Yuri Gorokhovich is a physical geologist who combines geologic and geographic methods, mainly Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and field surveys. His latest (since 2018) research was focused on geochronology of glacial deposits on Hudson River using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) , finding source of mercury in ancient Maya settlement Copan (Honduras) using X-ray fluorescent method (XRF) and identification of the impact of topographic aspect on hurricane caused landslides in Puerto Rico and Guatemala. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in geology, hydrology and GIS, created summer geology field course on Crete (Greece) for the Lehman College Study Abroad (see: https://www.lehman.edu/academics/study-abroad/greece.php) and continues teaching the first established GIS course at Columbia University (since 1999) at the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering.

This book is a modified original version from Lumen Learning course that Yuri found few years ago when he started using Open Educational Resources (OER) for teaching. His famous words about OER at Lehman College are: “Instead of adapting a book for the class – I feel like I am adapting a world for the class.”. This was said because Yuri believes in teaching with modern information and of course videos and photos. With OER it is so easy to add latest news from Science or video clips from other geologists and researchers, public media. Yuri believes in motivation of students by own experience and his goal in teaching GEO101 is to make students appreciate our Earth and geologic science.