Introduction to planetary science. The geological perspective / Введение в планетологию. Геологические перспективы

This textbook is intended to be used in a lecture course for college students majoring in the Earth Sciences. Planetary science provides an opportunity for these students to apply a wide range of subject matter pertaining to the Earth to the study of other planets of the solar system and their principal satellites. As a result, students gain a wider perspective of the different worlds that are accessible to us and they are led to recognize the Earth as the only oasis in space where we can live without life-support systems. In addition, planetary science tends to unify subjects in the Earth Sciences that are customarily taught separately: geophysics, volcanology, igneous petrology, mineralogy, geomorphology, geochemistry, hydrogeology, glacialogy, tectonics, economic geology, historical geology, as well as meteoritics, microbiology, physics, astronomy, atmospheric science, and even geopolitics and international relations. Clearly, planetary science is well suited to be taught as a capstone course for senior undergraduates and beginning graduate students at universities everywhere. The exploration of space is by necessity a cooperative enterprise in which national borders, cultural differences, and even language barriers fade. Therefore, we propose that planetary science should be incorporated into the Earth Science curriculum even at institutions thatdonot have an active research program in planetary science. Students will benefit from such a course because it will expand their intellectual horizons and will prepare them to contribute to the on-going exploration of the solar system. <...>