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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > Geology & the lithosphere > General
Spacecraft study of the Solar system is one of humanity's most outstanding achievements. Thanks to this study, our present knowledge of properties of and conditions on the planets exceeds many-fold that of 20 years ago: planets have been rediscovered. This is especially the case for planetary atmospheres, whose properties were for the most part either not at all or only erroneously known. Much research has been invested in the study of the atmospheres of Mars and Venus, and their chemical composition and photochemistry are basic problems in these studies. In the present publication I have tried to summarize all findings in this field. The English version of the book includes new data in the field from the last 3 years since the book was published in Russian. I wish to thank U. von Zahn, who initiated my talks with Springer-Verlag and acted as technical editor. December 2, 1985 V. A. KRASNOPOLSKY Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 Chemical Composition and Structure of the Martian Atmosphere 4 1. 1 Carbon Dioxide and Atmospheric Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1. 2 CO and O Mixing Ratios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2 1. 3 Ozone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 1. 4 Water Vapor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 1. 5 Composition of the Upper Atmosphere as Determined from Airglow Spectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 1. 6 Mass Spectrometric Measurements of the Atmospheric Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 1. 7 Ionospheric Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 1. 8 Temperature Profile of the Lower Atmosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 1. 9 Temperature of the Upper Atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 1. 10 Eddy Diffusion Coefficient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 2 Photochemistry of the Martian Atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 of the experience of the last few generations. The group of happily unexperienced events includes large bolide impacts with the Earth. The evidence for the occurrence of such impacts at intervals of some tens of millions of years is quite convincing, and Lyell stands admonished by Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. " The role of bolide impacts on the history of life during other portions of the Phanerozoic Eon is less clear (see Raup and Fischer, both this volume), and catastrophic changes unrelated to extraterrestrial processes may have been important (see Holser, this volume). Changes in the later Precambrian biota are still difficult to interpret, in part because the preservation of soft-bodied animals from this period of Earth history is so unusual (see Seilacher, this volume). During the past billion years or so, bolide impacts have exerted a significant effect on the Earth's surface and its inhabitants, but not on its interior. The 3800 Ma rocks at Isua in West Greenland are the oldest terrestrial rocks that are currently available for inspection (see Dymek, this volume). They contain abundant evidence for the operation of chemical and physical processes that are similar to those of the present day. This situation could not have prevailed during the entire 700 Ma preceding the formation of the Isua rocks.
Progress in Precambrian geology has been exceptionally great, indeed quite striking for geologists of the older generation; only some 30-40 years ago the Precambrian appeared as an uncertain and even mystic prelude to geologic evolution. Even the very name - Precambrian - means some indi visible unit in the early history of the Earth, the beginning of which is poorly known. At the same time it was obvious that the Precambrian formations are of extremely varied and complex composition and poor knowledge and lack of reliable methods of division and correlation were to blame for the lack of significant progress in studies of this early evolutionary stage of the planet. Certainly, even at the very start of Precambrian studies, the results obtained were quite promising, lifting as they did the mysterious veil over the regional Precambrian; but they presented no general realistic picture of this early stage in the Earth's evolution at that time. Recently, this situation has completely changed, due to new methods of study of the older forma tions, and due also to the refinement of some well-known methods, in particular of division, dating, and correlation of "silent" metamorphic strata. Application of different isotope methods of dating was most impor tant in providing objective rock age and thereby the age of geologic events recorded in these rocks. Thus it became possible to reconstruct the oldest geologic period of our planet."
This book gives an introduction to the mathematical theory of cooperative behavior in active systems of various origins, both natural and artificial. It is based on a lecture course in synergetics which I held for almost ten years at the University of Moscow. The first volume deals mainly with the problems of pattern fonnation and the properties of self-organized regular patterns in distributed active systems. It also contains a discussion of distributed analog information processing which is based on the cooperative dynamics of active systems. The second volume is devoted to the stochastic aspects of self-organization and the properties of self-established chaos. I have tried to avoid delving into particular applications. The primary intention is to present general mathematical models that describe the principal kinds of coopera tive behavior in distributed active systems. Simple examples, ranging from chemical physics to economics, serve only as illustrations of the typical context in which a particular model can apply. The manner of exposition is more in the tradition of theoretical physics than of in mathematics: Elaborate fonnal proofs and rigorous estimates are often replaced the text by arguments based on an intuitive understanding of the relevant models. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of this book, its readers might well come from very diverse fields of endeavor. It was therefore desirable to minimize the re quired preliminary knowledge. Generally, a standard university course in differential calculus and linear algebra is sufficient."
Terrestrial Heat Flow and the Lithosphere Structure summarizes current problems of analyzing related data. The individual chapters are written by leading scientists in geothermics, and are arranged in three sections: - General Lithospheric Geothermics - Regional Lithospheric Geothermics - Worldwide Heat Flow Density Studies. Emphasis is laid on the interrelations between lithospheric structure and local heat flow fields.
My goal in writing this book was to provide an introduction to meteorite science and a handbook on meteorite classification. Insofar as I succeeded it should prove useful both to the practicing professional and to university students at the upper-division and graduate levels. I originally intended the book to be nearly twice as long. The second half was to be a review of properties relating to the origin of each group of meteorites. Chapter XVIII is an example of how these later chapters would have looked, although most would not have been as interpretative. These chapters would have been useful chiefly to meteorite researchers looking for a quick summary of group properties; they were not written because of lack of time. Perhaps I will start to prepare this "second volume" in a year or so when my family and I have recovered from the preparation of the present volume. Although some parts of the classification portion are mildly icono clastic, I have attempted either to avoid the inclusion of speculative interpretations or to flag them with a caveat to the reader. I have relaxed these principles somewhat in Chapter XVIII to conserve space, but even there the discussion of alternative speculations should give the reader a feeling for the degree of uncertainty attached."
In this unique volume, renowned experts discuss the applications of fractals in petroleum research-offering an excellent introduction to the subject. Contributions cover a broad spectrum of applications from petroleum exploration to production. Papers also illustrate how fractal geometry can quantify the spatial heterogeneity of different aspects of geology and how this information can be used to improve exploration and production results.
What does existing scientific knowledge about physics, chemistry,
meteorology and biology tell us about the likelihood of
extraterrestrial life and civilizations? And what does the fact
that there is currently no credible scientific evidence for the
existence of extraterrestrial biospheres or civilizations teach us?
The Northwest African and the conjugate Northeast American con- tinental margins provide excellent examples of mature passive continental margins which record in their thick sediment cover the birth and evolution of the Atlantic Ocean Basins during the past 200 million years. Due to a dense net of single- and multichannel seismic reflection lines, numerous Deep Sea Drill- ing Project (DSDP) sites and petroleum exploration wells, and the well-known onshore geology, the Northwest African margin is one of the bes"t-documen ted margins of the world. A particu- lar advantage of this margin is that its coastal basins are well exposed and accessible for detailed stratigraphic studies and onshore-offshore correlations, whereas the Mesozoic-Ceno- zoic marginal basins off eastern North America underlie only the present continental shelf and slope. During the past decade, the Northwest African margin was stu- died in great detail, particularly by the Woods Hole Oceano- graphic Institution, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Imperial College London, Shell Internationale Petroleum Maat- schappij (Den Haag), Kiel University, and the Bundesanstalt fiir Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR) at Hannover. A num- ber of important synthesis papers summarized these results; e. g. , Summerhayes et al. , 1971; Dillon and Sougy, 1974; Seibold and Hinz, 1974; Uchupi et al. , 1976; Lehner and de Ruiter, 1977 (all quoted in the references of Seibold, this Vol. ).
Fifty million years ago, the Arctic Ocean was a warm sea, bounded
by lush vegetation of the warm-temperate shores of Scandinavia,
Siberia, Alaska and the Northwest Territories. Wind and storms were
rare because Atlantic weather systems had not developed but, as
today, polar day length added a hostile element to this otherwise
tranquil climate.
Students of a phenomenon as common but complex as andesite genesis often are overwhelmed by, or overlook, the volume and diversity of relevant information. Thus there is need for periodic overview even in the absence of a dramatic breakthrough which "solves the andesite problem" and even though new ideas and data keep the issues in a state of flux. Thus I have summarized the subject through mid.1980 from my perspective to help clarify the long-standing problem and to identify profitable areas for future research. Overviews are more easily justified than achieved and there are fundamental differences of opinion concerning how to go about them. It is professionally dangerous and therefore uncom mon for single authors, especially those under 35 such as I, to summarize a broad, active field of science in book-length thor oughness. Review articles in journals, multi-authored books, or symposia proceedings appear instead. The single-authored approach is intimidating in scale and can result in loss of thoroughness or authority on individual topics. The alternatives lack scope or integration or both."
Colloid science has been applied by soil chemists and clay mineral ogists for many years, and some of the most important studies on the behavior of colloids have been contributed by them. Barring a few notable exceptions, only in the last decade have geochemists applied colloid science in their research and in this period much work has been published. It seemed to the authors that it would be useful at this stage to attempt to summarize the progress made and to try to examine what colloid science has contributed and can further contribute to geo chemistry. This book is based partly on a course of the same title given to graduate students by one of the authors (S. Y) between 1972 and 1977 at the Department of Geology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Consequently many fundamental concepts of the subject are included that will be of use to graduate students in geology, geo chemistry, soil science, and oceanography. So that specialists interested in certain sections may find their subjects comprehensively covered, a few topics are dealt with in more than one chapter so that readers may ignore sections not especially of interest to them. However the chapters more fully treating certain topics are cross-referenced. In such cases the subjects are treated from different viewpoints and the citations used represent these dif fering viewpoints."
This volume contains the lectures presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute that took place at the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, July 18-27, 1982. The purpose of this Institute was to provide an international forum for exchange of ideas and dissemination of knowledge on some selected topics in Mechanics of Fluids in Porous Media. Processes of transport of such extensive quantities as mass of a phase, mass of a component of a phase, momentum and/or heat occur in diversified fields, such as petroleum reservoir engineer ing, groundwater hydraulics, soil mechanics, industrial filtration, water purification, wastewater treatment, soil drainage and irri gation, and geothermal energy production. In all these areas, scientists, engineers and planners make use of mathematical models that describe the relevant transport processes that occur within porous medium domains, and enable the forecasting of the future state of the latter in response to planned activities. The mathe matical models, in turn, are based on the understanding of phenomena, often within the void space, and on theories that re late these phenomena to measurable quantities. Because of the pressing needs in areas of practical interest, such as the develop ment of groundwater resources, the control and abatement of groundwater contamination, underground energy storage and geo thermal energy production, a vast amount of research efforts in all these fields has contributed, especially in the last t o decades, to our understanding and ability to describe transport phenomena."
Major structural features are used in this study to reconstruct the links which existed between North America, Europe and Africa before the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean. The synthesis of geophysical and geochemical data as well as geological observations allows the recognition of the original geometry of the Grenvillian, Cadomian, Caledonian, Ligerian-Acadian and Hercynian foldbelts and the identification of ancient plate sutures. The reader will find a wealth of information based not only on the English but also on the French and Spanish literature, thus opening less known results to the international community.
The Mediterranean Sea, nestled between Africa, southern Europe, and the Middle East, may be envisioned as a complex picture-puzzle comprising numerous intricate pieces, many of which are already in place. A general image, in terms of science, has emerged, although at this time large gaps are noted and some areas of the picture remain fuzzy and indistinct. In recent years this fascinating, mind-teasing puzzle image has become clearer with individual pieces more easily recognized and rapidly emplaced, largely by means of multidisciplinary and multinational team efforts. In this respect, the Special Program Panel on Marine Sciences of the NATO Scientific Af fairs Division considered the merits of initiating four conferences bearing on the Mediterranean ecosystem. It was suggested that the first, emphasizing geology, should dovetail with subsequent seminars on physical oceanogra phy, marine biology, and ecology and man's influence on the natural Medi terranean regime. At a conference held in Banyuls-sur-Mer, France, in August 1979, Profes sor Raimondo Selli was urged by some panel members to initiate an Ad vanced Research Institute (ARI) that would focus primarily on the geologi cally recent evolution of the Mediterranean Sea and serve as a logical base for future NATO conferences on the Mediterranean."
This collection of papers is based on a symposium held in 1987 at the Interna tional Union of Geology and Geodesy Congress in Vancouver, British Colum bia. The Symposium was planned as a follow-up to a session at the 1984 Geo logical Society of America Annual Meeting in Reno, Nevada, which dealt with the emplacement of silicic lava domes. In both cases, emphasis was placed on the physical and mechanical rather than chemical aspects of lava flow. The IUGG Symposium consisted of two lecture sessions, a poster session, and two discussion periods, and had 22 participants. The contributions to this volume are all based on papers presented in the various parts of the Sym posium. The motivation for studying lava flow mechanics is both practical and scientific. Scientists and government agencies seek to more effectively predict the hazards associated with active lavas. Recovering mineral resources found in lava flows and domes also requires an understanding of their emplacement. From a more theoretical standpoint, petrologists view lava studies as a way to directly observe the rheologic consequences of mixing crystals, bubbles, and solid blocks of country rock with silicate liquids. This information can then be used to constrain processes occurring in the concealed conduits, dikes, and chambers that feed flows and domes on the surface."
Earthquakes come and go as they please, leaving behind them trails of destruc tion and casualties. Although their occurrence is little affected by what we do or think, it is the task of earth scientists to keep studying them from all possible angles until ways and means are found to divert, forecast, and eventually control them. In ancient times people were awestruck by singular geophysical events, which were attributed to supernatural powers. It was recognized only in 1760 that earthquakes originated within the earth. A hundred years later, first systematic attempts were made to apply physical principles to study them. During the next century scientists accumulated knowledge about the effects of earthquakes, their geographic patterns, the waves emitted by them, and the internal constitution of the earth. During the past 20 years, seismology has made a tremendous progress, mainly because of the advent of modern computers and improvements in data acquisi tion systems, which are now capable of digital and analog recording of ground motion over a frequency range of five orders of magnitude. These technologic developments have enabled seismologists to make measurements with far greater precision and sophistication than was previously possible. Advanced computational analyses have been applied to high-quality data and elaborate theoretical models have been devised to interpret them. As a result, far reaching advances in our knowledge of the earth's structure and the nature of earthquake sources have occurred."
The study of paleocurrents, since 1963, is now a very routine part of sedimentology, and more and more such studies are finding use in other fields. Thus it seemed appropriate for us to review post-1963 developments and present them in a compact manner for the interested reader. Instead of rewriting a second edition, which thirteen years later we would organize in a completely dif ferent way, we have brought each chapter up to date with new material up to 1976. A new update supplement has in this edition been inserted after each one of the original chapters. We have stayed close to the original theme of paleocurrents-how to measure them and how to use them to solve geological problems ranging in scale from the hand specimen to the sedimentary basin and beyond. We have used many annotated references and tables to help pre sent this information to the reader. The reader will note that we have cited a few 1962 references - pUblications that appeared too late to be cited in the original 1963 edition. A few times we have also cited a reference which was included in the first edition. These are marked with an asterisk and hence do not appear in the new lists of references. We have been aided by many. In Cincinnati, WANDA OSBORNE and JEAN CARROL did typing and RICHARD SPOHN, the University's geological librarian, was very helpful in obtaining many references to the literature."
Earth's Rotation from Eons to Days reviews long-term changes, methods of measurement, and the major influences on rotation parameters. In order to understand secular changes, the momentary behavior of ocean tides must be analyzed and appropriately modelled. Researchers and students in astronomy and all fields of geosciences will find a wealth of information related to the interaction of geophysical phenomena and the rotation of the planet Earth.
For many centuries people living on volcanoes have known that the outset of seismic activity is often a forerunner of a volcanic eruption. This understand ing allowed people living close to the sites of the Mt. Nuovo 1538 eruption at Campi Flegrei, Italy, and of the Mt. Usu 1663 eruption, in Hokkaido, Japan (to quote only two examples) to flee before the eruptions started. During the second half of the 19th century seismographs were installed on some volcanoes, and the link between seismic and eruptive activity started to be assessed on a firmer scientific basis. The first systematic observations of the correlations existing between seismic activity and volcanic eruptions were probably those carried out at Mt. Vesuvius by Luigi Palmieri in 1856. Palmieri was the Director of Osservatorio Vesuviano and built an electromagnetic seismograph with the aim of "making visible the smallest ground motions by recording them on paper and indicating direction, intensity and duration." He was able to show the relationship between earthquakes and the different phases of volcanic activity. He identified the harmonic tremor which he indicated was a precursor of volcanic activity: "the characteristic feature of the ground mo tions preceding eruption is its continuity . . . (before the eruption of 1861) the electromagnetic seismograph began to show a continuous tremor." The Palmieri seismograph was also utilized in Japan until 1883, when it was replaced by the new Gray-Milne seismographs, and, later, by the Omori in struments."
The Geo-Platinum 87 Symposium, held at the Open University during April 1987, was designed as a forum for presentation of new research results on the occurrence, genesis, geochemistry, mineralogy and analysis of the platinum-group elements (PGE). With the support of the Open University and the Mineral Industry Research Organisation, the symposium was attended by 115 representatives of university departments, research institutions and members of the mining and mineral exploration industries. An introduction to the symposium was provided by two invited papers from C. J. Morrissey (Riofinex North) and C. R. N. Clark (Johnson Matthey) which were designed to give perspective to the goals of PGE research work. The first of these papers gave a provocative insight into the aims and objectives of an exploration manager, examining the influence of supply, demand and perceived world reserves on exploration strategy. The second invited paper gave a valuable view of the industrial uses, market trends and predicted changes in the commercial value of the platinum-group elements from the standpoint of a refining company and supplier. These invited papers are reproduced in this volume and are followed by twenty four full papers and twenty abstracts that reflect the wide range of research topics presented at the symposium."
This volume 1 and its companion volume 2 present the results of new investigations into the geology, paleontology and paleoecology of the early hominin site of Laetoli in northern Tanzania. The site is one of the most important paleontological and paleoanthropological sites in Africa, worldrenowned for the discovery of fossils of the early hominin Australopithecus afarensis, as well as remarkable trails of its footprints. The first volume provides new evidence on the geology, geochronology, ecology, ecomorphology and taphonomy of the site. The second volume describes newly discovered fossil hominins from Laetoli, belonging to Australopithecus afarensis and Paranthropus aethiopicus, and presents detailed information on the systematics and paleobiology of the diverse associated fauna. Together, these contributions provide one of the most comprehensive accounts of a fossil hominin site, and they offer important new insights into the early stages of human evolution and its context.
This practical handbook of properties for soils and rock contains in a concise tabular format the key issues relevant to geotechnical investigations, assessments and designs in common practice. There are brief notes on the application of the tables. These data tables are compiled for experienced geotechnical professionals who require a reference document to access key information. There is an extensive database of correlations for different applications. The book should provide a useful bridge between soil and rock mechanics theory and its application to practical engineering solutions. The initial chapters deal with the planning of the geotechnical investigation and the classification of the soil and rock properties, after which some of the more used testing is covered. Later chapters show the reliability and correlations that are used to convert that data in the interpretative and assessment phase of the project. The final chapters apply some of these concepts to geotechnical design. The emphasis throughout is on application to practice. This book is intended primarily for practicing geotechnical engineers working in investigation, assessment and design, but should provide a useful supplement for postgraduate courses. It evolved from the need to have a "go to" reference book which has both breadth and depth of information to apply immediately to projects. To keep to a handbook size one has to compress/restrict details to a few key bullet points - but a comprehensive reference list provides the "appendix" for additional information if required. This 2nd edition keeps to that format but contains updated information and adjustments that take into account feedback received since initial publication.
Perhaps no dating method has the wide range of applicability as does the potassium argon dating method from either consideration of the ranges of ages which can be dated or the availability of suitable material to date. Minerals as young as tens of thousands of years to minerals billions of years old have been successfully dated. Many minerals retain for times of the order of billions of years the daughter, Ar40, and many minerals contain as a component K40 the parent element, potassium being a common element in the earth's crust. As a result, most rock contains at least one mineral which can be successfully dated by the potassium argon method. Even though this method has been applied for over fifteen years, there is as yet no work which summarizes the experimental techniques and the results available. The sixtieth birthday ofW. GENTNER, one of the pioneers in this field of research, is a suitable time to present such a summary.
Advances in seismology and extensions of its application have made it increasingly necessary to perform high-sensitivity observationsonartificial earth tremors (explosions) or on natural ones. This implies in particular to investigating the seismic conditions in large industrial centres. There are many major cities with a million inhabitants or more in seismically-active regions. In the USSR, this applies to the capitals of the Union Republics such as Alma Ata, Frunze, Tashkent, Dushanbe, and Ashkhabad, as well as to dozens of local entres and cities with extensive industrial development. Seismic classification and earthquake forecasting have to be considered in relation to the extension or building of cities in such regions, and this would be impossible without detailed investigation of the seismicity, which involves upgrading the instru mental observation network. The demand for detailed information on the seismicity increases with every extension to the construction. A successful solution here can be implemented only by taking account of some specific factors, the main one being the high level of seismic noise due to the activities in large centres, which restricts the sensitivity of the apparatus and makes it impossible to record weak local earth tremors, which are of particular interest in periods of relative seismic calm. Stations at sufficiently great distances from the city do not sense the city noise, but they also fail to record weak local earth tremors. Also, the accuracy ofobservation falls for those tremors that can be recorded because of the great distances between stations." |
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