TABLEOFCONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 CHAPTER 1 HOW IT ALL BEGAN CHAPTER 2 MAGNIFICENT MINERALS 20 CHAPTER 3 EARTHQUAKES AND THEIR ORIGINS 32 CHAPTER 4 FIRE DOWN BELOW 44 CHAPTER 5 SHIFTING PLATES AND DRIFTING CONTINENTS 56 CHAPTER 6 WHAT GOES UP MUST COMEDown 68 CHAPTER 7 THE ROCK CYCLE BO CHAPTER B DIGGING OLD DEAD THINGS 92 CHAPTER 9 THE DYNAMICS OF DIRT in CHAPTER 10 Rock In Resources 116 STEM SCIENCE STANDARDS 126 INDEX 127
INTRODUCTION OH SORRY DIDN T SEE you THERE NOT NOW DIGGER I M TRYING TO WORK ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF MY FRIENDS CALL ME THE DIRTMEISTER Dirtmeister is a nickname that I picked up a long time ago because of the type of work that I do You see Im a geolo gist which means that I spend a lot of my time digging in the dirt Geologists are scientists who study the Earth and try to understand how it got here and how it changes We try to answer questions such as how different rocks form why earth quakes happen what causes volcanoes to erupt and where fossils come from Over the years I ve gotten to do some pretty cool stuff as a scientist Pve also spent a lot of time working in radio and television and I ve been on lots of websites These days my favorite thing to do is to hang out with kids and try to answer some of their questions about science and how the world That's why Ive put this book together Over the years Ive found that kids have lots of questions about how the Earth works so Ive gathered up the best of them and put them here Ive also come up with lots of cool facts called Dirtmeister s Nuggets and a few I stories about the men and women who had a big influence in the I field of geology Inside this book you ll find a bunch of experiments that you can do at home You see Im not like some of those other scientists who say don t do this at home For me science is NOT a spectator sport If you want to learn about how things work then you ve got to mess around with stuff of course before you start doing the experiments PLEASE grab an adult to help That way if anything goes wrong you can blame them r guess the best way to think of me is as your tour guide PR to the inner workings of planet Earth Along with my pal Digger we ll dig into the Earth's past see what makes I our world tick and even take a look at where we may be I headed in the future So put on your hard hat and climb aboard for a wild ride as we get the inside scoop on the planet we call
GOT A QUESTION THAT's DRIVING YOUNUTS Ill TIRED OF GETTING A BUNCH OF INFORMATION THAT DOESN T MAKE SENSE WHO CAN YOU CALL ON TO GET THE STRAIGHT SCOOP ON SCIENCE STUFF SIMPLE YOU CAN CALL ON THAT SUPERHERO OF SCIENCE the D n A in THE DIRTMEISTER and his sidekick DIGGER They aren't afraid to take on the tough questions EA of science no matter how big GE or small For
