops when you should be watching the road.
http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Portrait-Planet-Fourth-Edition/dp/0393935183

Geology of Ore Deposits is still around! New edition though: http://www.amazon.com/Geology-Ore-Deposits-John-Guilbert/dp/1577664957/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341627306&sr=1-1&keywords=geology+of+ore+deposits

Amazon link

Practical or decorative?

Practical:

• Rite in the Rain Field Book: http://amzn.com/B0011DGJSC
  
• Estwing Rock Hammer: http://amzn.com/B0002OVCMO
  
• Geotechnical Gauge Card: http://amzn.com/B00MV103OY
  
  Decorative/Romantic:
  
  
• Amber Jewelery
  
• Trilobite or Ammonite Pendant necklaces
  
• Labradorite Shot Glasses

Amazon

It's the No. 540F; most places that sell Rite in the Rain have it.