• Updated and expanded coverage of global environmental change – Includes a new section on measuring and understanding climate change.

• Expanded Learning Review at end of each chapter

– Helps students focus on key concepts as they study each chapter.

• Expanded student CD – Includes many new animations and videos.

– Animations help students learn concepts that are difficult to grasp from simple static diagrams alone.

– Animation voice overs are written by Darrel Hess to give students more insight into the visuals.

–Quizzes wrap up each module on the CD so students can evaluate their understanding.

• New MyGeologyPlace Web site access included in each new copy of the book.

–Quizzes are mapped closely to the book to aid in reaching assessment standards.

–Results flow into a grade tracker for instructors.

• New and updated content:

– A new section on Science and Geography has been added to Chapter 1.

– An expanded section on human alteration of the atmosphere, including ozone depletion and air pollution, is included in Chapter 3.

– Material on the Coriolis Effect has been moved to Chapter 3 so that it precedes the discussion of ocean currents in Chapter 4.

– Information about energy, electromagnetic radiation, and basic heating and cooling processes has been expanded in Chapter 4.

– El Niño and other periodic ocean-atmospheric phenomena such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation are now covered in Chapter 5, following the explanation of the general circulation of the atmosphere and localized wind systems.

– Material on the characteristics of water and phase changes has been expanded upon and moved to the beginning of Chapter 6 where it serves as the introduction to the discussion of moisture in the atmosphere.

– A new section on measuring and understanding climate change and global warming has been incorporated into the end of Chapter 8. This new section can also stand alone for instructors who want to discuss this material at a different point in their course.

– More extensive coverage of the movement of ocean waters–including tides and deep ocean circulation patterns–is now found in Chapter 9.

– Chapters 10 and 11 on biogeography have been updated and reorganized for greater clarity.

– Chapter 13 now includes an expanded section on rocks and minerals.

– More extensive coverage of the history and evidence of plate tectonics is found in Chapter 14.

– Chapter 16 on fluvial processes and Chapter 18 on the topography of arid lands have been updated and reorganized for greater clarity.

– Chapter 20 now includes expanded sections on tsunamis and human modification of shorelines.

– Key material found in “focus boxes” in previous editions has been integrated directly into the text.  New shorter focus boxes found in this edition include:  The UV Index, Monitoring Earth’s Radiation Budget, Measuring Sea Surface Temperature by Satellite, Forecasting El Niño, Water Vapor Satellite Images, Global Dimming, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricanes and Global Warming, Climate Change in the Arctic, Paleoclimatology at Dome C, Thawing Permafrost in Alaska, Oceans Becoming More Acidic, The Aral Sea and Lake Chad, Subsidence from Groundwater Extraction, Changing Climate Affects Bird Populations, Rainforest Loss in Brazil, Earthquake Forecasting, The Madison Valley Landslide, The Birdsfoot of the Mississippi, Disintegration of Antarctic Ice Shelves, Shrinking Alaskan Glaciers, The Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami of 2004, and Bleaching of Coral Reefs.

– Many new animations have been added to the Student CD and made available for instructors on the IRCD, including:  The Water Table, Groundwater Cone of Depression, Isostasy, Paleomagnetism, Volcano Types, Mechanical Weathering, Mass Wasting, Sand Dune Movement and Cross Bedding, and Tsunamis.