As someone who lectures to adult audiences on Northern Arizona geology using powerpoint slides loaded with photos and drawings, I was very interested in this visual approach to teaching geology. Unfortunately, although the book is billed as suitable for university course, I found it more on the high school or even junior high school level. The photos and diagrams are fine but the accompanying "text", if it could be called that, is inadequate and too dumbed down to qualify for a university level course. "Rocks for Jocks" maybe, but not for serious students of geology. Better to choose a standard text like "Dynamic Earth" by Skinner, Porter and Park, a book that has many excellent and effective visual aids along with a thorough university level text.

If only we could learn geology though genuine field experiences with a master scientist, geologist and communicator...

This is as close as it gets in a textbook. Based on illustrations of real field locations and enticing geological investigations, this book takes the excitement of field geologists into real-world inquiry of the workings of planet Earth.

Since John S. Shelton's classic, "Geology Illustrated," published just over 40 years ago, no textbook has been centered on engaging illustrations and real locations. But Reynolds et al have presented over 2,700 full color images, diagrams and maps. Like most other textbooks, each chapter centers on a skill set or content area of current interest. But this book and its extensive ancillary materials draws the student into the process of investigation. This approach imparts the basic needs of an introductory college course in geology. By bringing the student into the investigative process, geology becomes a spectator sport and the student an eager participant.

What is lost? Tedium and frustration. The student need not find her way through long passages of text and jargon. In the field, a geologist is hampered by the inconvenience and expenses of long-distance travel, variable weather conditions, a limited view of and from Earth's surface and a random encounter with each process that is revealed. But not here. In other words, not much of educational value is lost.

This is a geology textbook for the 21st century to educate students for a new millenium.

Thomas McGuire, Geology/Earth Science Educator & Author

If only we could learn geology though genuine field experiences with a master scientist, geologist and communicator...

This is as close as it gets in a textbook. Based on illustrations of real field locations and enticing geological investigations, this book takes the excitement of field geologists into real-world inquiry of the workings of planet Earth.

Since John S. Shelton's classic, "Geology Illustrated," published just over 40 years ago, no textbook has been centered on engaging illustrations and real locations. But Reynolds et al have presented over 2,700 full color images, diagrams and maps. Like most other textbooks, each chapter centers on a skill set or content area of current interest. But this book and its extensive ancillary materials draws the student into the process of investigation. This approach imparts the basic needs of an introductory college course in geology. By bringing the student into the investigative process, geology becomes a spectator sport and the student an eager participant.

What is lost? Tedium and frustration. The student need not find her way through long passages of text and jargon. In the field, a geologist is hampered by the inconvenience and expenses of long-distance travel, variable weather conditions, a limited view of and from Earth's surface and a random encounter with each process that is revealed. But not here. In other words, not much of educational value is lost.

This is a geology textbook for the 21st century to educate students for a new millenium.

Thomas McGuire, Geology/Earth Science Educator & Author