There’s no place like Earth—and we’ve got the planet’s spectacular, one-of-a-kind geology to thank for it. In this episode of Crash Course Geology, we’ll explore how geology touches our lives, helps us solve mysteries about the planet’s past and its future, and puts our world life in perspective.

What can a moon rock tell us about Earth’s distant past? All kinds of stuff! Like where its water came from, how it got its moon, and what its birth might have looked like. In this episode of Crash Course Geology, we’ll stroll down memory lane with the Earth’s baby book, and learn about some of the ways it might have formed.

Nobody has made it to the center of the Earth—but not for lack of trying. In this episode of Crash Course Geology, we’ll journey through the crust and mantle that make up ⅔ of our planet’s insides. We’ll uncover how these layers affect our lives on the surface, and how geologists discover more about them without traveling into Earth’s depths themselves.

The crust and the mantle are cool, but Earth’s real hero is its core, which helps protect us from all kinds of stuff. In this episode of Crash Course Geology, we’ll take a journey to the center of the Earth to meet our hero, the core.

Minerals are amazing and they’re all around us, in the food we eat and even in our very bones. But what actually is a mineral? In this episode of Crash Course Geology, we’ll learn the basics of mineral identification and uncover the surprising connections between minerals and life itself.