Skip to content
Skip to main content

About this free course

Download this course

Share this free course

An introduction to geology
An introduction to geology

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

Acknowledgements

This free course was written by Anne Jay and Marcus Badger.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this free course:

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Week 1

Course image: Carlina Teteris; Getty Images

Figure 1.1: Diariocritico de Venezuela in Flickr. https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by/ 2.0/

Figure 1.2: left to right:

Jorge Láscar in flickr.com. https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by/ 2.0/;

Unsplash: from www.pixabay.com. https://creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/ zero/ 1.0/ deed.en,

Image: courtesy Liam Gumley, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the MODIS science team via NASA.

Figure 1.3: courtesy Dr Marcus Badger.

Figure 1.6: courtesy Dr Anne Jay.

Figure 1.7 and 1.8: Paul Martin / Alamy Stock Photo.

Figure 1.10: Eden, Janine and Jim in Flickr https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by/ 2.0/.

Figure 1.14: Blatant World in flickr https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by/ 2.0/

Figure 1.15: courtesy Dr Frances Jenner. – adapted with permission.

If reading this text has inspired you to learn more, you may be interested in joining the millions of people who discover our free learning resources and qualifications by visiting The Open University – www.open.edu/ openlearn/ free-courses.

Video 1.1: Introducing the course: © The Open University

Video 1.2: Three types of rock: © The Open University

Video 1.3: Identifying rocks: going into the field: © The Open University https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc-nd/ 3.0/

Video 1.4: The Earth's history in a day: © The Open University

Video 1.5: Magnetic reversal stripes: © The Open University

Week 2

Figure 2.1: courtesy Dr Frances Jenner – adapted with permission.

Figure 2.6: David Clarke https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc-nd/ 2.0/

Figure 2.7: Norsk Hydro ASA

Figure 2.11: James St. John. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by/ 2.0/

Figure 2.14: Peter Webb, The Open University.

Figure 2.17: Kris Williams; https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc-sa/ 3.0/

Figure 2.18: Eric Gaba. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 2.5/

Figure 2.19: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Figure 2.21: James St. John. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by/ 2.0/

Figure 2.22: Sue Waters. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 2.0/

Figures 2.23: Data © British Geological Survey.

Video 2.1: Anatomy of a smartphone: © The Open University

Video 2.2: Extracting enough aluminium: © The Open University

Video 2.3: Black Smokers: clips:

(1) Highlights from Galapagos Nautilus Live https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=KtFFmDGIsa4 OET / NautilusLive courtesy www.nautiluslive.org;

(2) Hydrothermal vents in the deep sea https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=rTR6gGDWcJk courtesy © Marum

Week 3

Figure 3.1: Dr Marcus Badger

Figure 3.3: Natural England (photographer Steve Marsden) https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc-nd/ 2.0/

Figure 3.4.(left) Haber photograph: © ullstein bild / Getty Images, (right) Bosch photograph: © Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo

Figure 3.6: By Fvasconcellos;taken from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki

Figure 3.7: left: Syncrude Canada https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc-nd/ 3.0/; right: Colin Howley – https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc-nd/ 3.0/

Figure 3.8: NASA images courtesy the of SeaWiFS Project, Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE.

Figure 3.9: Andrew Skudder. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 2.0/.

Figure 3.13: Reproduced with the permission of the OneGeology. All rights Reserved.

Figure 3.16: jasonwoodhead 23 http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 2.0/

3.1 Oil comes from the ground: © The Open University and its licensors

3.2 Seismic Exploration Part 1: © The Open University and its licensors

Thanks to Schlumberger for provision of Petrel software licences to Imperial College London.

Geoscience Australia and the Department of Mines and Petroleum are thanked for providing seismic data. Seismic is available from the WAPIMS.

Thanks to Prof. Chris Jackson, Imperial College London for mapping of the near Top Mungaroo horizon and Dr Craig Magee, Imperial College London for dataset compilation.

3.3 Seismic Exploration Part 2: © The Open University and its licensors

Week 4

Figure 4.1: N-sky; iStockphoto

Figure 4.2: Dr Matthew Balme.

Figure 4.3: Contains British Geological Survey materials © NERC 2016. Base mapping is provided by ESRI.

Figure 4.4: Wessex Archaeology. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc/ 2.0/.

Figure 4.5: Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors.

Figure 4.6: Mercator Media 2007.

Figure 4.7: Bastnäsite: Ra’ike https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 3.0/ deed.en; Xenotime: Rob Lavinsky, iRocks. https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 3.0/; Monazite: Rob Lavinsky, iRocks. https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 3.0/

Figure 4.8: Mark A. Wilson (Department of Geology, The College of Wooster).

Figure 4.9: DigitalGlobe 2016 / Google Earth.

Figure 4.10: Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2013) Climate Change 2013: Rhe Physical Basis. IPCC.

Figure 4.11: Samuel Barnes. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc-nd/ 2.0

Figure 4.12: Kris Williams; http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 3.0/

Figure 4.13: Cls14. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 3.0/.

Figure 4.14: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc-nd/ 2.0/.

Video 4.1: Video: Breaking and fixing our planet © The Open University and its licensors:

Thanks to Schlumberger for provision of Petrel software licences to Imperial College London. Geoscience Australia and the Department of Mines and Petroleum are thanked for providing seismic data. Seismic is available from the WAPIMS. Thanks to Prof. Chris Jackson, Imperial College London for mapping of the near Top Mungaroo horizon and Dr Craig Magee, Imperial College London for dataset compilation.

Emily Chen, NASA; Andrew M. Meyers, Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors, kaband, curraheeshutter’s, Jami Dwyer, PhotoStock10, RefDr/David Clarke, Samuel Barnes http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc-nd/ 2.0; Mike Beauregard; https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by/ 2.0; Billy Hicks https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 4.0/.

Videos 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4: © The Open University.