Natural hazards cost the global economy over $50,000 million per year. Two thirds of this is spent on damage repair, the remainder represents the cost of predicting, preventing and mitigating against disasters. Man-made hazards such as groundwater pollution, subsidence and soil erosion add to this figure.

Geological Hazards is the first book to consider both natural and man-made disasters in a single volume. All major geological hazards are examined. It presents a state-of-the art survey for students on civil engineering and physical geography courses, as well as researchers and practicing civil engineers. It examines methods of assessing, evaluating and combatting hazards, both natural and man-made. Richly illustrated, it views the subject from an international perspective.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203014669

Why do we humans have hearts? Science says to keep the blood flowing through our body, to sustain life. Literature says to give meaning to our existence, to love someone. Spirituality says to endure pain and evolve, to survive loss. I believe it's an amalgamation of all the three.

This book presents an integrated approach to the study of the evolution of the Archean lithosphere, biosphere and atmosphere, and as such it is a unique contribution to our understanding of the early Earth and life. The structural and geochemical make-up of both the oceanic and continental crust of the Archean Earth is documented in some case studies of various cratons, and the implications of the Phanerozoic plate and plume tectonic processes for the Archean geology are discussed in several chapters in the book. All chapters are process-oriented and data-rich, and reflect the most recent knowledge and information on the Archean Earth. The interdisciplinary approach of examining the evolution of the Archean crust, oceans, and life that we adopt in this book sets it apart from previous publications on Precambrian geology. The book will be attractive to researchers in academia and in industry, and to senior undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty in earth and natural sciences.

It is a truism that we can no longer freely pick areas with the most suitable ground conditions for building purposes. Soils must often be improved in order to take the loads from buildings, roads and other objects. This volume contains papers covering a range of relevant topics and issues.

The structural optimization procedure presented in this book makes it possible to achieve seismic protection through integrated structural/control system design. In particular, it is explained how slender structural systems with a high seismic performance can be achieved through inclusion of viscous and viscoelastic dampers as an integral part of the system. Readers are provided with essential introductory information on passive structural control and passive energy dissipation systems. Dynamic analyses of both single and multiple degree of freedom systems are performed in order to verify the achievement of pre-assigned performance targets, and it is explained how the optimal integrated design methodology, also relevant to retrofitting of existing buildings, should be applied. The book illustrates how structural control research is opening up new possibilities in structural forms and configurations without compromising structural performance.

Few processes are as important for environmental geochemistry as the interplay between the oxidation and reduction of dissolved and solid species. The knowledge of the redox conditions is most important to predict the geochemical behaviour of a great number of components, the mobilities of which are directly or indirectly controlled by redox processes. The understanding of the chemical mechanisms responsible for the establishment of measurable potentials is the major key for the evaluation and sensitive interpretation of data. This book is suitable for advanced undergraduates as well as for all scientists dealing with the measurement and interpretation of redox conditions in the natural environment.

This text details the plant-assisted remediation method, "phytoremediation," which involves the interaction of plant roots and associated rhizospheric microorganisms for the remediation of soil contaminated with high levels of metals, pesticides, solvents, radionuclides, explosives, crude oil, organic compounds and various other contaminants. Each chapter highlights and compares the beneficial and economical alternatives of phytoremediation to currently practiced soil removal and burial practices.

This book provides the state-of-the art of the present understanding of avalanche phenomena in both functional materials and geophysics. The main emphasis of the book is analyzing these apparently different problems within the common perspective of out-of-equilibrium phenomena displaying spatial and temporal complexity that occur in a broad range of scales. Many systems, when subjected to an external force, respond intermittently in the form of avalanches that often span over a wide range of sizes, energies and durations. This is often related to a class of critical behavior characterized by the absence of characteristic scales. Typical examples are magnetization processes, plastic deformation and failure occuring in functional materials. These phenomena share many similarities with seismicity arising from the earth crust failure due to stresses that originate from plate tectonics.

This is the first book entirely devoted to travertine, a material in use for over 4000 years. The single-author work is a valuable reference source for travertine, covering all aspects of travertine origins, formation, composition, flora and fauna, occurrence and utilisation, as well as covering allied continental carbonates such as lake marls, calcretes and beachrocks.
Travertine, some forms of which are often known as a ~tufaa (TM), is of particular significance as a source of environmental information (fossils and isotope geochemistry), often permitting the reconstruction of past environments. Reviews of dating techniques, classification and geomorphology are included and the author attempts to provide an unbiased but critical appraisal of current models of travertine formation.
Currently, travertine is in great demand as a building and ornamental stone. It has also been exploited in unconventional ways, such as a ~petrifying springsa (TM) and by way of unusual and little known artistic techniques. Scaling of pipes and boilers is often the result of processes allied to travertine formation. The phenomenon is described parallel to methods of scale elimination and compared with natural processes where travertine formation is inhibited. Travertine sites are of special scientific interest, with their rich and often unique floras and faunas displaying their unique biodiversity, and their unusual and often fragile biota. Conservation issues are discussed, together with the description of travertine fossils and occurrences throughout the geological record.
The content will be of interest to carbonate sedimentologists, hydrobiologists, palaeoclimatologists, physicalgeographers, water treatment engineers, astrobiologists, architects, and sculptors.

Spatial Data on Water: Geospatial Technologies and Data Management focuses on the worldwide corroborated difficulties in accessing data, a major hindrance in conducting water related studies in several domains.

This book covers in detail the entire workflow for quantitative seismic interpretation of subsurface modeling and characterization. It focusses on each step of the geo-modeling workflow starting from data preconditioning and wavelet extraction, which is the basis for the reservoir geophysics described and introduced in the following chapters. This book allows the reader to get a comprehensive insight of the most common and advanced workflows. It aims at graduate students related to energy (hydrocarbons), CO2 geological storage, and near surface characterization as well as professionals in these industries. The reader benefits from the strong and coherent theoretical background of the book, which is accompanied with real case examples.

This book combines the results of current research with essential background material to provide complete, in-depth coverage of every aspect of in situ and ex situ bioremediation, as well as an extensive overview of the physical and chemical processes currently available for treating petroleum-contaminated soils. Critical information has been collected and assembled under one cover to provide a convenient reference for anyone who must contend with this worldwide problem.
Remediation of Petroleum Contaminated Soils: Biological, Physical, and Chemical Processes describes how to optimize the biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil-water systems. It reports on the susceptibility of various petroleum components to biodegradation by microorganisms, and considers all groups of microorganisms for their potential contributions. The book also deals with problem areas such as the transport of organisms, oxygen, or nutrients throughout the subsurface, as well as biodegradation of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs). In addition, the book presents a variety of methods for monitoring bioremediation.
This reference discusses current soil remediation processes and includes many innovative approaches. It also investigates means of controlling volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and leachate, and addresses methods for collecting and treating these secondary waste streams. The expansive coverage of this book will furnish readers with a wide range of options for developing treatment strategies and for customizing procedures for specific requirements.

More than half of the world's petroleum is to be found in carbonate rocks, for example in the Middle East, the former USSR and in North America. These rocks show a bewildering diversity of grains and textures, due in part to the wealth of different fossil organisms which have contributed to carbonate sedimentation, and in part to a wide variety of diagenetic processes which can radically modify textures and obscure the depositional fabric. Careful petrographic study with a polarising microscope is a key element of any study of carbonate sediments, as a companion to field or core logging, and as a necessary precursor to geochemical analysis. This atlas, which illustrates in full colour a range of features not attempted in any general textbook, is designed as a laboratory manual to keep beside the microscope, as an aid to identifying grain types and textures in carbonates. It appeals alike to undergraduate and graduate students and to professionals in teaching institutions, research laboratories and industry.

This monograph deals with the part of the field of experimental rock deformation that is dominated by the phenomena of brittle fracture on one scale or another. Thus a distinction has been drawn between the fields of brittle and ductile behaviour in rock, corresponding more or less to a distinction between the phenomena of fracture and flow. The last chapter deals with the transition between the two fields. In this new edition an attempt has been made to take into account new developments of the last two and a half decades. To assist in this project, the original author greatly appre- ates being joined by the second author. The scope of the monograph is limited to the mechanical properties of rock viewed as a material on the laboratory scale. Thus, the topic and approach is of a "materials science" kind rather than of a "structures" kind. We are dealing with only one part of the wider field of rock mechanics, a field which also includes structural or boundary value problems, for example, those of the stability of slopes, the collapse of mine openings, earthquakes, the folding of stratified rock, and the convective motion of the Earth's mantle. One topic thus excluded is the role of jointing, which it is commonly necessary to take into account in applications in engineering and mining, and pr- ably often in geology too. Shock phenomena have also not been covered.

The authoritative contributions gathered in this volume reflect the state of the art in compositional data analysis (CoDa). The respective chapters cover all aspects of CoDa, ranging from mathematical theory, statistical methods and techniques to its broad range of applications in geochemistry, the life sciences and other disciplines. The selected and peer-reviewed papers were originally presented at the 6th International Workshop on Compositional Data Analysis, CoDaWork 2015, held in L'Escala (Girona), Spain. Compositional data is defined as vectors of positive components and constant sum, and, more generally, all those vectors representing parts of a whole which only carry relative information. Examples of compositional data can be found in many different fields such as geology, chemistry, economics, medicine, ecology and sociology. As most of the classical statistical techniques are incoherent on compositions, in the 1980s John Aitchison proposed the log-ratio approach to CoDa. This became the foundation of modern CoDa, which is now based on a specific geometric structure for the simplex, an appropriate representation of the sample space of compositional data. The International Workshops on Compositional Data Analysis offer a vital discussion forum for researchers and practitioners concerned with the statistical treatment and modelling of compositional data or other constrained data sets and the interpretation of models and their applications. The goal of the workshops is to summarize and share recent developments, and to identify important lines of future research.

The contributions to this volume examine: geotechnical hazard acknowledging the deversity of local ground conditions and environmental factors which play a decisive role in designing engineering structures in Danubian countries.

This book is a collection of papers presented in the 30th International Geological Congress, held in Beijing, on geochemistry. The papers deal with topics on fluid-rock interaction, geochemical kinetics, geochemical mapping, environmental geochemistry, and exploration geochemistry.

This book addresses the origin of gold deposits to answer questions of science and curiosity. These answers contribute in turn to the improved exploration and mining of gold. Initially there is a summary of the methods used to address the genesis of gold deposits including some of the essential science and concepts. Five basic observations follow that apply to many gold deposits and need to be considered in any genetic ideas. Magmatic processes enriching gold are discussed followed by the role of aqueous fluids during gold deposit formation at elevated temperatures and pressures. Modifying effects after deposit formation include high-grade metamorphism, retrogression, weathering, and erosion. The main types of gold deposits are then explained within the spectrum of viable genetic ideas, with informal names for these examples that include gold-only, gold-plus, Carlin, slate-belt, epithermal, porphyry, iron oxide copper gold, and Archean greenstone. Case histories are included in which the role of gold geology contributed directly to discoveries-one example is at the province-scale and another at the goldfield-scale. Unlike other books on the subject, this one addresses virtually all gold deposit types rather than focusing on one type in isolation. The primary readership includes industry geologists, senior undergraduates, postgraduates, and those with some knowledge of science and an interest in the gold industry.

Every spring, the University of Massachusetts - Amherst welcomes all ''Soils Conference" Scientific Advisory Board members with open arms as we begin the planning process responsible for bringing you quality conferences year after year. With this "homecoming" of sorts comes the promise of reaching across the table and interacting with a wide spectrum of stakeholders, each of them bringing their unique perspective in support of a successful Conference in the fall. This year marks the 20 DEGREES DEGREES anniversary of what started as a couple of thoughtful scientists interested in developing partnerships that together could fuel the environmental cleanup dialogue. Since the passage of the Superfund Law, regulators, academia and industry have come to realize that models that depend exclusively on ''command and control" mandates as the operative underpinning limit our collective ability to bring hazardous waste sites to productive re-use. It is with this concern in mind that the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection privatized its cleanup program in 1993, spurring the close-out of over 20,000 sites and spills across the Commonwealth to date, in a manner that is both protective of human health and the environment while also flexible and responsive to varied site uses and redevelopment goals. So we gather together again, this year, to hear our collective stories and share success and challenges just as we share stories at a family gathering. Take a read through the stories contained in these proceedings.

The Bear Brook Watershed in Maine (BBWM) is a long-term, whole-watershed study examining the effects of experimentally elevated N and S deposition on a treated watershed, in comparison to the adjacent reference watershed. The study is in a northern New England, USA, forested ecosystem, and focuses on soil and stream hydrological and biogeochemical processes, and chemical responses of vegetation. Relative to the reference watershed, the treated ecosystem has migrated biogeochemically towards N saturation, and soil and stream acidification. Some of the responses to N amendments were not expected nor predicted by available models.

The sixth edition of this bestselling textbook features stunning art, the most up-to-date science and a wealth of online learning tools, all developed under the critical eyes of Stephen Marshak. Heavily revised with remarkably detailed photographs, animations and maps, the text offers rich and engaging pedagogy, an expanded chapter on energy, and coverage of recent global events.

Stratigraphy and Time Scale, Volume Three in the Advances in Sequence Stratigraphy series, covers current research across many stratigraphic disciplines, providing information on the most recent developments for the geoscientific research community. This fully commissioned review publication aims to foster and convey progress in stratigraphy, including geochronology, magnetostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, event-stratigraphy, isotope stratigraphy, astrochronology, climatostratigraphy, seismic stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, ice core chronology, cyclostratigraphy, palaeoceanography, sequence stratigraphy, and more. Updated chapters include topics such as the Cyclostratigraphy of shallow-water carbonates - limitations and opportunities, Muschelkalk ramp cycles, Orbital Control on Paleozoic Source Rock Formation, and Cyclostratigraphy in different Jurassic carbonate ramps (Iberian Basin, NE Spain).

Earth's Oldest Rocks, Second Edition, is the only single reference source for geological research of early Earth. This new edition is an up-to-date collection of scientific articles on all aspects of the early history of the Earth, from planetary accretion at 4.567 billion years ago (Ga), to the onset of modern-style plate tectonics at 3.2 Ga. Since the first edition was published, significant new advances have been made in our understanding of events and processes on early Earth that correspond with new advances in technology. The book includes contributions from over 100 authors, all of whom are experts in their respective fields. The research in this reference concentrates on what is directly gleaned from the existing rock record to understand how our planet formed and evolved during the planetary accretion phase, formation of the first crust, the changing dynamics of the mantle and style of tectonics, life's foothold and early development, and mineral deposits. It is an ideal resource for academics, students and the general public alike.

When this two-day meeting was proposed, it was certainly not conceived as a celebration, much less as a party. However, on reflection, this might have been a wholly appropriate gesture because geostatistical simulation came of age this year: it is now 21 years since it was first proposed and implemented in the form of the turning bands method. The impetus for the original development was the mining industry, principally the problems encountered in mine planning and design based on smoothed estimates which did not reflect the degree of variability and detail present in the real, mined values. The sustained period of development over recent years has been driven by hydrocarbon applications. In addition to the original turning bands method there are now at least six other established methods of geostatistical simulation. Having reached adulthood, it is entirely appropriate that geostatistical simulation should now be subjected to an intense period of reflection and assessment. That we have now entered this period was evident in many of the papers and much of the discussion at the Fontainebleau meeting. Many questions were clearly articulated for the first time and, although many ofthem were not unambiguously answered, their presentation at the meeting and publication in this book will generate confirmatory studies and further research.

The 30th International Geological Congress was held in Beijing, China in August 1997. Leading scientists convened to present their findings and views to the international geological research community. Volume 14 of 26 focuses on structural geology and geomechanics. All articles in the proceedings have been refereed and keynote papers have been included in Volume 1. These proceedings aim to present a view of contemporary geology and should be of interest to researchers in the geological sciences.