Назначение настоящего учебника — дать студентам по возможности ясное представление о Земле как природном теле, о составе и строении земной коры и о процессах эндогенного и экзогенного характера. В каждой главе учебника дается не только общее представление о минералах, горных породах, геологических процессах, геохронологии и т. д., но и рассматривается зависимость происхождения минеральных масс от развития тех или иных процессов и развития тех или иных процессов от минерального состава земной коры.
Книга предназначается не только для студентов, изучающих курс общей геологии, но и для преподавателей, читающих этот курс. В учебнике 5 таблиц и 169 рисунков. Подавляющее большинство фотографий (рис. 5, 7—10, 13—21, 23, 24, 26—35, 37, 38, 42, 48—52, 54, 56,60—65, 70—73, 75, 78, 83, 84, 86, 87—89, 98—100, 106, 107, 111, 113, 114, 116, 117, 119 и 123) выполнены автором.

Natural hazards are potentially damaging physical events and phenomena, which may cause the loss of life, injury or human life disruption, property damage, social, economic, and political disruption, or environmental degradation. Natural disasters cause fear and horror for people. The most unpredictable is earthquakes.  Active volcanoes are constantly monitored that gives the possibility to anticipate a possible eruption. Tsunamis have a number of predictive features that give possibility to mitigate their consequences.

Water and earthquakes, while two seemingly separate subjects, do interact, as evidenced by the great many earthquakes during the last decade in themid-continental USA induced by the injection of toxic wastewater co-produced from hydrocarbon extraction.

In 1969, when I was a student in California, there was a rash of predictions from astrologers, clairvoyants, and evangelists that there would be a devastating earthquake and the entire state—or at least a large part of it—would fall into the ocean. The seers claimed this would happen during April, although they were not in agreement about the precise date.

Geologists, also known as Geoscientists, are trying to understand the constitution of the earth. The surficial portion, which is directly visible to the geologists, is made up more of water bodies (the seas, the oceans, and the lakes, together constitute nearly 2/3rds of the entire surface of the earth) than the land masses (Africa, America, Asia etc.). Large area of land around the north and the southpoles, is covered with a thick blanket of ice sheet, throughout the year.

Macroseismic effects of the principal earthquakes occurring in the United States from 1568 through 1989 are described. Principal earthquakes are defined as those of Modified Mercalli intensity > VI or Richter magnitude > 4.5. Exceptions are the State of Alaska and the offshore areas of California, Oregon, and Washington, where the magnitude cutoff is > 5.5.