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Essentials of Geology
A hands-on, visual learning experience for physical geology Marshak’s NEW Guided Learning Explorations on key topics, Smartwork5 activities featuring a variety of engaging question types, and exclusive Geotours Google Earth exercises make for a memorable hands-on learning experience. These resources integrate and build on the vibrant, narrative-style visuals from the text. Our robust suite of videos, animations, and interactive simulations help students master geologic concepts.
637 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2019
21 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 4, 2022
For introductory physical geology courses. Using dynamic media to bring geology to life, Essentials of Geology continues to elevate the text's readability, illustrations, and focus on basic principles. This revision incorporates a structured learning path and reliable, consistent framework for mastering the chapter concepts. Interactive, self-paced tutorials provide individualized coaching to help students stay on track. With a wide range of activities available, students can actively learn, understand, and retain even the most difficult concepts. Definitely one of the best textbooks I've read in a while. Mr. Marshak has done a masterful job.
December 20, 2025
I’m reading at least one thousand books of history in chronological order, going from the big bang through human civilization to the end of the world, and this is book #10 in that series. I know this is a straight-up geology textbook, not a history book at all, but I wanted a firm understanding of how our planet was formed—which I got in my previous book, Robert Hazen's The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet—and how it functions today, which I got—in spades—here.
I read the 6th edition, already one version out of date, because it’s what I could get through the New York Public Library’s interlibrary loan system, but I think my thoughts will hold true for subsequent editions. This is an entry-level geology college textbook, so not the kind of thing you’d probably sit down with for a summer read like I did, and if you do it that way be warned it’s a whopper, over 700 pages, big and floppy and thus hard to read on the NY subway. It also just stymied my budding speed reading skills, partly because there are hundreds upon hundreds of illustrations, so you’re constantly jumping around and turning pages back and forth. But the photos and diagrams are all wonderful, visualizing what would otherwise be abstract or even meaningless details in the text. It helps to see the kinds of rocks, the maps of plates and fault lines, diagrams of how magma and ground water flow, and on and on. There are even sidebars giving coordinates for Google Earth on your phone, so you can look in three dimensions at fault lines, sedimentary canyon walls, glacier-carved peaks, mangrove forests, and everything else. (I say "three dimensions," but I can't wait for the AR version which actually will be 3D.) Far from a gimmick, this is one of the highlights of the book.
But back to water, in a book I thought would be about rocks I was surprised to spend about 300 pages on water. But it’s all part of the Earth System, as air, water, rocks, and life all constantly interact and influence each other. So Marshak goes through oceans, rivers, coasts, groundwater, geysers, glaciers, caves—every cave was made by water—and precipitation and erosion. And beyond that the book comprehensively covers everything about how the Earth formed and functions today, and how plate tectonics, a more recent theory than the big bang, links everything together.
There’s a ton of fascinating facts: Everything from Staten Island across Long Island, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Cape Cod are all one land formation, formed near the toe of a massive continental glacier. It also smoothed all our rocks here in NYC down smooth, primarily Manhattan schist, a metamorphic rock; you can see the striations on the rocks in Central Park. Niagara Gorge, where I hiked last month, was carved by Niagara Falls, which is moving south toward Lake Erie. My home state of Utah has so many earthquakes because the Basin and Range is moving away from the Colorado Plateau, with the border slashing southwest across the state. This huge rift is also why Yellowstone has that supervolcano base that gives us geysers and hotpots. Georgia’s red dirt is from organic matter, not iron. California’s coast is sliding north to Canada. Hawaii and other island chains, especially if they’re not near a continental crust edge, have one big island followed by progressively smaller ones because they’re sliding on a plate over a volcanic hot spot and the older islands, which are now off the hot spot, have eroded; the biggest island is the newest, as it’s over the hot spot now. Chesapeake Bay is a meteor crater! And there's lots more about deserts, ice, soil, earthquakes, floods, fossil fuels (oil’s from peat, not animals), and anything else you want to know. This book is a daunting read, but it’s great to learn how the world works.
The previous title in my series of 1,000 history books—going chronologically from dinosaurs to pyramids to knights to spaceships, with lots of other stuff in there too—is Robert M. Hazen's The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet, and the next one is The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. You can also start at the beginning with Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time or see the complete list here.
I read the 6th edition, already one version out of date, because it’s what I could get through the New York Public Library’s interlibrary loan system, but I think my thoughts will hold true for subsequent editions. This is an entry-level geology college textbook, so not the kind of thing you’d probably sit down with for a summer read like I did, and if you do it that way be warned it’s a whopper, over 700 pages, big and floppy and thus hard to read on the NY subway. It also just stymied my budding speed reading skills, partly because there are hundreds upon hundreds of illustrations, so you’re constantly jumping around and turning pages back and forth. But the photos and diagrams are all wonderful, visualizing what would otherwise be abstract or even meaningless details in the text. It helps to see the kinds of rocks, the maps of plates and fault lines, diagrams of how magma and ground water flow, and on and on. There are even sidebars giving coordinates for Google Earth on your phone, so you can look in three dimensions at fault lines, sedimentary canyon walls, glacier-carved peaks, mangrove forests, and everything else. (I say "three dimensions," but I can't wait for the AR version which actually will be 3D.) Far from a gimmick, this is one of the highlights of the book.
But back to water, in a book I thought would be about rocks I was surprised to spend about 300 pages on water. But it’s all part of the Earth System, as air, water, rocks, and life all constantly interact and influence each other. So Marshak goes through oceans, rivers, coasts, groundwater, geysers, glaciers, caves—every cave was made by water—and precipitation and erosion. And beyond that the book comprehensively covers everything about how the Earth formed and functions today, and how plate tectonics, a more recent theory than the big bang, links everything together.
There’s a ton of fascinating facts: Everything from Staten Island across Long Island, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Cape Cod are all one land formation, formed near the toe of a massive continental glacier. It also smoothed all our rocks here in NYC down smooth, primarily Manhattan schist, a metamorphic rock; you can see the striations on the rocks in Central Park. Niagara Gorge, where I hiked last month, was carved by Niagara Falls, which is moving south toward Lake Erie. My home state of Utah has so many earthquakes because the Basin and Range is moving away from the Colorado Plateau, with the border slashing southwest across the state. This huge rift is also why Yellowstone has that supervolcano base that gives us geysers and hotpots. Georgia’s red dirt is from organic matter, not iron. California’s coast is sliding north to Canada. Hawaii and other island chains, especially if they’re not near a continental crust edge, have one big island followed by progressively smaller ones because they’re sliding on a plate over a volcanic hot spot and the older islands, which are now off the hot spot, have eroded; the biggest island is the newest, as it’s over the hot spot now. Chesapeake Bay is a meteor crater! And there's lots more about deserts, ice, soil, earthquakes, floods, fossil fuels (oil’s from peat, not animals), and anything else you want to know. This book is a daunting read, but it’s great to learn how the world works.
The previous title in my series of 1,000 history books—going chronologically from dinosaurs to pyramids to knights to spaceships, with lots of other stuff in there too—is Robert M. Hazen's The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet, and the next one is The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. You can also start at the beginning with Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time or see the complete list here.
November 6, 2025
I read this book for my college geology class, and it was surprisingly enjoyable! The structure was easy to follow, and it gave an in-depth look at Earth’s geological history and past. It was clear, helpful, and informative—definitely a solid resource for anyone studying or just curious about geology.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews