Short Description:
Introduction to Chemistry is designed for a one-term introductory chemistry course. For many students, this course provides their first and what may be their only academic introduction to chemistry. As such, this textbook provides an important opportunity for students to learn some core concepts of chemistry and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them.

Word Count: 93938

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Copyright held by Mark Bishop and Chiral Publishing Company. The content is freely available, but the website asks (but does not require) that repeat users pay $20 for the use of the text. This text is accompanied by end-of-chapter problems, PowerPoint presentations, animations, and tutorials. There is also an “atoms-first” version of the text.

Short Description:
Introduction to Chemistry is designed for a one-term introductory chemistry course. For many students, this course provides their first and what may be their only academic introduction to chemistry. As such, this textbook provides an important opportunity for students to learn some core concepts of chemistry and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them.

Word Count: 109166

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Short Description:
This book describes how Earth's climate is changing, how it has been changing in the recent geological past and how it may change in the future. It covers the physical sciences that build the foundations of our current understanding of global climate change such as radiation, Earth's energy balance, the greenhouse effect and the carbon cycle. Both natural and human causes for climate change are discussed. Impacts of climate change on natural and human systems are summarized. Ethical and economical aspects of human-caused climate change and solutions are presented. Data dashboard

Word Count: 52328

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Introduction to Earth Science is a 530+ page open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses.

This text includes various important features designed to enhance the student learning experience in introductory Earth Science courses. These include a multitude of high-quality figures and images within each chapter that help to clarify key concepts and are optimized for viewing online. Self-test assessment questions are embedded in each online chapter that help students focus their learning. QR codes are provided for each assessment to allow students using print or PDF versions to easily access the quiz from an internet-capable device of their choice.

Adapted from openly-licensed works in geoscience, the sequence of the book differs from mainstream commercial texts in that it has been arranged to present elementary or foundational knowledge regarding rocks and minerals prior to discussion of more complex topics in Earth Science. Unlike prominent commercial texts for Earth Science, this book dedicates an individual chapter to each of the three major rock types, the processes of mass wasting, geological time, Earth history, and the origin of the universe and our solar system. Book content has been further customized to match the Pathways General Education Curriculum at Virginia Tech with a focus on Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for Pathways Concept 4, Reasoning in the Natural Sciences.

Are you a professor reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Instructors adopting or reviewing this text are encouraged to record their use on this form: https://bit.ly/interest_intro_earth_science. This helps the book's sponsors to understand this open textbook's impact.

How to Access the Book
This text is available in multiple formats including PDF, a low-resolution PDF which is faster to download, and ePub [coming mid 2023]. These are available at: https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. The book is also available in HTML/Pressbooks at https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/introearthscience. Softcover print versions with color interior are available at the manufacturer’s lowest price at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1957213361. The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience.

PDF: ISBN 978-1-957213-34-7
HTML/Pressbooks: ISBN 978-1-957213-33-0
https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/introearthscience
Print: ISBN 978-1-957213-36-1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1957213361
ePub: ISBN 978-1-957213-35-4 [expected mid 2023]

Table of Contents
1. Understanding Science
2. Plate Tectonics
3. Minerals
4. Igneous Processes and Volcanoes
5. Weathering, Erosion, and Sedimentary Rocks
6. Metamorphic Rocks
7. Geologic Time
8. Earth History
9. Crustal Deformation and Earthquakes
10. Mass Wasting
11. Water
12. Coastlines
13. Deserts
14. Glaciers
15. Global Climate Change
16. Energy and Mineral Resources
17. Origin of the Universe and Our Solar System

Find, Adapt, and Share Resources
If you wish to share resources you build from this book or find those shared by other adopters of this book, please join the Instructor Resource Portal in OER Commons at https://www.oercommons.org/groups/introduction-to-earth-science-instructor-group/12785

Attribution
This work includes content from multiple sources reproduced under the terms of Creative Commons licenses, Public Domain, and Fair Use. Specifically: Chapters 1-16 are adapted from An Introduction to Geology https://slcc.pressbooks.pub/introgeology (CC BY NC SA) by Chris Johnson, Matthew D. Affolter, Paul Inkenbrandt, and Cam Mosher. Chapter 17 is adapted from Section 22.1 of Chapter 22 “The Origin of Earth and the Solar System” by Karla Panchuk in Physical Geology, 2nd edition (CC BY) by Steven Earle https://opentextbc.ca/physicalgeology2ed/part/chapter-22-the-origin-of-earth-and-the-solar-system, with Sections 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4 of Chapter 7 “Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System” https://openstax.org/books/astronomy-2e/pages/7-1-overview-of-our-planetary-system from OpenStax Astronomy, 2nd edition https://openstax.org/details/books/astronomy-2e (CC BY). And, figures are from a variety of sources; references at the end of each chapter describe the terms of reuse for each figure. Version notes located at the end of the book describe author changes made to these materials by chapter.

About the Author
Laura Neser, Ph.D. is an Instructor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. Dr. Neser earned her B.S. in Geosciences at Virginia Tech in the spring of 2008 and completed her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 2014. Her doctoral research focused on the structural geology, sedimentology, and stratigraphy of formations that were deposited along the flanks of the Beartooth Mountains as they rose during late Paleocene-Eocene time. Dr. Neser has worked as an athletic tutor and online instructor at The University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), in temporary positions as an Adjunct Instructor at Chowan University (Murfreesboro, NC) and Full-Time Lecturer at Indiana State University (Terre Haute, IN), and as a Professor at Seminole State College (Sanford, FL) before starting as an Instructor at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2021.

Although she is currently focused on teaching online sections of Introduction to Earth Science, Earth Resources, Society and the Environment, and Climate History, her teaching background is significantly broader and includes Environmental ‬Science, Astronomy, Environmental ‬Ethics, Earth History, Structural Geology, and Field Geology‬.

Suggested Citation
Neser, Laura (2023). Introduction to Earth Science. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences. https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0.

Report Errors: https://bit.ly/report_error_intro_earth_science
View Errata: https://bit.ly/errata_intro_earth_science

Funding and Project Support
This publication was made possible in part through funding and publishing support provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech.

Accessibility Statement
Virginia Tech Publishing is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Pressbooks (HTML) and ePub versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability.

Disclaimer
This work may contain components (e.g., illustrations, or quotations) not covered by the license. Every effort has been made to clearly identify these components but ultimately it is your responsibility to independently evaluate the copyright status of any work or component part of a work you use, in light of your intended use. Please check the references at the end of each chapter before redistributing.

Short Description:
Introduction to Earth Science is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences. NewParaThis open textbook includes various features designed to enhance the student learning experience. These include a multitude of high-quality figures and images within each chapter that help to clarify key concepts and are optimized for viewing online. Self-test assessment questions are embedded in each online chapter that help students focus their learning. NewParaAre you a professor reviewing or adopting this book for a course? Instructors adopting or reviewing this text are encouraged to record their use on this form: https://bit.ly/interest_intro_earth_science This helps the book's sponsors to understand this open textbook's impact.NewParaPDF and ePub (coming soon) versions, and a link to order a print version are available at https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience .

Word Count: 363466

ISBN: 978-1-957213-33-0

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Short Description:
This textbook emphasizes connections between theory and application, making physics concepts interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the mathematical rigour inherent in the subject. Frequent, strong examples focus on how to approach a problem, how to work with the equations, and how to check and generalize the result.

Word Count: 197484

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This open text is disseminated via the Open Education Resource (OER) LibreTexts Project (https://LibreTexts.org) and like the hundreds of other open texts available within this powerful platform, it is licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed.

Contributors
Paul Flowers (University of North Carolina - Pembroke), Klaus Theopold (University of Delaware) and Richard Langley (Stephen F. Austin State University) with contributing authors. Textbook content produced by OpenStax College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 license. Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/85abf193-2bd...a7ac8df6@9.110)

CHE 101
A brief presentation of introductory chemical concepts including atomic structure, the chemical equation, the behavior of gases, the chemistry of solution, and acid-base chemistry.

Short Description:
A text for a one-quarter course on the introduction to both physical and human geography.

Word Count: 96050

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Short Description:
"An Introduction to Geological Field Trips: Case Study Avonlea Badlands, Saskatchewan" emerged out of the passion of a few people for fieldwork. During the COVID-19 pandemic there was a real need to replace the actual field trips - forbidden during the pandemic - with something else that will give the student a taste or a tease of fieldwork. More than being the conclusion, this project wants to be the inspiration that will carry the student out of the classroom and into the field. Consequently, how do you prepare for a field trip? It is easy to assume that somebody else will know everything about the area where you're going and you're just going along for the ride - because at the end of the day you are there to learn. Absolutely true, but being mentally prepared will make everything seem less overwhelming, less foreign and consequently, way more enjoyable. Yet, even the preparation process can feel like a big white elephant in the room. Where do you start? Obviously with the first page of the book.The authors are grateful to receive funding support from the University of Regina’s OER Publishing Program Small Project Grant, which enabled us to actually carry real fieldwork in the Avonlea Badlands in Southern Saskatchewan to collect all the data for this book.

Long Description:
“An Introduction to Geological Field Trips: Case Study Avonlea Badlands, Saskatchewan” is trying to fill the gap between the student and the fieldwork. Most commonly, the geology student is thrown into the fire while in the field trips and has to process a lot of information on the fly. Consequently, sometimes is hard to see the full picture. This book wants to be the starting point for every student looking to embark in that first geological field trip. How to prepare? What to do? How to approach the field work? Which data should be collected? Where to start? It is a work in progress and as the students will learn more about preparation so, too, the authors will learn more and more about the questions that the student has before, during and after the field trip. We are grateful to all the people that contributed to this book. Your dedication to student success is admirable!

Word Count: 17033

ISBN: ISBN-13:978-0-7731-0780-9

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Free Textbook for College-Level Introductory Geology Courses

Short Description:
This text is provided to you as an Open Educational Resource which you access online. It is designed to give you a comprehensive introduction to Geology at no or very nominal cost. It contains both written and graphic text material, intra-text links to other internal material which may aid in understanding topics and concepts, intra-text links to the appendices and glossary for tables and definitions of words, and extra-text links to videos and web material that clarifies and augments topics and concepts. Contact the authors at edits@opengeology.org with edits, suggestions, or if adopting the book.

Word Count: 153765

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Introduction to Oceanography is a textbook appropriate to an introductory-level university course in oceanography. The book covers the fundamental geological, chemical, physical and biological processes in the ocean, with an emphasis on the North Atlantic region.

Word Count: 69776

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Short Description:
Learn about igneous and metamorphic rocks (and how to analyze them), the fun way! Students learn concepts and practice knowledge by conducting inquiries guided with examples based on videos and interactive diagrams.

Word Count: 20627

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This book is written for upper-division undergraduates and new graduate students in meteorology, ocean engineering, and oceanography. After reading this book, it expected that students will be able to describe physical processes influencing the ocean and coastal regions: the interaction of the ocean with the atmosphere, and the distribution of oceanic winds, currents, heat fluxes, and water masses.

An outline of selected topics

Word Count: 120412

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Word Count: 197795

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Word Count: 204289

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