Landslides, among the most devastating natural disasters in the world, have been, annually, killing thousands of lives, affecting millions of people, and causing billions of dollars of property damage globally. Understanding the causes of specific landslides and their failure mechanisms will help us developing appropriate mitigation measures. Specifically, as landslides directly affect our lifeline infrastructures, applying appropriate engineering judgement while designing sustainable and suitable prevention works using locally available manpower and resources is very important for any strategic landslide management planning. With the advancement of new technology and knowledge, there has been a significant enhancement in the resources available for the analyses of landslides and debris flow disasters, prior to developing their mitigation measures.

Geology is everywhere in our daily lives. We are surrounded by materials and resources extracted from the Earth, from jewelry to the gasoline we use to fuel our cars, to the water we drink. Geological science routinely informs the decisions of public policy leaders in government, industry, and community organizations. Understanding our Earth has never been more important.

The geological terminology used in a course using this material is minimal and much less difficult than the new terminology required in many other science courses. The prerequisite or accompanying a geological map interpretation course would be a lecture course in first-year physical geology. For those who have not previously followed a geology course, the essential principles involved are explained as we progress. Definitions and terminology are presented incrementally and may be recognized as words or phrases that are explained in the Appendix. The full meaning or usage of terms may only become apparent later after completion of an exercise. The first three chapters essentially duplicate material from a first-year geology course.

Granite magmatism represents a major contribution to crustal growth and recycling and, consequently, is one of the most important mechanisms to have contributed to the geochemical differentiation of the Earth's crust since the Archaean times. The important role of granites has been acknowledged from the times of James Hutton, being an important part of Mutton's (1785) work The Theory of the Earth. Since that time, advances in Earth Sciences and the development of analytical instruments have produced a vast amount of data from granite terrains around the world (see, for instance, the Proceedings of the Hutton symposia, 1988, 1992, 1996). However, many problems still remain unsolved.