Geology and the Earth's History

Explore Geology and the Earth's History through a clear, engaging Science course that shows how Earth works from the inside out. You will learn to read the rocks, fossils, and tectonic forces that shaped our planet while building practical knowledge of minerals, landscapes, deep time, natural hazards, and Earth’s changing environments.

Understand The Science Behind Earth’s Geologic Story

• Build a strong foundation in minerals, rocks, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building.
• Learn how surface processes such as rivers, glaciers, deserts, coasts, groundwater, and weathering shape landscapes over time.
• Use fossils, dating methods, and the geologic time scale to interpret ancient environments and major events in Earth history.
• Connect Geology and the Earth's History to modern decisions about resources, hazards, climate, and humanity’s place in deep time.

This course introduces the essential Science of geology, from Earth materials and tectonic systems to fossils, deep time, and the modern world.

Geology and the Earth's History begins with Earth as a dynamic planet, then moves into the minerals and rocks that preserve evidence of changing conditions across billions of years. You will examine igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, learning how each rock type forms and what it can reveal about magma, surface environments, pressure, heat, and the larger rock cycle.

The course then explores Earth’s internal engine through plate tectonics, moving continents, earthquakes, faults, volcanoes, crust formation, mountain building, and continental collision. These lessons help you understand the powerful forces that create ocean basins, raise mountain ranges, trigger seismic activity, and continually reshape the planet’s surface.

You will also study the landscapes around us, including soils, rivers, floodplains, glaciers, deserts, coasts, caves, and hidden groundwater systems. By connecting these surface processes to geologic evidence, you will learn to read the rocks, fossils, and tectonic forces that shaped our planet in both ancient and modern settings.

Finally, the course turns to deep time, relative and radiometric dating, fossils, evolution, supercontinents, climate shifts, mass extinctions, geologic resources, and natural hazards. By the end, you will see Earth through a Science-based geologic lens, able to interpret landscapes, recognize evidence of past change, and understand how Geology and the Earth's History informs decisions about the future.