These 36 half-hour lectures are your initiation into the geological world that lies just outside your door. "The Nature of Earth: An Introduction to Geology" introduces you to physical geology, the study of Earth's minerals, rocks, soils, and the processes that operate on them through time.

Course guidebooks contain outlines of each 30 minute lecture.

Part 1. Lecture 1. Origin of the universe -- Lecture 2. Origin of the solar system -- Lecture 3. Continental drift -- Lecture 4. Plate tectonics -- L:ecture 5. The formation of minerals -- Lecture 6. Classification of minerals -- Lecture 7. The identification of minerals -- Lecture 8. Kinds of rocks -- Lecture 9. Sedimentary rocks -- Lecture 10. Metamorphic rocks -- Lecture 11. Volcanic activity -- Lecture 12. Phases of volcanic activity. Part 2. Lecture 13. Hawaiian Islands and Yellowstone Park -- Lecture 14. Mass wasting--gravity at work -- Lecture 15. Mass wasting processes -- Lecture 16. Weathering -- Lecture 17. Soils and the clay minerals -- Lecture 18. Climate and the type of soils -- Lecture 19. Streams--the major agent of erosion -- Lecture 20. Sculpting of the landscape -- Lecture 21. Stream erosion in arid regions -- Lecture 22. Ice sculpts the final scene -- Lecture 23. Groundwater -- Lecture 24. The production of groundwater. Part 3. Lecture 25. Karst topography -- Lecture 26. Groundwater contamination -- Lecture 27. Rock deformation -- Lecture 28. The geologic structures -- Lecture 29. Faults and joints -- Lecture 30. Earthquakes -- Lecture 31. Damage from earthquakes -- Lecture 32. Seismology -- Lecture 33. The formation of mountains -- Lecture 34. Orogenic styles -- Lecture 35. Economic geology of coal -- Lecture 36. Economic geology of petroleum.