In this post, we will see the book Fundamentals of Geology by V. Obruchev.

About the book (from the Preface)

Hence, we are entitled to say that every person should be acquainted with its (geology’s) basic principles. And the purpose of this book is to impart him this knowledge. Geology, therefore, can-not be a collection of stories about interesting things, mysterious events, or instructive comparisons taken at random from the vast realm of science, it must be expounded systematically. The reader will become acquainted with the activity of nature’s forces which he can personally observe in the neighbourhood of his town or village, in the highlands or on the plains, with the work of running, still and ground waters, with the activity of the wind and ice and with its results, visible both in the rock  formations which make up the land forms and in the destruction and transformation of the latter.

When the reader has become acquainted with the work of these forces, which we call external, he will be told of other forces hidden in the bowels of the Earth which give vent to their energy in mountain-building, eruption of volcanoes and earthquakes. Then, he will be given a brief outline of the Earth’s history, of the origin and development of life and he will be told about the catastrophic events that have taken place during this time. He will learn of the formation of useful minerals and the regularity of their occurrence, especially in the U.S.S.R. The concluding chapter deals with geological documents and the
methods used in studying traces of past events which throw light on the Earth’s history.

This book, naturally, cannot embrace the entire realm of geology; it is confined to physical or dynamic geology, a branch dealing with the activity of the external and internal forces which shape and change the Earth’s crust. Very little is said of historical geology, which covers a wide field of the history of the Earth, and only scanty attention is paid to the science of useful deposits — the third branch of geology which examines the results of the activity of the natural forces.

Of the fourth branch — petrography or petrology — the science of rock formations that make up the earth’s crust, we give only the essentials. Physical geology is an introduction to these more specialized branches of geology and the book serves this purpose.

It is a popular book, designed for young readers who are acquainted with the rudiments of physics and chemistry.

The book was translated from the Russian by David Myshne and Persy Ludwick and was published by Foreign Languages Publishing House in 1959 (from worldcat entry). This book was digitised in the Digital Library of India project, as it has Osmania University stamp. And has three different links as given under (same book in all the links).

The Internet Archive Link 1

The Internet Archive Link 2

The Internet Archive Link 3

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Contents

Introduction 5

I. What the Brook Murmurs 9

II. At the Sea-Shore 37

III. How Water Works Underground 58

IV. Rock Weathering 75

V. Wind Action 99

VI. Travelling Stones 127

VII. Products of the Earth’s Entrails 164

VIII. Building and Destruction of Mountains 204

IX. Why the Earth Shakes Now Here and Now There 242

X. Brief History of Our Earth 258

XI. Catastrophes in the History of the Earth 292

XII. What Riches the Earth Contains 329

XIII. The Young Pathfinder 351

Russian Bibliography 372

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