This book presents an introduction to statistical methods that is specifically written for “earth science” students who do not have a strong background in mathematics.

The earth sciences are increasingly (and appropriately) recognized as environmental sciences that overlap and integrate with other disciplines, especially geography, hydrology, soil science, oceanography, environmental management, environmental impact assessment, bioremediation, remote sensing and conservation. As a result, the skills required of earth scientists have become far more diverse, as have the interests and backgrounds of students who enroll in these programs. Today's earth scientists need to be able to critically evaluate sampling designs, to understand the concept of statistical analysis, and be able to evaluate and interpret the results of statistical tests applied in a wide range of fields.

A sound grounding in statistical concepts and methods is especially important, but an increasing proportion of earth science students do not have this. Some have told us that math avoidance is the reason why they have pursued earth sciences instead of chemistry, biology and physics. Many such students are afraid of mathematics (often because they did badly in such subjects at high school) and dread doing an introductory statistics course.

This book has been developed for university and college courses in introductory geostatistics and as a guide for new users to learn statistics on their own.