Modeling and simulation were introduced to the earth sciences about four decades ago. Modeling has proven its worth and now it is an accepted procedure for analyzing and solving geological problems. The papers in this collection are focused on modeling sediment deposition and sedimentary sequences and have a decidedly practical flavor. Some of the leading simulation packages, such as CORRELATOR, SEDFLUX, SEDpak, SEDSIM, STRATA, and STRATSIM are applied to problems in hydrocarbon exploration, oil production, groundwater development, coal-bed appraisal, geothermics, and environmental diagnosis. All of these subjects fall under the broad heading of sedimentary basin analysis. The fifteen papers in this volume are written by internationally recognized experts from academia and industry. The contributions represent the status of geologic modeling and simulation at the start of the 21st century, and will give the reader an insight into current research problems and their possible solutions.

This volume deals with those sites selected as part of the Geological Conservation Review (GCR) within the southern British part of the Caledonides, that is, the paratectonic Caledonides - a Caledonian terrane without strong and pervasive deformation and metamorphism, such as occurred further north. This orogenic belt formed by long and complex processes of earth movements between 500 and 380 million years before the present (?late Cambrian to mid-Devonian times), and has been classic ground for geologists for two hundred years. It is perhaps no accident that James Hutton in 1795 chose to illustrate his geostrophic cycle (and unconformity) with three visually explicit examples of the deformation wrought on Lower Palaeozoic rocks by Caledonian events. The former Caledonian mountain chain, which can be seen today in fragmented pieces in Scandinavia, Britain and Ireland, and North America, was ultimately the result of the collision of two continental plates and the closure of a former ocean, Iapetus. Some of these fragments, including those in Scandinavia, southern Britain, and the Republic of Ireland and the Maritime Provinces of Canada, are thought to have lain on the south side of the ocean before collision: the rest of North America, northern Ireland, and Scotland are thought to have lain north of the former Iapetus.

Sedimentation and Tectonics in Rift Basins: Red Sea - Gulf of Aden presents new case studies and synthesises the results of recent research on the sedimentological evolution of the Red Sea - Gulf of Aden rift system. This rift basin is generally regarded as the best natural geological laboratory in the world in which to study the processes of rift formation. Uplift of the rift margins in an arid climate results in extensive three-dimensional exposures of pre- and syn-rift strata and associated structures. These serve as analogues for the understanding and hydrocarbon exploration of deeper buried rift-systems on continental margins such as the North Sea and the Atlantic margins. The Red Sea - Gulf of Aden rift is also exceptional in that its stratigraphy spans all stages from pre-rift environments, syn-rift continental to marine environments through the rift to drift transition to post-rift sea-floor spreading. The work is arranged in eight sections: following a review of the sedimentology and stratigraphy of rift basins, the magmatism and structural evolution of the Red Sea - Gulf of Aden rift is reviewed. Subsequently, new case studies are presented of the early rifting environment, syn-rift sedimentation, tectonics and diagenesis, evaporites and salt tectonics. Post-rift sediments of the axial trough are then discussed along with studies of reefs, coastal zone and shelf sediments, and the tectonic geomorphology of the rift margin escarpment. This work results from extensive new research in the rift basin largely carried out under collaborative research projects by European and Middle Eastern geologists. It will be an invaluable reference work for geoscientists in the hydrocarbon, groundwater and mineral extraction industries, as well as for researchers in university departments of earth sciences, mining and physical geography.

This is the first book to deal specifically with the procedures used in the analysis of structural relationships and the determination of structural successions in complexly deformed rocks such as migmatites and gneisses. The establishment of structural successions enables: The rigorous control of the dating of specific events in the deformational history by constraining the sites of the dated rocks within the structural succession; The establishment of the time span of orogenic events throughout the structural succession, and the rate of orogenic processes;Their comparison to be used as a basis for correlation between dismembered and separated crustal segments in continental reconstructions;The resolution of the complex relationships between deformed ore bodies and host rocks in high grade terranes, and hence determination of the structural control of ore bodies, an essential part of any successful geological exploration, and a precondition to efficient exploitation. With its new approach, and the use of practical field examples from various parts of the world, this highly illustrated work will form an invaluable reference resource for postgraduates, lecturers and researchers in the structural and isotope geology of high-grade metamorphic terranes, as well as for exploration and survey geologists working in the field. Dr Alaric M. Hopgood who holds an Honorary Readership at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, was a Reader in the Department of Geology there until 1995.

Structural geology has developed at a very rapid pace in recent years. Evolution of Geological Structures in Micro- to Macro-Scales, covering a wide spectrum of current research in structural geology from the grain scale to the scale of orogenic belts and from the brittle to the ductile field, provides an overview of newly emerging concepts in a single volume. The book covers a wide range of advances in such broad fields as hydraulic factures, normal faults, overthrusts, ductile shear zones, rock fabrics, folds, superposed folds and basement structures.

The origin of granite has for long fascinated geologists though serious debate on the topic may be said to date from a famous meeting of the Geological Society of France in 1847. My own introduction to the subject began exactly one hundred years later when, in an interview with Profes sor H. H. Read, I entered his study as an amateur fossil collector and left it as a committed granite petrologist - after just ten minutes I can hardly aspire to convert my reader in so dramatic a way, yet this book is an attempt, however inadequate, to pass on the enthusiasm that I inherited, and which has been reinforced by innumerable discussions on the outcrop with granitologists of many nationalities and of many shades of opinion. Since the 1960s, interest in granites has been greatly stimulated by the thesis that granites image their source rocks in the inaccessible deep crust, and that their diversity is the result of varying global tectonic context. So great a body of new data and new ideas has accumulated that my attempt to review the whole field of granite studies must carry with it a possible charge of arrogance, especially as I have adopted the teaching device of presenting the material from a personal point of view with its thinly disguised prejudices."

This volume covers the floods of the major rivers of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Delta, and storm surge related coastal floods in these regions. The book is dedicated to addressing floods from an integrated physical-social perspective to provide students and researchers with a holistic understanding of floods in terms of both human and geomorphological aspects. The systematic coverage of all the major rivers and coastal areas in the GBM delta and surrounding regions will foster a clear comprehension of this dense reservoir of population, where thousands of people are impacted every year due to flood hazards and agricultural destabilization. This comprehensive treatment of flood issues in the region covers flash floods, fluvial floods, fluvio-tidal floods, and coastal floods, and outlines flood management strategies to maintain ecological integrity and environmental stability, and prevent harmful impacts of future floods. The book is intended for students and researchers in earth and environmental sciences, especially geomorphology, hydrology, geography, geology, natural resources management, and regional planning.

This proceedings volume is the fifth in our continuing publication series that result from the annual geomorphology symposiums conducted in the Department of Geological Sciences, State University of New York at Binghamton. The First proceedings Environmental Geomorphology spoke to an emerging Geld that is becoming ever more popular and necessary in today's complex world. The Second proceedings, Quantitative Geomorphology, again cross-cut many of the geomorphic subdisciplines and united them with one of the most important methodologies of the science. The Third and Fourth proceedings, Coastal Geomorphology and Fluvial Geomorphology, zeroed in on analysis of the special processes that comprise the fundamental building blocks of geomorphic research. The present volume continues this trend ht showing how the dynamic processes associated with glaciation transform the landscape. There are many different avenues for expression of scientific ideas, but the knowledge and publication explosion creates hardships for those who attempt to keep in tune with their specialties. It is not our purpose to add an unnecessary burden to this verbage increase. Instead we feel there comes a time when reassessment of the vital fabric of geomorphology is necessary and where geomorphologists can gather as a group to share their newest ideas. The more than 300 participants who have been attending these yearly symposia attest that this type of event helps fi11 a communications gap.

all such systems are important, the Proterozoic column This volume concerns the geology of China, and it examinesthat concern by expositionsofthe stratigraphy, possibly is unique in its continuous sedimentary devel the paleogeography, and the tectonics ofthat remarkable opment and in its reference section of global rank. In paleogeography, this volume describes and illustra country. In this sense, therefore, our aims and purposes are explicit in the title. The senior author and his tes first the broad distribution of Proterozoic deposits. colleagues, furthermore, do not have in mind any special Succeeding descriptions and illustrations trace the ebb and flow of shallow marine waters across China as or specific audience. This volume is quite simply for all geologists. By far the majority will be those whose Phanerozoic time of more than 600 million years elapses native tongue is English, or those who understand from the beginning of the Cambrian to the present. In structure, this volume emphasizes the importance English. Not to be overlooked, moreover, is the large number ofChinese geologists who not only read English of paraplatforms, platforms, geosynclines, and great but also who themselves write studies in English that east-west zones of fracture in the Precambian, also the appear in publications in both their homeland and effects of these early structural elements on structure abroad. in the ensuing Phanerozoic. In the Phanerozoic itself, north-south stress developed in the pre-Phanerozoic A constantly growing interest in the geology of China continued through much of the Paleozoic."

Rock masses are initially stressed in their current in situ state of stress and to a lesser natural state. Whether one is interested in the extent on the monitoring of stress change. formation of geological structures (folds, faults, The subject of paleostresses is only briefly intrusions, etc. ), the stability of artificial struc discussed. tures (tunnels, caverns, mines, surface excava The last 30 years have seen a major advance our knowledge and understanding of rock tions, etc. ), or the stability of boreholes, a in the in situ or virgin stress field, stress. A large body of data is now available on knowledge of along with other rock mass properties, is the state of stress in the near surface of the needed in order to predict the response of rock Earth's crust (upper 3-4km of the crust). masses to the disturbance associated with those Various theories have been proposed regarding structures. Stress in rock is usually described the origin of in situ stresses and how gravity, within the context of continuum mechanics. It is tectonics, erosion, lateral straining, rock fabric, defined at a point and is represented by a glaciation and deglaciation, topography, curva second-order Cartesian tensor with six compo ture of the Earth and other active geological nents. Because of its definition, rock stress is an features and processes contribute to the current enigmatic and fictitious quantity creating chal in situ stress field."

Dendrogeomorphology Beginnings and Futures: A Personal Reminiscence My early forays into dendrogeomorphology occurred long before I even knew what that word meant. I was working as a young geoscientist in the 1960s and early 1970s on a problem with slope movements and deformed vegetation. At the same time, unknown to me, Jouko Alestalo in Finland was doing something similar. Both of us had seen that trees which produced annual growth rings were reacting to g- morphic processes resulting in changes in their internal and external growth p- terns. Dendroclimatology was an already well established field, but the reactions of trees to other environmental processes were far less well understood in the 1960s. It was Alestalo (1971) who first used the term, dendrogeomorphology. In the early 1970s, I could see that active slope-movement processes were affecting the growth of trees in diverse ways at certain localities. I wanted to learn more about those processes and try to extract a long-term chronology of movement from the highly diverse ring patterns.

This book is devoted to the quantitative physical modeling of subduction and subduction-related processes. It presents a coherent description of the modeling method (including similarity criteria, and a novel applied experimental technique), results from model experiments, theoretical analysis of results on the basis of continuum mechanics, and their geodynamic interpretation. Subduction is modeled in general as well as applied to particular regions using both 2-D and 3-D approaches, with both slab-push and slab-pull driving forces. The modeling covers all stages from subduction initiation to death', different regimes of subduction producing back arc extension and compression, blocking of subduction and jumps of subduction zone, arc-continent collision and continental subduction. This work is for geologists and geophysicists interested in geodynamics of the convergent plate boundaries and in mechanics of the lithosphere.

Landforms constitute boundary surfaces between different components of the earth system (atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, pedosphere, lithosphere). At these locations most of the human activity on earth takes place. This central position evokes a bi-directional interaction with the other spheres of the earth system. S- tial landform structures strongly affect processes of other earth system components. At the same time, the land-surface is shaped by the in uence of these processes impacting geomorphologic processes and landform morphometry. These interactions are the focus in the Research Training Group 437 "Landform - a structured and variable boundary layer" at the University of Bonn in Germany. Funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) the Research Training Group is a multidisciplinary research programme for postgraduate studies. Disciplines involved in this programme include: biology, c- matology, computer sciences, geodynamics, geology, geomorphology, geophysics, hydrology, mathematics, meteorology, pedology, and remote sensing. These diff- ent disciplines offer various scienti c approaches, theories, methods and data for the study of landforms within their speci c paradigms. Over a period of ten years (1998-2008) more than 25 PhD projects have been completed. Dedicated to ongoing and completed research activities of the Research Training Group an international symposium titled "Landform - structure, evolution, process control" was held at the Department of Geography, University of Bonn, in 2007.

Morphotectonics, the relation between geomorphology and (neo)tectonics is fundamental to the understanding of landscape evolution. Stressing mainly the quantitative interpretation of field observations, this monograph compares the morphological structure of drainage systems, river courses, glacial forms, volcanic landscapes and mass movements with joint orientations. The latter are indicative of the neotectonic stresses; and thus inferences on the genesis of the morphological forms can be drawn. The data on outcrops on all six continents and on islands in all major oceans have been acquired to a large extent by the author himself. The book, therefore, represents a first-hand account of the work and its relevance which has been done worldwide over the last 30 years.

Rifted Ocean-Continent Boundaries covers a wide range of topics, from quantitative modelling to current knowledge of the structure and evolution of specific margins around the world. Special emphasis is placed on the structure and evolution of various Atlantic margins. After an introduction to volcanic margin concepts, the first articles report the results of numerical models of the mechanics of rift propagation, melt generation and sources of extensional stresses that may cause break-up. One part of the book is dedicated to current knowledge of the structure and evolution of various Atlantic margins. After a brief incursion into the Mediterranean, succeeding articles report on the transform and active margins of the Ivory Coast-Ghana transform margin and the Sea of Japan.

This text is comprised of reflections by diverse women's studies scholars, focusing on the many ways in which the field has evolved from its first introduction in the university setting to the present day.

Earthquake fault zones exhibit hierarchical damage and granular structures with evolving geometrical and material properties. Understanding how repeated brittle deformation form the structures and how the structures affect subsequent earthquakes is a rich problem involving coupling of various processes that operate over broad space and time scales. The diverse state-of-the-art papers collected here show how insight can come from many fields including statistical physics, structural geology and rock mechanics at large scales; elasticity, friction and nonlinear continuum mechanics at intermediate scales; and fracture mechanics, granular mechanics and surface physics at small scales. This volume will be useful to students and professional researchers from Earth Sciences, Material Sciences, Engineering, Physics and other disciplines, who are interested in the properties of natural fault zones and the processes that occur between and during earthquakes.

The Los Alamos Chapman Conference on Magnetospheric Substorms and Related Plasma Processes can be considered the fourth in a series devoted to magnetospheric substorms, after the Moscow (1971), Houston (1972), and Bryce Mountain (1974) meetings. The main motivation for organizing the Los Alamos Conference was that magnetospheric substorm studies have advanced enough to the point of bringing experimenters, analysts and theorists together to discuss major substorm problems with special emphasis on theoretical interpretations in terms of plasma processes. In spite of an extremely heavy schedule from 8:30 A.M. to 10:00 P.M., every session was conducted in an enjoyable and spirited atmosphere. In fact, during one of the afternoons that we had put aside for relaxation, John Winckler led a group of the attendees in a climb to the ceremonial cave of a prehistoric Indian ruin at Bandelier National Monument, near Los Alamos under a crystal blue sky and a bright New Mexico sun. There, they danced as the former dwellers of the pueblo had, perhaps as an impromptu evocation of a magnetospheric event.

For many years, the two subjects of (1) postglacial rebound and its potential for generating earthquakes and (2) the seismicity of passive continental ml!rgins have been of interest and concern to earth scientists on both sides of the North Atlantic. New data and theoretical interpretations have given rise to vigorous discussions on how much the two phenomena inter-relate and whether a significant controlling factor on seismicity in northeastern North America and Scandinavia is the crustal uplift that has been occurring since the latest ice age. The lack of a good understanding of these phenomena presented a particular problem for engineering seismologists attempting to prepare accurate seismic hazard estimates for facili ties both on land (e. g. , nuclear power stations and radioactive waste repositories) and offshore (e. g. , petroleum production facili ties) . The NATO Advanced Research Workshop programme provided an opportuni ty to bring together a group of relevant geophysicists, geologists and geodesists from both sides of the North Atlantic, and a workshop on "Causes and Effects of Earthquakes at Passive Margins and in Areas of Postglacial Rebound on both Sides of the North Atlantic" was held in Vordingborg, Denmark, 9-13 May 1988. The sup port of the NATO Science Committee is gratefully acknowledged.

In 1998 Armenia was commemorating the tenth anniversary of the catastrophic Spitak earthquake. The Second International Conference on "Earthquake Hazard and Seismic Risk Reduction" sponsored by the Government of the Republic of Armenia and United Nation's International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (UN/IDNDR) was held in dedication to that event between 14-21 September (later referred to as Yerevan Conference). The Yerevan Conference has been organized by the National Survey for Seismic Protection (NSSP) of the Republic of Armenia. All level's decision-makers (from the ministers to the local authorities), politicians, scientists, leaders of the executive and legislative powers, psychologists, leading businessmen, representatives from the private sector and the media as well as from the International Organizations have been invited by the Armenian NSSP to take part in joint discussion of the Seismic Risk Reduction Problem for the first time in the history of such forums. Armenian NSSP's such initiative has been triggered by the experience of the Spitak earthquake and other disasters. They showed that it will be possible to reduce the risks, posed by the natural disaster, only through the common efforts of all the community in co-operation with the International institutions.

Discussions of "systems" and the "systems approach" tend to fall into one of two categories: the panegyrical and the disparaging. Scholars who praise the systems approach do so in the belief that it is a powerful and precise method of study. Scholars who try to shoot it down fail to see any advantage in it; indeed, many deem it periIicious. Van Dyne (1980, p. 889) records a facetious comment he once heard, the gist of which ran: "In instances where there are from one to two variables in a study you have a science, where there are from four to seven variables you have an art, and where there are more than seven variables you have a system." This tilt at the systems approach is mild indeed compared with the com ments of an anonymous reviewer of a paper by myself concerned with the systems approach as applied to the soil. The reviewer stated bluntly that he or she had no time for an approach which falsifies and belittles work that has been done and is of no use for future work. My summary of the paper opened with the seemingly innocuous sentence "The notion of the soil as a system is placed on a . formal footing by couching it in terms of dynamical systems theory.""

Geomorphology can be defined simply as the study of landforms. Landforms are the result of the interaction between what Ritter (1978) has called the driving and resisting forces. The driving forces or processes are the methods by which energy is exerted on earth materials and include both surface, geomorphological or exogenous processes and subsurface, geological or endogenous processes. The resisting forces are the surface materials with their inherent resistances determined by a complex combination of rock properties. Stated in these simple terms it would be expected that both sides of the equation be given equal weight in syntheses of landform evolution. However, this has not been the case. Until about the 1950s, geomorphology was mainly descriptive and concerned with producing time-dependent models of landscape evolution. Although the form of the land was the main focus, there was little detailed mention of process and scant attention to the properties of surface materials. There were, of course, exceptions. In the late 19th century G.K. Gilbert was stressing the equilibrium between landforms and processes. Many hydrologists were examining the detailed workings of river 'systems and drainage basins, culminating in the classic paper of Horton (1945).

I was invited to write this book as part of the Minerals, Rocks and Organic Materials Series of Springer-Verlag by Professor Peter J. Wyllie in 1974. Ophiolites have preoccupied me ever since 1948 as a graduate student and up to the present time as part of my research with the U.S. Geological Survey. During this period ophiolite, an obscure European geological term, has attained an ever-increasing importance, is now used to include all fragments of ancient oceanic lithosphere incorporated into the orogenic zones of modern and ancient continental margins, and is a standard part of the plate tectonic paradigm. The purpose of this book is to provide a starting point for anyone interested in the background and state of knowledge concerning ophiolites (ancient oceanic lithosphere). Because ophiolites represent fragments of old oceanic crust their tectonic setting and age are extremely important in the reconstruction of ancient plate boundaries. Present day plate tectonic theories involve the generation and disposal of oceanic lithosphere, so that these ancient fragments of oceanic lithosphere can be used directly to reconstruct conditions within the ancient oceans. Since 1970, numerous meetings and conferences directly related to ophiolites have stimulated worldwide interest in the subject. As part of the International Correlation Program, the project "Ophiolites of Continents and Comparable Oceanic Rocks," was initiated by Dr. N. Bogdanov, Geological Institute, Moscow. This project has brought together an international group that has focused on the outstanding problems and is now producing a world map of ophiolite distribution."

The 7th International Conference on Basement Tectonics was held at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, from August 17th to 21st, 1987. Much ofthe conference was devoted to presentations and discussions on "Major Fracture Zones in the Earth's Crust" and "The Tectonic Evolution of North America" . Subsidiary themes at the conference were "Tectonic Controls of Cratonic Basins" and "Basement Structures and Metallogeny" . The conference was characterized by lively discussion amongst a diverse group of participants with a broad spectrum of interests, encouraged by the single-session format of the conference and a generous allotment of time for discussion following each presentation. The following presided over individual sessions and their assistance is greatly acknowledged: D.L. Baars, P.J. Barosh, M.J. Bartholomew, R.e. Bostrom, D.M. Carmichael, E.M. Chown, J.J. Gallagher, M.C. Gilbert, H. Helmstaedt, R.A. Hodgson, Y.O. Isachsen, J. Kutina, P.D. Lowman, S.P. Gay, Jr. and M.J. Rickard.

In the extensive field of earth sciences, with its many subdisciplines, the trans fer of knowledge is primarily established via personal communication, during meetings, by reading journal articles, or by consulting books. Because more information is available than can be assimilated, it is necessary for the individual to search selectively. Books take more time from the inception of an idea until publication than any of the other means of communication men tioned. As a consequence, their function is somewhat different. Many good books are a compilation of up to date knowledge and serve as reference or instruction manuals. Some books are a collection of previously published papers dealing with a certain topic, while others may basically provide large sets of data or examples. The Frontiers in Sedimentary Geology series was established both for stu dents and practicing earth scientists who wish to either stay abreast of the most recent ideas or developments or to become familiar with an important topic in the field of sedimentary geology. The series attempts to deal with sub jects that are in the forefront of both scientific and economic interest. The treatment of a subject in an individual volume should be a combination of topi cal, regional, and interdisciplinary approaches. Although these three terms can be defined separately, in reality they should flow into each other. A topical treatment should relate to a major category of sedimentary geology.