Fossils are a glimpse into the distant past and fascinate young and old alike. This free course, Life in the Palaeozoic, will introduce you to the explosion of evolution that took place during the Palaeozoic era. You will look at the many different types of creatures that existed at that time and how they managed to evolve to exist on land.

Most people throw coal on the fire and put petrol in their cars without really thinking about it. But, looking at sediment deposits can reveal what type of environments created our coal and oil hundreds of millions of years ago. The five video tracks in this album examine the role of geology in determining the global distribution and availability of these valuable resources. They look at the formation of coal and how to mine it safely, the extraction of crude oil from the Athabasca oil sands and Colorado oil shale, and how we discovered reservoirs of oil in Jurassic rocks under the North Sea. This material forms part of S278, Earth's physical resources: origin, use and environmental impact.

Celebrate the geological phenomena that have rocked this world with Earth Science Week running from 13th to 19th October 2014.

In this free course, An introduction to minerals and rocks under the microscope, you will experience the study of minerals using a polarising microscope. While the study of minerals can involve electron or ion beam chemical analysis, the polarising microscope remains the prime tool for the study of rock thin sections and is the foundation of learning to recognise, characterise and identify rocks.

Rocks are made of minerals and, as minerals are natural crystals, the geological world is mostly a crystalline world. This free course, Minerals and the crystalline state, introduces the study of minerals and crystal structures, using online text and interactive activities, including questions and answers, video clips, slidecasts and a Digital Kit.

Geology is the scientific study of the Earth, its origin, structure, processes and composition. This album is concerned mainly with the interpretation of geological maps and the relationship between the landscape and underlying rocks. It reveals how the geological history of any area can be interpreted from a geological map. Dr Andrew Bell visits Morecambe Bay and the 'special' Siccar Point to investigate the rocks and stones in the area. This material is taken from The Open University course S260 Geology.

Where do the metals we use come from and what determines where we get them from? Dr Julie Robson focuses on the highly sought-after metal of gold, which actually occurs with other metals including silver, copper and lead.