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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences
Explores the complex physico-chemical processes involved in active volcanism and dynamic magmatism Understanding the magmatic processes responsible for the chemical and textural signatures of volcanic products and igneous rocks is crucial for monitoring, forecasting, and mitigating the impacts of volcanic activity. Dynamic Magma Evolution is a compilation of recent geochemical, petrological, physical, and thermodynamic studies. It combines field research, experimental results, theoretical approaches, unconventional and novel techniques, and computational modeling to present the latest developments in the field. Volume highlights include: Crystallization and degassing processes in magmatic environments Bubble and mineral nucleation and growth induced by cooling and decompression Kinetic processes during magma ascent to the surface Magma mixing, mingling, and recharge dynamics Geo-speedometer measurement of volcanic events Changes in magma rheology induced by mineral and volatile content The American Geophysical Union promotes discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity. Its publications disseminate scientific knowledge and provide resources for researchers, students, and professionals.
This book provides historical perspectives on the climate apprehensions of scientists and the general public from the Englightenment to the late twentieth century. Issues discussed include what people have understood, experienced, and feared about the climate and its changes in the past; how privileged and authoritative positions on climate have been established; the paths by which we have arrived at our current state of knowledge and apprehension; and what a study of the past has to offer to the interdisciplinary investigation of environmental problems.
The first systematic examination of the role of geomorphological processes in the cycling of carbon through the terrestrial system. Argues that knowledge of geomorphological processes is fundamental to understanding the ways in which carbon is stored and recycled in the terrestrial environment Integrates classical geomorphological theory with understanding of microbial processes controlling the decomposition of organic matter Develops an interdisciplinary research agenda for the analysis of the terrestrial carbon cycle Informed by work in ecology, microbiology and biogeochemistry, in order to analyse spatial and temporal patterns of terrestrial carbon cycling at the landscape scale Considers the ways in which, as Humanity enters the Anthropocene, the application of this science has the potential to manage the terrestrial carbon cycle to limit increases in atmospheric carbon
Lying off the south-western tip of Mull, the island of Iona has huge significance as the first important centre of Christianity in Scotland. But the Abbey itself is built upon rocks that tell of events of much greater antiquity: the Lewisian gneisses of western Iona are some of the oldest rocks in the world. Alan McKirdy explores the fascinating geology of the area - in particular the eruption of two major volcanoes around 60 million years ago whose magma chambers formed the spectacular hills and glens of the Ardnamurchan peninsula and Glen More on Mull; and the Ice Age, when glaciers ripped away much of the upper part of the two volcanoes and sandpapered the landscape to create the rounded contours we see today.
This book is a product of Brazilian Academy of Sciences Study Group about water issue. The water cycle was addressed based on an integrated point of view, aiming at joining technological and ecological solutions and integrating quantitative and qualitative aspects of this important environmental asset. Issues such as the water resources management and irrigated agriculture, water and health, water and economy, conservation and reuse as management tools, water in the Brazilian semi arid, water in Amazon, urbanization and water resources, education for the sustainability of water resources, groundwater, availability, pollution and eutrophication of water and science, technology and innovation are of the utmost importance for this exact moment in Brazil, and particularly to the State of Sao Paulo. Addressing these issues will undoubtedly contribute towards a sustainable management of water resources trough the coordinated work of different fields of science, progressing a systemic view about water, that would then finally allow management professionals the possibility of an integral action in anticipating problems and thus anticipate solutions.
In view of the grave consequences of soil degradation on ecosystem functions, food security, biodiversity and human health, this book covers the extent, causes, processes and impacts of global soil degradation, and processes for improvement of degraded soils. Soil conservation measures, including soil amendments, decompaction, mulching, cover cropping, crop rotation, green manuring, contour farming, strip cropping, alley cropping, surface roughening, windbreaks, terracing, sloping agricultural land technology (SALT), dune stabilization, etc., are discussed. Particular emphasis is given to soil pollution and the methods of physical, chemical and biological remediation of polluted soils. This book will lead the reader from the basics to a comprehensive understanding of soil degradation, conservation and remediation.
Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) are three of the most important elements used to build living beings, and their uptake from the environment is consequently essential for all organisms. Photosynthesis is the process in which plants absorb atmospheric C as they grow and convert it to biomass. However, plants acquire N and P only when these are available in the soil solution, which makes these elements the most limiting nutrients in plant growth and productivity in most ecosystems. When plant residues and roots decompose, the C, N and P they contain is transformed primarily into soil organic matter (SOM) or C and N can release to the atmosphere. Recent interest on the global C, N and P cycles has focused attention on the different proportion of terrestrial C, N and P stored in different ecosystem pools. Cuatro Cienegas represents an exceptional place, since the plants are not the base of the food web, they are the microbial community, that recycle the elements essential for life. In this book we describe how this is an analog of early Earth.
This book offers a comprehensive review of the landscapes and ecosystems of the Upper Yellow River. It focuses on landscapes as a platform for considering environmental values and issues across the region. The book is based on extensive field-based analyses, applications, and photographs.
This book will help readers learn the basic skills needed to study microfossils especially those without a formal background in paleontology. It details key principles, explains how to identify different groups of microfossils, and provides insight into their potential applications in solving geologic problems. Basic principles are addressed with examples that explore the strengths and limitations of microfossils and their geological records. This overview provides an understanding of taphonomy and quality of the fossil records, biomineralization and biogeochemistry, taxonomy, concepts of species, and basic concepts of ecology. Readers learn about the major groups of microfossils, including their morphology, ecology, and geologic history. Coverage includes: foraminifera, ostracoda, coccolithophores, pteropods, radiolaria, diatoms, silicoflagellates, conodonts, dinoflagellates, acritarch, and spores and pollens. In this coverage, marine microfossils, and particularly foraminifera, are discussed in more detail compared with the other groups as they continue to play a major role in most scientific investigations. Among the various tracers of earth history, microfossils provide the most diverse kinds of information to earth scientists. This richly illustrated volume will help students and professionals understand microfossils, and provide insight on how to work with them to better understand evolution of life, and age and the paleoenvironment of sedimentary strata.
This volume presents up-to-date information on the status and assessment of water resources in Slovakia and methods for their development. The major themes include key facts about Slovakian water resources, their assessment and development; water supply and demand; irrigation water; groundwater; water and sediment quality with a focus on mining water; wastewater management in Slovakia; and rainwater management. The book closes with general conclusions and recommendations for future research. It is a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers as well as for decision makers involved in sustainable development.
This thesis transforms satellite precipitation estimation through the integration of a multi-sensor, multi-channel approach to current precipitation estimation algorithms, and provides more accurate readings of precipitation data from space. Using satellite data to estimate precipitation from space overcomes the limitation of ground-based observations in terms of availability over remote areas and oceans as well as spatial coverage. However, the accuracy of satellite-based estimates still need to be improved. The approach introduced in this thesis takes advantage of the recent NASA satellites in observing clouds and precipitation. In addition, machine-learning techniques are also employed to make the best use of remotely-sensed "big data." The results provide a significant improvement in detecting non-precipitating areas and reducing false identification of precipitation.
Presenting current approaches in observational and computational seismology, this book introduces advanced methods and techniques by means of case studies in earthquake research. Among others these include solving inverse seismologic problems, tomography for structure imaging, characterizing fault damage and healing, seismicity analysis for determining pre-shock moment release, and coupled solid-fluid models.
Globally, mineral exploration has grown significantly in recent
years, driven by the rapid acceleration in prices for gold and
diamonds since 2004 and the emergence of a middle class in both
China and India-aggressively increased demand. Despite this
resurgence, no single book has been published that takes an
interdisciplinary approach in addressing the full scope of mineral
exploration-from mining and extraction to economic evaluation,
policies, sustainability, and environmental impacts. "Mineral
Exploration: Principles and Applications" accomplishes this by
presenting each topic with theoretical approaches first followed by
specific applications that can be immediately implemented in the
field.
Light Scattering Reviews (vol. 9) is aimed at the description of modern advances in radiative transfer and light scattering. The following topics will be considered: light scattering by atmospheric dust particles and also by inhomogeneous scatterers, the general - purpose discrete - ordinate algorithm DISORT for radiative transfer, the radiative transfer code RAY based on the adding-doubling solution of the radiative transfer equation, aerosol and cloud remote sensing, use of polarization in remote sensing, direct aerosol radiative forcing, principles of the Mueller matrix measurements, light reflectance from various land surfaces. This volume will be a valuable addition to already published volumes 1-8 of Light Scattering Reviews.
Written by highly qualified Argentine scientists and scholars, this
book focuses on the uninterrupted geological and paleontological
record of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego since the Miocene-Pliocene
boundary to the arrival of man and modern times. This region is an
outstanding area for research, with significant interest at the
international level. It provides an updated overview of the
scientific work in all related fields with a strong paleoclimatic
approach. Patagonia has also been a sort of a "paleoclimatic
bridge" between the Antarctic Peninsula and the more northerly land
masses, since the final opening of the Drake Passage in the middle
Miocene. Timely and comprehensive, "The Late Cenozoic of Patagonia
and Tierra del Fuego" is the only monograph book written in
English.
Bryophytes, which are important constituents of ecosystems globally and often dominate carbon and water dynamics at high latitudes and elevations, were also among the pioneers of terrestrial photosynthesis. Consequently, in addition to their present day ecological value, modern representatives of these groups contain the legacy of adaptations that led to the greening of Earth. This volume brings together experts on bryophyte photosynthesis whose research spans the genome and cell through whole plant and ecosystem function and combines that with historical perspectives on the role of algal, bryophyte and vascular plant ancestors on terrestrialization of the Earth. The eighteen well-illustrated chapters reveal unique physiological approaches to achieving carbon balance and dealing with environmental limitations and stresses that present an alternative, yet successful strategy for land plants.
This thesis presents research focusing on the improvement of high-resolution global black carbon (BC) emission inventory and application in assessing the population exposure to ambient BC. A particular focus of the thesis is on the construction of a high-resolution (both spatial and sectorial) fuel consumption database, which is used to develop the emission inventory of black carbon. Above all, the author updates the global emission inventory of black carbon, a resource subsequently used to study the atmospheric transport of black carbon over Asia with the help of a high-resolution nested model. The thesis demonstrates that spatial bias in fuel consumption and BC emissions can be reduced by means of the sub-national disaggregation approach. Using the inventory and nested model, ambient BC concentrations can be better validated against observations. Lastly, it provides a complete uncertainty analysis of global black carbon emissions, and this uncertainty is taken into account in the atmospheric modeling, helping to better understand the role of black carbon in regional and global air pollution.
"The thesis of Philipp Antrett is focused on reservoir properties, petrography, lithofacies and sedimentology, core analysis and nanoporosity studies. It will be of major interest for colleagues involved in the exploration and production of tight gas reservoirs in Northern Europe and elsewhere." - Francois Roure, August 2012 This thesis describes a multidisciplinary, multiscale approach to the analysis of tight gas reservoirs. It focused initially on the facies architecture of a Permian tight gas field in the Southern Permian Basin (SPB), East Frisia, northern Germany. To improve field development, 3D seismic data, wireline and core data were compared to a reservoir analogue in the Panamint Valley, California, United States. In addition to the large scale approach, a work flow that investigates microporosity by combining Scanning Electron Microscopy-Broad Ion Beam (SEM-BIB) and optical microscopy was developed. For a better understanding of the depositional environment and reservoir rock distribution in the SPB, a sedimentary facies analysis of four cores from the tight gas field in East Frisia was compared to a second study area in northern central Germany. This study demonstrates that tight gas exploration and production requires multidisciplinary, multiscale approaches beyond standard seismic interpretation work flows to better understand the temporal and spatial evolution of these complex reservoirs.
This book presents a comprehensive approach to address the need to improve the design of tailings dams, their management and the regulation of tailings management facilities to reduce, and eventually eliminate, the risk of such facilities failing. The scope of the challenge is well documented in the report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and GRID Arendal entitled "Mine Tailings Storage: Safety Is No Accident," which was released in October 2017. The report recommends that "Regulators, industry and communities should adopt a shared, zero-failure objective to tailings storage facilities..." and identifies several areas where further improvements are required. In this context, the application of cutting-edge risk-assessment methodologies and risk-management practices can contribute to a significant reduction and eventual elimination of dam failures through Risk Informed Decision Making. As such, the book focuses on identifying and describing the risk-assessment approaches and risk-management practices that need to be implemented in order to develop a way forward to achieve socially acceptable levels of tailings dam risk.
Ostracod crustaceans, common microfossils in marine and
freshwater sedimentary records, supply evidence of past climatic
conditions via indicator species, transfer function and mutual
climatic range approaches as well as the trace element and stable
isotope geochemistry of their shells. As methods of using ostracods
as Quaternary palaeoclimate proxies have developed, so too has a
critical awareness of their complexities, potential and
limitations. This book combines up-to-date reviews (covering
previous work and summarising the state of the art) with
presentations of new, cutting-edge science (data and
interpretations as well as methodological developments) to form a
major reference work that will constitute a durable bench-mark in
the science of Ostracoda and Quaternary climate change.
This volume offers a comprehensive survey and a close analysis of efforts to develop actionable climate information in support of vital decisions for climate adaptation, risk management and policy. Arising from submissions and discussion at the 2011 Open Science Conference (OSC) of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), the book addresses research and intellectual challenges which span the full range of Program activities.
The book summarizes the occurrence, geochemistry, mineralogy, petrology and phase-equilibria studies in air and under high pressures related to the most intriguing group of potassium-rich mafic and ultramafic rocks, often including host of exotic mineral assemblages including feldspathoids. Mantle-derived K-rich melts had intrigued most of the founders of Geology and many of the later experts in the field of Igneous Petrology, because they are sometimes associated with carbonatites and even diamond. They tend to contain anomalous concentration of many such elements as K, Rb, Sr, U, F, P, etc., along with Ni, Co and Cr indicating a mixture of crust and mantle materials. Although these rocks occur rarely in ancient geologic time, they have been erupting mostly in modern geological history (less than last 120 Ma or so). Are the old age data real or the result of a sampling problem? Modern observations leave no doubt that sediments must be subducted on a large scale. There is now evidence that the upper mantle (and perhaps even the lower mantle) is not homogeneous but rather like a fruit cake, and that there are thermal anomalies in the mantle resulting from deep mantle plumes or subduction. Is this related to release of these unusual rocks clearing the mantle of left over subduction materials? This volume, written for those interested in the geochemistry of K-rich melts from the deep Earth, reviews the present state of knowledge of these unique igneous rocks. The author is an expert in the field of Igneous Petrology and the book will serve as a valuable reference book for researchers and academicians in the discipline. |
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