Acknowledgements
This book arose through a fellowship from the Open Educational Resources (OER) Faculty Fellows Program at Roger Williams University. I am grateful to the faculty and staff of the Center for Teaching & Learning, the University Library, and the Instructional Design Office for their support and assistance throughout the fellowship, in particular Bob Shea, Linda Beith, and Lindsey Gumb.
I would like to extend my thanks to Steven Earle, whose book Physical Geology I have drawn from heavily in the geological sections of this text. Geology is not my area of expertise, so I am appreciative of the work of Dr. Earle in both creating his book and in making it available for others to use and adapt through the OER and Creative Commons ideals. I also thank the numerous other people cited throughout the text who have made their resources available through Creative Commons licensing. I hope that others will be able to similarly make use of the materials I have created here.
Thank you to Julio Romero for creating many of the figures throughout the book. Artwork credited to Julio is designated with (JR).
And finally, I thank my family, Alexis, Rhys and Kyle, for their support and encouragement throughout the ongoing process that is this book.
Creative Commons licensing designations throughout this book refer to:
