Geology: A Complete Introduction
By David Rothery
Review by Kate H (Earth Sciences)
When I started looking at different degrees in year 12, I honestly never would have guessed I鈥檇 end up studying Earth Sciences. I hadn鈥檛 studied any geology, but knew I enjoyed science and loved learning about the world. I found this book really helpful in deciding whether Earth Science was the best course for me, as it took me step-by-step through the key areas of geology at a pace that was easy to follow.
Each chapter of the book focusses on one key topic, for example 鈥淧late Tectonics鈥� or 鈥淰olcanoes鈥�, and each chapter is split further into brief subsections that are simple to take in. This makes it easy to pick the book up and learn something new whenever you have a spare five minutes. 鈥淪potlight鈥� boxes are dotted around each chapter, and are a distinct line of text that sum up the most important part of a subsection. These are really good for making sense of some of the more complex ideas. At the end of each chapter is a page of multiple-choice questions with neatly explained answers in the back. This lets you check your understanding and is a different, more interesting way of learning information as it really makes you think back over everything you鈥檝e just read.
There are loads of images in the book, including a collection of colour diagrams and photos in the middle that are referred to throughout the text. This keeps the book engaging, as every theory written about is accompanied by a figure of some kind.
The tone of the book is lovely. You can tell that the author put a lot of effort into making his explanations accessible and down-to-earth, and he鈥檚 careful to gradually build up the use of scientific terminology so it鈥檚 not overwhelming or confusing.
The title of the book is boring, but I promise that what鈥檚 between the covers is the complete opposite. It really does offer a 鈥渃omplete introduction鈥� to geology 鈥� the kind of introduction that leaves you wanting to learn even more.
Geology: A Complete Introduction by David Rothery
ISBN-10:147360155X
ISBN-13: 978-1473601550
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Published: 10 August 2023