Planetary Geology: An Introduction

As scientific exploration of the solar system intensifies, recent planetary missions by NASA, the European Space Agency and other national bodies have reaffirmed that geological processes familiar from our studies of the Earth operate on many solid planets and satellites. Common threads link the internal structure, thermal evolution and surface character of both rocky and icy worlds, and volcanoes, impact craters, ice caps, dunes, rift valleys, rivers and oceans emerge as features of extra-terrestrial worlds as diverse as Mercury and Titan. The new data also reveal that many supposedly inert planetary bodies currently experience eruptions, landslides and dust storms. Moreover our understanding of the Solar System has greatly benefited from the analysis of meteorites from Mars as well as rock samples collected on the Moon.

Combining extensive use of imagery, the results of laboratory experiments and theoretical modelling, this comprehensively updated second edition of Planetary Geology provides the student reader and the enthusiastic amateur with up-to-date coverage of these recent advances and confirms that, to quote from the first edition, planetary geology now embraces conventional geology and vice versa.