The review chapters collected here were the basis for a two-day short course on nontraditional stable isotopes held in May 2004 in Montreal, Canada.

This book provides information on proper underground mine ventilation in order to detail its importance in maintaining safe, productive, healthy and effective underground environments at all times for employees. The text covers correct design, implementation and maintenance of mine ventilation through suitable fan installation, and keeps in mind the economic requirements of undertaking safe procedures and implementations to ensure that ventilation is optimal. Through three main goals, the book addresses the need for proper fan ventilation in the potentially hazardous conditions of an underground mine. The first goal is to summarize and update the technical information on the strategic importance of selecting suitable techno-commercial main mechanical ventilators for a coal mine. The second goal is to provide a user friendly computer program to help any practicing engineers, mine operators, regulators and researchers in choosing the main mechanical ventilators. Factors in this selection process include environmental requirements, regulatory conditions, occupational health related issues, and cost. The third goal is to provide applications for computer programs meant to determine proper selection and implementation of the main mechanical ventilators. The text is geared towards teachers, researchers, policy makers, environmental organizations and mine operators who wish to teach about or implement the best possible ventilation systems for the health and safety of mine workers.

Sedimentary basins host, among others, most of our energy and fresh-water resources: they can be regarded as large geo-reactors in which many physical and chemical processes interact. Their complexity can only be well understood in well-organized interdisciplinary co-operations. This book documents how researchers from different geo-scientific disciplines have jointly analysed the structural, thermal, and sedimentary evolution as well as fluid dynamics of a complex sedimentary basin system which has experienced a variety of activation and reactivation impulses as well as intense salt tectonics. In this book we have summarized our geological, geophysical and geochemical understanding of some of the most important processes affecting sedimentary basins in general and our view on the evolution of one of the largest, best explored and most complex continental sedimentary basins on Earth: The Central European Basin System.

Tight gas reservoirs have very low permeability and porosity, which cannot be produced at economical flow rates unless the well is efficiently stimulated and completed using advanced and optimized technologies. Economical production on the basis of tight gas reservoirs is challenging in general, not only due to their very low permeability but also to several different forms of formation damage that can occur during drilling, completion, stimulation, and production operations. This study demonstrates in detail the effects of different well and reservoir static and dynamic parameters that influence damage mechanisms and well productivity in tight gas reservoirs. Geomechanics, petrophysics, production and reservoir engineering expertise for reservoir characterization is combined with a reservoir simulation approach and core analysis experiments to understand the optimum strategy for tight gas development, delivering improved well productivity and gas recovery.

This book highlights the basics of crystal optics methods and refractive index (RI) measurement techniques in various solids, as well as their scientific and technological applications. In addition to new techniques for cases when traditional techniques are impractical, such as for highly refracting powders, anomalous dispersion of light in the studied solid, or for colloids, it also describes conventional methods of RI measurement.

This book addresses human factors research in energy, an emphasis on human factors applications in design, construction, and operation of nuclear, electrical power generation, and oil and gas assets. It discusses advanced strategies in the optimization of human and environmental performance, as well as personal and process safety. The book covers a wealth of topics in design and operation management of both offshore and onshore facilities, including design of control rooms, front-end engineering design (FEED), criticality analysis, offshore transport, human contributions to accidents, cognitive bias in decision making, safety-critical human tasks, and many others. Based on the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Human Factors in Energy, held on July 27-31, 2016, in Walt Disney World (R), Florida, USA, the book fills an important gap in the current literature, providing readers with state-of-the-art knowledge in human factors best-practice approaches across different types of industries and energy applications.

In crystal chemistry and crystal physics, the relations between the symmetry groups (space groups) of crystalline solids are of special importance. Part 1 of this book presents the necessary mathematical foundations and tools: the fundamentals of crystallography with special emphasis on symmetry, the theory of the crystallographic groups, and the formalisms of the needed crystallographic computations. Part 2 gives an insight into applications to problems in crystal chemistry. With the aid of numerous examples, it is shown how crystallographic group theory can be used to make evident relationships between crystal structures, to set up a systematic order in the huge amount of known crystal structures, to predict crystal structures, to analyse phase transitions and topotactic reactions in the solid state, to understand the formation of domains and twins in crystals, and to avoid errors in crystal structure determinations. A broad range of end-of-chapter exercises offers the possibility to apply the learned material. Worked-out solutions to the exercises can be found at the end of the book.

This book describes the nature and origin of the Macraes gold deposit. It also documents the key features of this spectacular deposit for a wide range of professionals in the resource geology community. This world-class gold deposit has been a spectacular geological and economic success story, as it has developed from a small historical gold mine in discontinuous quartz veins measuring only meters to a large-scale mine in deposits spreading over kilometres in extensive disseminated gold-bearing rock.

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.

The aim of this book is to present the latest findings in the properties and application of Supplementary Cementing Materials and blended cements currently used in the world in concrete. Sustainability is an important issue all over the world. Carbon dioxide emission has been a serious problem in the world due to the greenhouse effect. Today many countries agreed to reduce the emission of CO2. Many phases of cement and concrete technology can affect sustainability. Cement and concrete industry is responsible for the production of 7% carbon dioxide of the total world CO2 emission. The use of supplementary cementing materials (SCM), design of concrete mixtures with optimum content of cement and enhancement of concrete durability are the main issues towards sustainability in concrete industry.

This thesis deals with Rare Earth Elements (REE), especially with neodymium used in permanent magnets, from a very scientific basis by providing basic research data. Despite the fact that REE are newsworthy and very important elements for a considerable bandwidth of todays' technologies, accompanied by the monopolistic supply-situation and Chinese politics, there are inexplicable data discrepancies about REE which have been recognized frequently but usually have not been addressed accordingly. So this analysis started with the hypothesis that the four application areas, namely computer hard disk drives (HDD), mobile phones, wind turbines and e-mobility (automotive traction), account for about 80% of the global annual neodymium-demand. The research methodology was a laboratory analysis of the composition of used magnets for HDDs and mobile phones and a literature and official report analysis of wind turbine and automotive neodymium use. The result was amazing and the hypothesis had to be withdrawn as these four areas only account for about 20% of neodymium use. This result raises some questions concerning actual use and thus potential recycling options.

On a Sustainable Future of the Earth's Natural Resources is divided into three sections, with individual chapters contributed by experts on diff erent facets of the earth sciences, natural resources management and related issues. The first section focuses on the status of Earth's resources; land, water, biota and atmosphere. Reviews on the rate of exploitation and the need to conserve these resources for future sustenance are also covered in this section. Th e following section includes chapters elucidating environmental, ecological, climatological and anthropological pressures on sustained nourishment with the Earth's resources. The last section describes management practices, issues and perspectives on sociological, legal, administrative, ICT and strategic efforts that need to be implemented in order to sustain our natural resources. This book covers a broad spectrum of the Earth's resources and sustenance, offering a comprehensive perspective on their past, present and future.

Over the millennia, from stone tools among early foragers to clays to prized metals and mineral pigments used by later groups, mineral resources have had a pronounced role in the Andean world. Archaeologists have used a variety of analytical techniques on the materials that ancient peoples procured from the earth. What these materials all have in common is that they originated in a mine or quarry. Despite their importance, comparative analysis between these archaeological sites and features has been exceptionally rare, and even more so for the Andes. Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes focuses on archaeological research at primary deposits of minerals extracted through mining or quarrying in the Andean region. While mining often begins with an economic need, it has important social, political, and ritual dimensions as well. The contributions in this volume place evidence of primary extraction activities within the larger cultural context in which they occurred. This important contribution to the interdisciplinary literature presents research and analysis on the mining and quarrying of various materials throughout the region and through time. Thus, rather than focusing on one material type or one specific site, Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes incorporates a variety of all the aspects of mining, by focusing on the physical, social, and ritual aspects of procuring materials from the earth in the Andean past.

Jean-Francois Daubuisson (1769 1841), geologist and engineer, was an Officer of the Legion d'Honneur, Knight of St Louis and Chief Engineer at the Royal Mining Corps. He published numerous papers on geology, mining and hydraulics, and is best known for his textbooks, Traite de Geognosie and Traite d'Hydraulique. He studied geology and mineralogy in Freiburg with Abraham Werner, the key proponent of Neptunism, the theory that all rocks had an aqueous origin. Later in his career Daubuisson was to side with the Plutonists, who argued that basalts formed from molten rock. However, in this paper, published in French in 1803, he describes his observations of the basalts of Saxony and argues that they, and all basalts, are sedimentary. This English translation by the Secretary of the Wernerian Natural History Society was published in 1814, and provides a fascinating insight into this discredited but once influential theory of the Earth.

1000 DegreesC) and low pressures (< 2 kb) and typically results in the formation of "burnt" and fused rocks termed buchites, paralavas, clinkers and fulgarites. It is typically associated with shallow basaltic intrusions (contact aureoles, xenoliths,) combustion of carbonaceous matter, lightning strikes, and is also found in meteorites. During pyrometamorphism, the sequence of heating and cooling is greatly condensed favouring the preservation of a variety of stranded reaction microstructures that reflect disequilibrium reaction kinetics with metastable and mineral crystallisation. This second edition includes the latest developments in the study of pyrometamorphism derived from over 60 new references and accompanied with over 20 new illustrations.

In recent years, the increased availability and fidelity of broadband seismic instruments have effectively narrowed the gap between exploration and global seismic applications. Global seismologists are now able to take advantage of high-resolution, often exploration-based, tools to examine rock properties tens to hundreds of kilometers below surface. This book reviews the key assumptions, algorithms and prospects of several important array-based methods in today's global and regional seismic surveys. A short list of topics includes data migration, PP and SS precursors, Radon transform, mantle triplication, P-to-S and S-to-P converted waves, shear-wave splitting, high-resolution seismic tomography, and ambient-noise interferometry. Each approach is presented in a 'cookbook' fashion for easy comparison, implementation and critique by the general readership.