Focusing on mountain ranges that are relatively unfamiliar to most geologists, this work expands our view of tectonics beyond a standardized textbook approach and illustrates both the extraordinary variety of mountain ranges over the world through time and many of the basic similarities they display. Originally published in 1987. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A survey of the nature and history of the landscapes of the world's great warm deserts, that illustrates how their distinctive features have developed in response to major climatic and tectonic changes over millions of years. The treatment is a regional one, and each of the world's major warm deserts has its own chapter. Written by a leading expert in the field.

Sediments from the world's ocean floors and other water body basins hold a wealth of information about organic life as we know it. "Organic Matter: Productivity, Accumulation, and Preservation in Recent and Ancient Sediments" addresses focusing on the production, accumulation, and preservation of organic matter in marine and lacustrine sediments. Contributors to this important monograph cover a range of geologic ages from recent times back to the Permian Era, as well as temperature and organic matter types.

This resource book will be of interest and benefit to petroleum explorationists and researchers, as well as oceanographers, marine and environmental scientists, sedimentologists, geochemists and paleontologists.

This essential reference for graduate students and researchers provides a unified treatment of earthquakes and faulting as two aspects of brittle tectonics at different timescales. The intimate connection between the two is manifested in their scaling laws and populations, which evolve from fracture growth and interactions between fractures. The connection between faults and the seismicity generated is governed by the rate and state dependent friction laws - producing distinctive seismic styles of faulting and a gamut of earthquake phenomena including aftershocks, afterslip, earthquake triggering, and slow slip events. The third edition of this classic treatise presents a wealth of new topics and new observations. These include slow earthquake phenomena; friction of phyllosilicates, and at high sliding velocities; fault structures; relative roles of strong and seismogenic versus weak and creeping faults; dynamic triggering of earthquakes; oceanic earthquakes; megathrust earthquakes in subduction zones; deep earthquakes; and new observations of earthquake precursory phenomena.

Human activities have had a huge impact on the environment and landscape, through industrialisation and land-use change, leading to climate change, deforestation, desertification, land degradation, and air and water pollution. These impacts are strongly linked to the occurrence of geomorphological hazards, such as floods, landslides, snow avalanches, soil erosion, and others. Geomorphological work includes not only the understanding but the mapping and modelling of Earth's surface processes, many of which directly affect human societies. In addition, geomorphologists are becoming increasingly involved with the dimensions of societal problem solving, through vulnerability analysis, hazard and risk assessment and management. The work of geomorphologists is therefore of prime importance for disaster prevention. An international team of geomorphologists have contributed their expertise to this volume, making this a scientifically rigorous work for a wide audience of geomorphologists and other Earth scientists, including those involved in environmental science, hazard and risk assessment, management and policy.

The cryosphere comprises all the frozen water and soil on the surface of the Earth. Mass Balance of the Cryosphere focuses on two key components of this environment: land ice (in the form of ice sheets, caps and glaciers) and sea ice. These components have been identified as important indicators of both short and long term climate change. Early chapters cover the theory behind field-based and satellite observations, and modelling of mass balance, providing a thorough grounding in all the concepts and issues presented later in the book. Later chapters review our current understanding of the present and predicted future mass balance of the cryosphere. This is an important reference for all scientists working in the fields of climate change, environmental sciences and glaciology. It is written by leading authors in the field, and is fully integrated to provide a coherent, cross-referenced and consistent exposition on the subject.

Rivers provide the primary link between land and sea. Utilizing the world's largest database, this book presents a detailed analysis and synthesis of the processes affecting fluvial discharge of water, sediment and dissolved solids. The ways in which climatic variation, episodic events, and anthropogenic activities - past, present and future - affect the quantity and quality of river discharge are discussed in the final two chapters. The book contains 26 tables and more than 165 figures - many in full color - including global and regional maps. The book's extensive appendix presents the 1534-river database as a series of 44 tables and 132 maps that provide quantitative data regarding the discharge of water, sediment and dissolved solids. The complete database is also presented within a GIS-based package available online at www.cambridge.org/milliman. River Discharge to the Coastal Ocean provides an invaluable resource for researchers, professionals and graduate students in hydrology, oceanography, geology, geomorphology and environmental policy.

Recent studies indicate that - due to climate change - the Earth is undergoing rapid changes in all cryospheric components, including polar sea ice shrinkage, mountain glacier recession, thawing permafrost, and diminishing snow cover. This book provides a comprehensive summary of all components of the Earth's cryosphere, reviewing their history, physical and chemical characteristics, geographical distributions, and projected future states. This new edition has been completely updated throughout, and provides state-of-the-art data from GlobSnow-2 CRYOSAT, ICESAT, and GRACE. It includes a comprehensive summary of cryospheric changes in land ice, permafrost, freshwater ice, sea ice, and ice sheets. It discusses the models developed to understand cryosphere processes and predict future changes, including those based on remote sensing, field campaigns, and long-term ground observations. Boasting an extensive bibliography, over 120 figures, and end-of-chapter review questions, it is an ideal resource for students and researchers of the cryosphere.

How will global environmental change affect the landscape and our interaction with it? Apart from climate change, there are other important catalysts of landscape change, including relief, hydroclimate and runoff, sea level variations and human activity. This volume summarizes the state-of-the-art concerning the geomorphic implications of global environmental change, analyzing such effects on lakes, rivers, coasts, reefs, rainforests, savannas, deserts, glacial features, and mountains. Providing a benchmark statement from the world s leading geomorphologists on the current state of, and potential changes to, the environment, this book is invaluable for advanced courses on geomorphology and environmental science, and as a reference for research scientists. Interdisciplinary in scope, with a primary audience of Earth and environmental scientists, geographers, geomorphologists and ecologists, it also has a wider reach to those concerned with the social, economic and political issues raised by global environmental change, and is useful to policy makers and environmental managers.

Since 1980, progress in research on the fission-track dating method and its applications to earth and related sciences has been evaluated during an International Workshop that takes place every four years. This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the International Workshop held in Gent (Belgium) from 26 to 30 August, 1996. Primarily the articles will be of interest to the active fission-track scientists but the combination of research papers and critical reviews that is presented may also provide the interested non-specialist reader with a valuable insight into the fission-track dating method and its role in the earth sciences. This reader will undoubtedly note the evolution that the method has undergone during the last fifteen years, from a technique that was debated in most of its facets to an established chronometric tool with unique qualities in geothermochronology.

Planetary Surface Processes is the first advanced textbook to cover the full range of geologic processes that shape the surfaces of planetary-scale bodies. Using a modern, quantitative approach, this book reconsiders geologic processes outside the traditional terrestrial context. It highlights processes that are contingent upon Earth's unique circumstances and processes that are universal. For example, it shows explicitly that equations predicting the velocity of a river are dependent on gravity: traditional geomorphology textbooks fail to take this into account. This textbook is a one-stop source of information on planetary surface processes, providing readers with the necessary background to interpret new data from NASA, ESA and other space missions. Based on a course taught by the author at the University of Arizona for 25 years, it is aimed at advanced students, and is also an invaluable resource for researchers, professional planetary scientists and space-mission engineers.

Although similar geomorphic processes take place in other regions, in the tropics these processes operate at different rates and with varying intensities. Tropical geomorphology therefore provides many new discoveries regarding geomorphic processes. This textbook describes both the humid and arid tropics. It provides thoroughly up-to-date concepts and relevant case studies, and emphasises the importance of geomorphology in the management and sustainable development of the tropical environment, including climate change scenarios. The text is supported by a large number of illustrations, including satellite images. Student exercises accompany each chapter. Tropical Geomorphology is an ideal textbook for any course on tropical geomorphology or the tropical environment, and is also invaluable as a reference text for researchers and environmental managers in the tropics.

What were the landscapes of the past like? What will landscapes look like in the future? Landscapes are all around us, but most of us know very little about how they have developed, what goes on in them, and how they react to changing climates, tectonics and human activities. Examining what landscape is, and how we use a range of ideas and techniques to study it, Andrew Goudie and Heather Viles demonstrate how geomorphologists have built on classic methods pioneered by some great 19th century scientists to examine our Earth. Using examples from around the world, including New Zealand, the Tibetan Plateau, and the deserts of the Middle East, they examine some of the key controls on landscape today such as tectonics and climate, as well as humans and the living world. They also discuss some key 'landscape detectives' from the past, including Charles Darwin who did some important, but often overlooked, research on landscape. Concluding with the cultural importance of landscape, and exploring how this has led to the conservation of much 'earth heritage', they delve into the future and look at how we can predict the response of landscapes to climate change in the future. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This book provides an integrated, thorough and up-to-date review of the nature and development of the Kalahari environment, an environment of great ecological and geomorphological diversity. Its complex climatic and geological history and its long association with human societies attempting to utilise its natural resources are aspects of increasing scientific interest. The book has evolved from the authors' own research in the Kalahari, and attempts to provide explanations and answers to some of the many questions raised about this region, ranging from the commonly asked 'is it really a desert?', to more specific and detailed concerns. The interdisciplinary approach will make the book of interest to researchers, lecturers and advanced students in earth sciences, environmental studies, tropical geomorphology and Quaternary science. The extensive bibliography will also make the book a very important source of reference.

Sand dunes are a globally important depositional landform and sedimentary system. Their origins and dynamics are important in understanding how deserts have evolved in response to climate change and changes in sand supply and mobility, and how they will continue to evolve in the future. This book provides a state-of-the-art review of the characteristics of desert dunes and their sediments, and explores their dynamics on timescales from days to millennia as they respond to changes in wind speed and direction, precipitation and sand supply. This extensively revised edition reflects the advances in our understanding of desert dunes, their dynamics and history; and covers recent developments including the luminescence dating revolution, ground penetrating radar and advances in numerical modeling. Also covering dunes on Mars and Titan, this authoritative reference is a must-have for researchers and graduate students working on desert dunes and aeolian geomorphology.

This open access book provides an overview of the progress in landslide research and technology and is part of a book series of the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL). The book provides a common platform for the publication of recent progress in landslide research and technology for practical applications and the benefit for the society contributing to the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020, which is expected to continue up to 2030 and even beyond to globally promote the understanding and reduction of landslide disaster risk, as well as to address the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals.

Understanding of rivers and their sediments, both as modern systems and as ancient counterparts in the geological record, has progressed steadily but markedly over the past several decades, with contributions by practitioners in diverse fields of geosciences and engineering. This book contains 31 papers, with authors from 13 countries, who participated in the Sixth International Conference on Fluvial Sedimentology held in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1977. True to the nature of these quadrennial conferences, the papers in this book discuss a broad range of fluvial subjects that include the character of bedforms and sediment transport in river channels, morphological and sedimentological features of modern fluvial environments, modern and ancient avulsions, internal and external controls on the behaviour of river systems, and the facies and architectural organization of alluvial deposits.
A specialist volume detailing the latest advances in fluvial sedimentology.
Authorship includes the leaders in the field.

If you are a member of the International Association of Sedimentologists, for purchasing details, please see: http: //www.iasnet.org/publications/details.asp?code=SP28

This book is the long-awaited successor to Owen M. Phillips's classic textbook, Flow and Reactions in Permeable Rocks, published in 1991. In the intervening eighteen years between the two, significant advances have been made to our understanding of subterranean flow, especially through the vast amount of research into underground storage of nuclear waste and aquifer pollution. This new book integrates and extends these modern ideas and techniques and applies them to the physics and chemistry of sub-surface flows in water-saturated, sandy and rocky media. It describes essential scientific concepts and tools for hydrologists and public health ecologists concerned with present day flow and transport, and also for geologists who interpret present day patterns of mineralization in terms of fluid flow in the distant past. The book is ideal for graduate students and professionals in hydrology, water resources, and aqueous geochemistry.

This textbook describes some of the most effective and straightforward quantitative techniques for modeling Earth surface processes. By emphasizing a core set of equations and solution techniques, the book presents state-of-the-art models currently employed in Earth surface process research, as well as a set of simple but practical research tools. Detailed case studies demonstrate application of the methods to a wide variety of processes including hillslope, fluvial, aeolian, glacial, tectonic, and climatic systems. Exercises at the end of each chapter begin with simple calculations and then progress to more sophisticated problems that require computer programming. All the necessary computer codes are available online at www.cambridge.org/9780521855976. Assuming some knowledge of calculus and basic programming experience, this quantitative textbook is designed for advanced geomorphology courses and as a reference book for professional researchers in Earth and planetary science looking for a quantitative approach to Earth surface processes.

Natural hazards afflict all corners of the Earth; often unexpected, seemingly unavoidable and frequently catastrophic in their impact. This revised edition is a comprehensive, inter-disciplinary treatment of the full range of natural hazards. Accessible, readable and well supported by over 180 maps, diagrams and photographs, it is a standard text for students and an invaluable guide for professionals in the field. Clearly and concisely, the author describes and explains how hazards occur, examines prediction methods, considers recent and historical hazard events and explores the social impact of such disasters. This revised edition, first published in 2005, makes good use of the wealth of recent research into climate change and its effects.

This book was first published in 2004. Wind erosion and deposition are important factors in cold climates because of the open space and scarce vegetation. Aeolian processes connected with sand drift in polar environments are similar to those in deserts but in cold environments, frost and snow also play an important role. The Arctic is characterised by strangely eroded rocks, wind-formed lakes, sand dunes and loess deposits that owe their formation to aeolian processes controlled by frost and snow cover. Wind as a Geomorphic Agent in Cold Climates presents a detailed description and explanation of these wind-generated polar landforms. It includes numerous illustrations that will assist the reader in identifying and interpreting these features; both modern-day and those preserved in the geological record. This book provides an important introduction to this area of geocryology and will form a useful reference for graduate students and researchers in a variety of fields, including geomorphology, geology and environmental science.

Glacial deposits provide a long-term record of climate and sea level changes on Earth. Detailed study of sedimentary rocks deposited during and immediately after glacial episodes is paramount to accurate palaeoclimatic reconstructions and for our understanding of global climatic and eustatic changes. This book presents new information and interpretations of the ancient glacial record, looking in particular at the Late Proterozoic and Late Paleozoic eras. The influence of global tectonics on the origins and distribution of ice masses and the character of glacial deposits through geologic time is emphasised. Sequence stratigraphic techniques are applied to glaciogenic successions, and explanations for possible low-latitude glaciation during the Late Proterozoic era and the association of carbonate deposits with glaciogenic rocks are put forward. Early interglacial conditions, represented by dark grey mudrocks and ice keel scour features are discussed. These studies, from key workers in International Geological Correlation Program Project 260, will aid the understanding of the Earth's climatic history.

Dunes is the first book in over a decade to incorporate the latest research in this active and fast-developing field. It discusses the shapes, sizes, patterns, distribution, history and care of wind-blown dunes, and covers all aspects of dunes, terrestrial and in the Solar System. * The only book to cover all dunes, terrestrial and in the Solar System, in deserts, on coasts, and in the past * Represents the most current update on the research of dunes for over a decade * Incorporates the latest research to come out of China where the field is most rapidly expanding * Discusses the most recent range of skills and technology now focused on the study of dunes * Brings up-to-date a rapidly expanding field

The interactions between tectonic uplift, river erosion and alluvial deposition are fundamental processes which have acted to shape the landscape we see today. These processes are of course ongoing, and are important not only in geomorphology, sedimentology and structural geology, but also hydrology and river engineering. The authors have combined their specialities to bring together evidence and a variety of examples from both field and experimental studies to demonstrate how alluvial rivers are responding to uplift, subsidence and lateral tilting. Such recognition of the nature of river response yield criteria for the identification of active tectonics elsewhere, especially in areas without a history of seismic activity, or in the stratigraphic record. This volume will be of interest to graduate students, consultants and academic researchers in geomorphology, sedimentology and stratigraphy, structural geology, hydrology, geophysics, and geography.

Recent studies indicate that - due to climate change - the Earth is undergoing rapid changes in all cryospheric components, including polar sea ice shrinkage, mountain glacier recession, thawing permafrost, and diminishing snow cover. This book provides a comprehensive summary of all components of the Earth's cryosphere, reviewing their history, physical and chemical characteristics, geographical distributions, and projected future states. This new edition has been completely updated throughout, and provides state-of-the-art data from GlobSnow-2 CRYOSAT, ICESAT, and GRACE. It includes a comprehensive summary of cryospheric changes in land ice, permafrost, freshwater ice, sea ice, and ice sheets. It discusses the models developed to understand cryosphere processes and predict future changes, including those based on remote sensing, field campaigns, and long-term ground observations. Boasting an extensive bibliography, over 120 figures, and end-of-chapter review questions, it is an ideal resource for students and researchers of the cryosphere.