Economic Risk in Hydrocarbon Exploration provides a total framework for assessing the uncertainties associated with exploration risk from beginning to end. Numerous examples with accompanying microcomputer algorithms illustrate how to quantitatively approach economic risk. The text compares detailed assumptions and models of economic risk, and presents numerical examples throughout to facilitate hands-on calculations using popular spread-sheet packages on personal computers.
Key Features
* Covers economic risk from exploration through production models
* Brings methods to a level where all can be done on a PC
* Analyzes numerical examples from the real world
* Removes "mystery" from how economics is done
* Addresses assumptions in models and shows how they influence projections

Information on the petroleum geology of the North Sea continues to accrue at an astounding rate, which alone would warrant a fourth edition of this classic work. However, since the publication of the third edition emphasis within the petroleum industry has shifted from exploration to the appraisal and development of existing hydrocarbon resources. This change is reflected in this new edition, which has been significantly expanded to accomodate the additional material. The centrepiece of the book, however, remains a series of descriptions, in stratigraphic order, of the depositional history and

This comprehensive reference is the first to cover industrially important borates, from deposits, through chemistry, mining, processing, and applications. The reference work begins with a listing of the 238 currently known borate minerals, their formulas, and properties. It features modern theories on the origin of borate deposits, their molecular structure and detailed descriptions of the world's borate deposits. Garrett describes the fascinating history of the discovery and development of borate deposits with anecdotes of how resourceful operators overcame obstacles in obtaining their minerals. Chapters on mining technology and processing detail the mineral's development from the earliest recorded times up to the sophisticated operations of the present day. The book also contains a comprehensive literature on boron isotope chemistry, their diverse applications, and productions and resource statistics for the world's largest industrial producers.

* Functions as a complete reference for geologists, engineers, and consumers of borate products
* Includes crystallographic descriptions, solution chemistry, isotopic distributions, and other properties of 170 borate minerals
* Provides detailed descriptions of mining and processing methods and economic uses
* Includes statistical data on borate production, consumption, prices, and ore reserves for every country of the world
* Provides an extensive bibliography
* Author is an authority on industrial minerals through many years of consulting and process development work

Fossil hydrocarbons form a continuous series whose"heavy"members--heavy oils, bitumens, oil shale kerogens, and coal--are important sources of conventional lighter fuels. These hydrocarbons are much more abundant and easier to extract than natural gas and oil. This book discusses the origins and compositions of fossil hydrocarbons and shows how the"heavies"can be chemically transformed into environmentally clean gas, liquid transportation fuels, and an almost unlimited range of petrochemicals.
Dr. Berkowitz explodes the entrenched dichotomy between"petroleum hydrocarbons"and coal that has shaped popular perceptions of energy, showing that it is feasible to develop new technologies that capitalize on the availability of"synthetic"natural gas and light oils.
Fossil Hydrocarbons: Chemistry and Technology is a comprehensive treatment of fossil hydrocarbons, covering the source materials, biosources, metamorphic histories, geochemistry, classification, and molecular structure. It discusses the use of fossil hydrocarbons as a viable energy source in our future, detailing the preparation, processing and conversion technologies, as well as discussing the environmental issues that arise from production, processing, and use of various fossil hydrocarbons.
Key Features
* Approaches various fossil hydrocarbons as chemically related entities, thus dispelling the unwarranted distinctions between crude oils and coal
* Explains how heavy fossil hydrocarbons can be processed by much the same methods as crude oils for good economic and environmental purpose
* Illustrates how bitumens, oil shales, and coals are convertible into synthetic natural gas and oils
* Shows a path for reasonable energy self-sufficiency, through conversion of heavy hydrocarbons into synthetic natural gas and oils
* Augments each chapter with end-of-chapter notes and a detailed bibliography
* Provides more than 200 useful tables, schematics, and figures

An Introduction to Mining Seismology describes comprehensively the modern methods and techniques used to monitor and study seismicity and rockbursts in mines. Key case histories from various worldwide mining districts clearly illustrate and skillfully emphasize the practical aspects of mining seismology. This text is intended as a handbook for geophysicists and mining and rock mechanics engineers working at mines. It will also serve as an essential reference tool for seismologists working at research institutions on local seismicity not necessarily induced by mining.
Key Features
* Presents a comprehensive description of seismicity induced by mining worldwide
* Provides information on optimum network planning and seismic event location procedures in deep mines
* Covers a broad array of topics including focal mechanism, moment tensor, and double-couple versus non-double-couple seismic events in mines
* Includes data on source parameters and scaling relations for seismic events in mines

Petroleum is not as easy to find as it used to be. In order to locate and develop reserves efficiently, it's vital that geologists and geophysicists understand the geological processes that affect a reservoir rock and the oil that is trapped within it. This book is about how and to what extent, these processes may be understood. The theme of the book is the characterization of fluids in sedimentary basins, understanding their interaction with each other and with rocks, and the application of this information to finding, developing and producing oil and gas. The first part of the book describes the techniques, and the second part relates real-life case histories covering a wide range of applications. Petroleum geology, particularly exploration, involves making the best of incomplete results. It is essentially an optimistic exercise. This book will remove some of the guesswork.
Brings together the most important geochemical methods in a single volume.
Authored by two well-respected researchers in the oil industry.
Real-life, international case histories.

Petroleum engineers, drilling and production professionals, and advanced petroleum engineering students will welcome this important new book on annular flows in oil and gas well drilling operations. It is the only book on the subject presently available to the industry that combines rigorous theory, practical examples, and important applications.
The book describes several annular borehole flow models that deal with eccentric, nonrotating flow, concentric rotating flow, and recirculating heterogeneous flow. These models are designed to handle the special problems that arise from drilling and producing deviated and horizontal wells, problems such as cutting transport, stuck pipe, cementing, and coiled tubing.
State-of-the-art computer modeling techniques
"Snapshots" showing computed velocity, apparent viscosity, viscous stress, and local shear rate for different annuli
Practical rule of thumb and extensive applications to real world problems make this an important reference tool for drilling and production professionals

This is the first book which deals with the economics of diamonds, specifically with the determinants of diamond prices. The period of analysis, 1978-1983, was chosen in order to shed light on the dramatic drop in diamond prices. The dominant variables causing this drop were the varying price of gold and fluctuating interest rates. Khoury helps the investor in making long-range decisions about investing in diamonds and deciding on the form the investment should take. He warns of the importance to understand the sensitivities of the market and the factors which must be taken into consideration before commitments to an investment in diamonds are made.

The book includes: a quick review of the characteristics of diamonds, the financial performance of DeBeers in a declining market, the economic structure of the diamond industry, the method for exercising economic control over the diamond market, the economic variables influencing diamond prices, and the modeling of diamond prices and the testing of the model using advanced statistical methods.

The fascinating, often surprising story of how a simple black rock altered the course of history, perfect for fans of Mark Kurlansky's Salt and Jeremy Paxman's Black Gold. 'A passionate plea for a more considered way of treating the earth, its resources and its inhabitants' DAILY TELEGRAPH ____________________________________________________________ Coal has transformed societies, fueled economies, and expanded frontiers. It made China a twelfth-century superpower, inspired the writing of the Communist Manifesto, and helped the northern states win the American Civil War. Yet the mundane mineral that built our global economy has also caused death, disease, and environmental destruction. In this remarkable book, Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins three hundred million years ago and spans the globe. From the 'Great Stinking Fogs' of London to the rat-infested coal mines of Pennsylvania, from the impoverished slums of Manchester to the toxic city streets of Beijing, Coal is a captivating narrative about the simple black rock that helped build our modern world, but now endangers our future. ____________________________________________________________ 'Elegant and engaging . . . No subject is more important for understanding the recent past, and preparing for the future.' SUNDAY TIMES 'The incredible story of Britain's black goal.' DAILY MAIL 'Eloquent . . . unsparing . . . The relation between carbon and climate change has seldom been so clearly and readably explained.' SCOTSMAN 'As much about the growing scientific evidence of the damage coal causes to the environment as it is about the social history of the Industrial Revolution.' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Freese wants readers to be clear about just how vital coal has been to our era of human development because she hopes to persuade us that it's time to enter a new one.' NEW YORK TIMES 'An absorbing book that never loses its grip.' NEW SCIENTIST 'Fascinating . . . It lingers hauntingly in the mind.' NEW STATESMAN 'As this human history of coal makes clear, there are no easy answers. . . A welcome contribution to the search for a sustainable energy economy.' NATURAL HISTORY

Weak rocks encountered in open pit mines cover a wide variety of materials, with properties ranging between soil and rock. As such, they can provide a significant challenge for the slope designer. For these materials, the mass strength can be the primary control in the design of the pit slopes, although structures can also play an important role. Because of the typically weak nature of the materials, groundwater and surface water can also have a controlling influence on stability. Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design in Weak Rocks is a companion to Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design, which was published in 2009 and dealt primarily with strong rocks. Both books were commissioned under the Large Open Pit (LOP) project, which is sponsored by major mining companies. These books provide summaries of the current state of practice for the design, implementation and assessment of slopes in open pits, with a view to meeting the requirements of safety, as well as the recovery of anticipated ore reserves. This book, which follows the general cycle of the slope design process for open pits, contains 12 chapters. These chapters were compiled and written by industry experts and contain a large number of case histories. The initial chapters address field data collection, the critical aspects of determining the strength of weak rocks, the role of groundwater in weak rock slope stability and slope design considerations, which can differ somewhat from those applied to strong rock. The subsequent chapters address the principal weak rock types that are encountered in open pit mines, including cemented colluvial sediments, weak sedimentary mudstone rocks, soft coals and chalk, weak limestone, saprolite, soft iron ores and other leached rocks, and hydrothermally altered rocks. A final chapter deals with design implementation aspects, including mine planning, design implementation, monitoring, surface water control and closure of weak rock slopes. Key Features: Illustration of the best practice in modern open pit mines State of the art approaches for challenging designs Use of numerous case histories written by large-open pit operators to illustrate state of practice Individual chapters/sections written by leaders in the industry As with the other books in this series, Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design in Weak Rocks provides guidance to practitioners involved in the design and implementation of open pit slopes, particularly geotechnical engineers, mining engineers, geologists and other personnel working at operating mines.

When seven-year-old Dave Lowell was camped out at his father's mine in the hills of southern Arizona in 1935, he knew he had found his calling. ""Life couldn't get any better than this,"" he recalls. ""I didn't know what science was, but wisps of scientific thought were already working into my plan."" So began the legendary career of the engineer, geologist, explorer, and international businessman whose life is recounted in his own words in this captivating book. An Arizona native with family roots in territorial times, Lowell grew from modest beginnings on a ranch near Nogales to become a major world figure in the fields of minerals, mining, and economic geology. He has personally discovered more copper than anyone in history and has developed multibillion-dollar gold and copper mines that have changed the economies of nations. And although he has consulted for corporations in the field of mining, he has largely operated as an independent agent and explorer, the architect of his own path and success. His life's story unfolds in four stages: his early education in his field, on-the-job learning at sites in the United States and Mexico, development of exploration strategies, and finally, the launch of his own enterprises and companies. Recurring themes in Lowell's life include the strict personal, ethical, and tactical policies he requires of his colleagues; his devotion to his family; and his distaste for being away from the field in a corporate office, even to this day. The magnitude of Lowell's overall success is evident in his list of mine discoveries, as well as in his scientific achievements and the enormous respect his friends and colleagues have had for him throughout his lengthy career, which he continues to zealously pursue.

Under the Earth's surface is a rich array of geological resources, many with potential use to humankind. However, extracting and harnessing them comes with enormous uncertainties, high costs, and considerable risks. The valuation of subsurface resources involves assessing discordant factors to produce a decision model that is functional and sustainable. This volume provides real-world examples relating to oilfields, geothermal systems, contaminated sites, and aquifer recharge. Volume highlights include: A multi-disciplinary treatment of uncertainty quantification Case studies with actual data that will appeal to methodology developers A Bayesian evidential learning framework that reduces computation and modeling time Quantifying Uncertainty in Subsurface Systems is a multidisciplinary volume that brings together five major fields: information science, decision science, geosciences, data science and computer science. It will appeal to both students and practitioners, and be a valuable resource for geoscientists, engineers and applied mathematicians. Read the Editors' Vox: https: //eos.org/editors-vox/quantifying-uncertainty-about-earths-resources Reviews, The Leading Edge, SEG, May 2020 The subsurface medium created by geologic processes is not always well understood. The data we collect in an attempt to characterize the subsurface can be incomplete and inaccurate. However, if we understand the uncertainty of our data and the models we generate from them, we can make better decisions regarding the management of subsurface resources. Modeling and managing subsurface resources, and properly characterizing and understanding the uncertainties, requires the integration of a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines. Five case studies are outlined in the introductory chapter, which are used to demonstrate various methods throughout the book. The second chapter introduces the basic notions in decision analysis. Uncertainty quantification is only relevant within the decision framework used. Models alone do not quantify uncer-tainty, but do allow the determination of key variables that influ-ence models and decisions. Next, an overview of the various data science methods relevant to uncertainty quantification in the subsurface is provided. Sensitivity analysis is then covered, specifi-cally Monte Carlo-based sensitivity analysis. The next three chapters develop the Bayesian approach to uncertainty quantifica-tion, and this is the focus of the book. All of this is brought together in Chapter 8, which describes a solution regarding quantifying the uncertainties for each of the problems presented in the first chapter. The authors admit that it is not the only solution. No single solution fits all problems of uncertainty quantification. The results in this chapter allow the reader to see the previously described methods applied and how choices influence models and decisions. The final two chapters discuss various software components necessary to implement the strategies presented in the book and challenges faced in the future of uncertainty quantification. The book uses a number of relevant subsurface problems to explore the various aspects of uncertainty quantification. Understanding uncertainty, and how it affects modeling and decision outcomes, is not always straightforward. However, it is necessary in order to make good, consistent decisions. The book is not an easy read. Some portions require good mathematical understanding of the underlying principles. However, the book is well documented and organized. I would say that is not a good book for a beginner, but it is a good resource for someone to get a grounding to go further into the subject. I appreciate the authors putting together this book on a complex problem that is important to our industry. -- David Bartel, Houston, Texas

Constantly in the news and the subject of much public debate, fracking, as it is known for short, is one of the most promising yet controversial methods of extracting natural gas and oil. Today, 90 percent of natural gas wells use fracking. Though highly effective, the process-which fractures rock with pressurized fluid-has been criticized for polluting land, air, and water, and endangering human health.
A timely addition to Oxford's What Everyone Needs to Know(r) series, Hydrofracking tackles this contentious topic, exploring both sides of the debate and providing a clear guide to the science underlying the technique. In concise question-and-answer format, Alex Prud'homme cuts through the maze of opinions and rhetoric to uncover key points, from the economic and political benefits of fracking to the health dangers and negative effects on the environment. Prud'homme offers clear answers to a range of fundamental questions, including: What is fracking fluid? How does it impact water supplies? Who regulates the industry? How much recoverable natural gas exists in the U.S.? What new innovations are on the horizon? Supporters as diverse as President Obama and the conservative billionaire T. Boone Pickens have promoted natural gas as a clean, "21st-century" fuel that will reduce global warming, create jobs, and provide tax revenues, but concerns remain, with environmental activists like Bill McKibben and others leading protests to put an end to fracking as a means of obtaining alternative energy. Prud'homme considers ways to improve methods in the short-term, while also exploring the possibility of transitioning to more sustainable resources-wind, solar, tidal, and perhaps nuclear power-for the long term.
Written for general readers, Hydrofracking clearly explains both the complex science of fracking and the equally complex political and economic issues that surround it, giving readers all the information they need to understand what will no doubt remain a contentious issue for years to come.
What Everyone Needs to Know(r) is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

What happens to indigenous people when their homelands are declared by well-intentioned outsiders to be precious environmental habitats? In this revelatory book, Molly Doane describes how a rain forest in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca was appropriated and redefined by environmentalists who initially wanted to conserve its biodiversity. Her case study approach shows that good intentions are not always enough to produce results that benefit both a habitat and its many different types of inhabitants. Doane begins by showing how Chimalapas - translated as "shining rivers" - has been "produced" in various ways over time, from a worthless wasteland to a priceless asset. Focusing on a series of environmental projects that operated between 1990 and 2008, she reveals that environmentalists attempted to recast agrarian disputes - which actually stemmed from government-supported corporate incursions into community lands and from unequal land redistribution - as environmental problems. Doane focuses in particular on the attempt throughout the 1990s to establish a "Campesino Ecological Reserve" in Chimalapas. Supported by major grants from the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), this effort to foster and merge agrarian and environmental interests was ultimately unsuccessful because it was seen as politically threatening by the state. By 2000, the Mexican government had convinced the WWF to redirect its conservation monies to the state government and its agencies. The WWF eventually abandoned attempts to establish an "enclosure" nature reserve in the region or to gain community acceptance for conservation. Instead, working from a new market-based model of conservation, the WWF began paying cash to individuals for "environmental services" such as reforestation and environmental monitoring.

Maximizing the use of our visible surface supplies in light of their greatest need in agriculture presents an enormous challenge throughout the world. New techniques in agricultural applications to preserve resources and increase yields are featured. Dams, lakes, and hydraulic features of surface water systems are amply covered, along with the importance of storm water management to growing communities.

In this remarkable book, Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins hundreds of millions of years ago and spans the globe. Prized as the best stone in Britain" by Roman invaders who carved jewellery out of it, coal has transformed societies, launched empires, and expanded frontiers. It made China an eleventh-century superpower, inspired the Communist Manifesto , and helped the North win the American Civil War. Yet coal's transformative power has come at tremendous cost, from the blackening of our lungs and skies, to the perils of mining, to global warming. Now updated with a new chapter describing the high-stakes conflict between coal's defenders and those working to preserve a livable climate, Coal offers a captivating history of the mineral that helped build the modern world but now endangers our future.

Over the past five hundred years, North Americans have increasingly relied on mining to produce much of their material and cultural life. From cell phones and computers to cars, roads, pipes, pans, and even wall tile, mineral-intensive products have become central to North American societies. As this process has unfolded, mining has also indelibly shaped the natural world and the human societies within it. Mountains have been honeycombed, rivers poisoned, forests leveled, and the consequences of these environmental transformations have fallen unevenly across North America. Drawing on the work of scholars from Mexico, the United States, and Canada, Mining North America examines these developments. It covers an array of minerals and geographies while bringing mining into the core debates that animate North American environmental history. Taken all together, the essays in this book make a powerful case for the centrality of mining in forging North American environments and societies.

In "Powering the Future," Nobel laureate Robert B. Laughlin transports us two centuries into the future, when we've ceased to use carbon from the ground--either because humans have banned carbon burning or because fuel has simply run out. Boldly, Laughlin predicts no earth-shattering transformations will have taken place. Six generations from now, there will still be soccer moms, shopping malls, and business trips. Firesides will still be snug and warm.

How will we do it? Not by discovering a magic bullet to slay our energy problems, but through a slew of fascinating technologies, drawing on wind, water, and fire. "Powering the Future" is an objective yet optimistic tour through alternative fuel sources, set in a world where we've burned every last drop of petroleum and every last shovelful of coal.

The Predictable: "Fossil fuels will run out." The present flow of crude oil out of the ground equals in one day the average flow of the Mississippi River past New Orleans in thirteen minutes. If you add the energy equivalents of gas and coal, it's thirty-six minutes. At the present rate of consumption, we'll be out of fossil fuels in two centuries' time. "We always choose the cheapest gas." From the nineteenth-century consolidation of the oil business to the California energy crisis of 2000-2001, the energy business has shown, time and again, how low prices dominate market share. Market forces--not green technology--will be the driver of energy innovation in the next 200 years. "The laws of physics remain fixed." Energy will still be conserved, degrade entropically with use, and have to be disposed of as waste heat into outer space. How much energy a fuel can pack away in a given space is fixed by quantum mechanics--and if we want to keep flying jet planes, we will need carbon-based fuels. The Potential: "Animal waste."If dried and burned, the world's agricultural manure would supply about one-third as much energy as all the coal we presently consume. "Trash." The United States disposes of 88 million tons of carbon in its trash per year. While the incineration of waste trash is not enough to contribute meaningfully to the global demand for energy, it will constrain fuel prices by providing a cheap supply of carbon." ""Solar energy."The power used to light all the cities around the world is only one-millionth of the total power of sunlight pouring down on earth's daytime side. And the amount of hydropump storage required to store the world's daily electrical surge is equal to only eight times the volume of Lake Mead. PRAISE FOR ROBERT B. LAUGHLIN "Perhaps the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Richard Feynman"--George Chapline, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory "Powerful but controversial."-- "Financial Times"" "" Laughlin's] company ... is inspirational." --"New Scientist"

Mineral Exploration: Principles and Applications, Second Edition, presents an interdisciplinary approach on the full scope of mineral exploration. Everything from grass root discovery, objective base sequential exploration, mining, beneficiation, extraction, economic evaluation, policies and acts, rules and regulations, sustainability, and environmental impacts is covered. Each topic is presented using theoretical approaches that are followed by specific applications that can be used in the field. This new edition features updated references, changes to rules and regulations, and new sections on oil and gas exploration and classification, air-core drilling, and smelting and refining techniques. This book is a key resource for both academics and professionals, offering both practical and applied knowledge in mineral exploration.

Gold Panning California is the premiere reference source for anyone who is interested in getting started or continuing their gold prospecting in California. Containing accurate, up-to-date prospecting information for all known panning areas in California. The write-ups for each locale include driving directions, GPS coordinates, historical information, land ownership restrictions, full-color photos, and geological background. Features include: *Full-color images *GPS coordinates *Geology basics *Tools of the trade for every level of collector *Rules and regulations *Polishing, preserving, crafting, and displaying your treasures

Practical Petroleum Geochemistry for Exploration and Production provides readers with a single reference that addresses the principle concepts and applications of petroleum geochemistry used in finding, evaluating, and producing petroleum deposits. Today, there are few reference books available on how petroleum geochemistry is applied in exploration and production written specifically for geologists, geophysicists, and petroleum engineers. This book fills that void and is based on training courses that the author has developed over his 37-year career in hydrocarbon exploration and production. Specific topical features include the origin of petroleum, deposition of source rock, hydrocarbon generation, and oil and gas migrations that lead to petroleum accumulations. Also included are descriptions on how these concepts are applied to source rock evaluation, oil-to-oil, and oil-to-source rock correlations, and ways of interpreting natural gas data in exploration work. Finally, a thorough description on the ways petroleum geochemistry can assist in development and production work, including reservoir continuity, production allocation, and EOR monitoring is presented. Authored by an expert in petroleum geochemistry, this book is the ideal reference for any geoscientist looking for exploration and production content based on extensive field-based research and expertise.

Platinum-Nickel-Chromium Deposits: Geology, Exploration, and Reserve Base is the first reference book to combine information on the discovery of numerous minerals within existing deposits. This book recognizes the close affinity and great natural coexistence of platinum, palladium, chromium, nickel, copper, gold, and silver hosted by unique stratigraphy (mafic-ultramafic intrusive of layered ingenious complex) in a diverse structural set up. The chapters are organized in a logical sequence of introductory physical and chemical properties, demand-supply scenario, price trend, substitution-recycling and uses of these metals, stratigraphy and host rocks, geochemistry, global distribution of existing deposits in six mega continents, genetic system, reserves-resources overview, common characteristic features aiding as exploration guides for new targets, hazards, and sustainable development. This reference book is a must for students, research scholars, teachers, and professional explorers in economic geology, geography, and allied subjects.

This second edition of the original volume adds significant new innovations for revolutionizing the processes and methods used in petroleum reservoir simulations. With the advent of shale drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and underbalanced drilling has come a virtual renaissance of scientific methodologies in the oil and gas industry. New ways of thinking are being pioneered, and Dr. Islam and his team have, for years now, been at the forefront of these important changes. This book clarifies the underlying mathematics and physics behind reservoir simulation and makes it easy to have a range of simulation results along with their respective probability. This makes the risk analysis based on knowledge rather than guess work. The book offers by far the strongest tool for engineers and managers to back up reservoir simulation predictions with real science. The book adds transparency and ease to the process of reservoir simulation in way never witnessed before. Finally, No other book provides readers complete access to the 3D, 3-phase reservoir simulation software that is available with this text. A must-have for any reservoir engineer or petroleum engineer working upstream, whether in exploration, drilling, or production, this text is also a valuable textbook for advanced students and graduate students in petroleum or chemical engineering departments.

The forbidding Big Badlands in Western South Dakota contain the richest fossil beds in the world. Even today these rocks continue to yield new specimens brought to light by snowmelt and rain washing away soft rock deposited on a floodplain long ago. The quality and quantity of the fossils are superb: most of the species to be found there are known from hundreds of specimens. The fossils in the White River Group (and similar deposits in the American west) preserve the entire late Eocene through the middle Oligocene, roughly 35-30 million years ago and more than 30 million years after non-avian dinosaurs became extinct. The fossils provide a detailed record of a period of abrupt global cooling and what happened to creatures who lived through it. The book provides a comprehensive reference to the sediments and fossils of the Big Badlands and will complement, enhance, and in some ways replace the classic 1920 volume by Cleophas C. O'Harra. Because the book focuses on a national treasure, it touches on National Park Service management policies that help protect such significant fossils.