Understanding Earth (Paperback-2019)

Understanding Earth leads the way by fully integrating the study of climate science into the core introductory geology curriculum. Through strategic placement of the climate science chapters at the beginning of the geomorphology content, we offer a text that places our changing climate as a key force shaping the rest of our discussion on Earth’s surficial processes.

John Grotzinger is a field geologist interested in the evolution of the Earth's surface environments and biosphere. His research addresses the chemical development of the early oceans and atmosphere, the environmental context of early animal evolution, and the geologic factors that regulate sedimentary basins. He has contributed to developing the basic geologic framework of a number of sedimentary basins and orogenic belts in northwestern Canada, northern Siberia, southern Africa, and the western United States.

Thomas H. Jordan is director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, University Professor, and W. M. Keck Foundation Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California. He served as the head of MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences for the decade 1988-1998. In 2000, he moved from MIT to USC, and in 2004, he was appointed as a USC University Professor.