The Earth Through Time

Abstract

The Earth Through Time successfully fills a gap in the world of introductory level geology textbooks, a gulf created by the nature of typical undergraduate students. The introductory course taught at many institutions is physical geology wherein potential geology majors and students who simply want to fulfill part of a natural science requirement form a cosmopolitan class. Students who are convinced that geology is the major for them go on to historical geology in the second semester often using the Dott and Batten text, Evolution of the Earth , a text that is rigorous and designed strictly with the geology major in mind. Based on my experience, however, a sizable number of students who have no intention of majoring in geology desire to take a second course in the field out of pure interest and as a means of satisfying the second part of a typical 2‐semester science requirement. The Earth Through Time provides a viable alternative to Dott and Batten's book, one certainly as broad in its overall coverage but with discrete topics—such as local stratigraphic nomenclature and detailed discussions of geology outside of North America—being de‐emphasized.