This book provides a snapshot of the research activities of the Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria. The topics are broad ranged including: * Centrifuge model testing * Constitutive model * Granular physics * Numerical simulation * Soil bioengineering The topics reflect our geotechnical research in a changing world. Traditional topics in foundation engineering are fading out and new topics are emerging. The European Commission is gratefully acknowledged for funding the following projects within its program FP7 and Horizon2020: MUMOLADE (Multiscale modelling of landslide and debris flow), REVENUES (Reinforced Vegetation Numerical Evaluation of Slopes) and GEORAMP (Geohazards - Risk Assessment, Mitigation and Prevention).

This book covers the more basic aspects of carbonate minerals and their interaction with aqueous solutions; modern marine carbonate formation and sediments; carbonate diagenesis (early marine, meteoric and burial); the global cycle of carbon and human intervention; and the role of sedimentary carbonates as indicators of stability and changes in the Earth's surface environment. The selected subjects are presented with sufficient background information to enable the non-specialist to understand the basic chemistry involved. Tested on classes taught by the authors, and approved by the students, this comprehensive volume will prove itself to be a valuable reference source to students, researchers and professionals in the fields of oceanography, geochemistry, petrology, environmental science and petroleum geology.

This book deals with a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. It is a discipline that addresses current issues: climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control and biodiversity depletion. This series gathers review articles that analyze current agricultural issues and knowledge, then proposes alternative solutions.

This book helps to establish a simple framework to identify and use bird species as a bioindicator for high nature value (HNV) farmlands. This book focuses on suitable methods for monitoring the HNV areas, and presents the results of several case studies. The chapters put forward ways to integrate ecosystems assessment, geographical information systems (GIS) and strategies for conservation of local biodiversity. An innovative framework focuses on the use of species distribution models (SDMs) in order to explore the importance of each characteristic of HNV farmlands. Furthermore, the book examines the relationships among bird species richness, land use diversity and landscape metrics at a local scale in the farmlands.

Natural Disasters, 12th edition focuses on explaining how the normal processes of Earth concentrate their energies and deal heavy blows to humans and their structures. Students have a natural curiosity about natural disasters and why they occur. This text explains why natural disasters occur by interweaving the themes of Energy sources, Plate tectonics, Climate change, Earth Processes, Geologic time, the complexities of multiple variables operating simultaneously throughout the text.

Environmental and Health Issues in Unconventional Oil and Gas Development offers a series of authoritative perspectives from varied viewpoints on key issues relevant in the use of directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, providing a timely presentation of requisite information on the implications of these technologies for those connected to unconventional oil and shale gas development. Utilizing expertise from a range of contributors in academia, non-governmental organizations, and the oil and gas industry, Environmental and Health Issues in Unconventional Oil and Gas Development is an essential resource for academics and professionals in the oil and gas, environmental, and health and safety industries as well as for policy makers.

John K. DeLaski, M.D. practiced medicine in the Penobscot Bay region of Maine and, in addition, was a naturalist with keen powers of observation. His study of the landscape led to the conclusion that a thick glacier had overtopped the highest hills, flooded all of Penobscot Bay, extended far to the east and west and probably was part of a greater continental glacier. He published these very critical field observations and inferences in numerous articles in local newspapers and magazines, and in the American Journal of Science in 1864. His work put him on the "team" of Benjamin Silliman, James D. Dana and Louis Agassiz as an advocate for glaciation as the regional land shaping force opposed to that of the Biblical Deluge, a major scientific conflict of the day both in North America and Europe. He remained a shadowy player, in the background, but clearly contributed critical observations to the argument through personal interactions with Agassiz and other prominent naturalists. They incorporated DeLaski's observations into their own presentations, often without giving him credit. John DeLaski's summary work, a 400 page handwritten manuscript for the book, "The Ancient Great Glacier of North America", was dated 1869. He died in 1874 and the book was not published. The historic significance of DeLaski's unpublished book is based upon its startling contribution to one of the major scientific questions of the day of whether the surficial geology of northern U.S. and Canada was caused by the actions of the Biblical Flood or by continental glaciation. If published, this would have been the first book on this continent, at least, to present a holistic discussion of the controversy in which he presented his critical observations of the surficial geology in Maine, southern New England and New Brunswick, Canada and concluded that these depositional and erosional features must be of glacial origin. DeLaski then incorporated other evidence into the book for glaciation reported by others from the region during a decade or two, and from the mid and far west and Canada to advocate that the entire region was covered by an ice sheet that was at least 5,000 feet and probably much thicker over interior northern U.S. and Canada and which terminated along a glacial margin which extended from southern new England as far westward along the courses of the Ohio, and Missouri Rivers. All this was done while most "naturalists" still advocated the Biblical Flood to explain the major components of the surficial geology in North America and abroad. DeLaski's book containing his critical observations of clearly so many landscape features of glacial origin, if published would have been a pivotal document that would have strongly supported those arguing for glaciations in the glaciations vs. flood international argument.

Continuing the tradition of International Dyke Conference, this book is largely based on contributions from the IDC7 but also includes some chapters by invitation. It focuses on mafic dyke swarms and related associations: e.g. links with sills, kimberlites, syenites, carbonatites, and volcanics, discussing the following themes: (i) regional maps/reviews of dyke swarms and related units, (ii) the role of giant dyke swarms in the reconstruction of supercontinents/paleocontinents, (iii) mapping of dykes using remote sensing techniques, (iv) geochronology of dyke swarms, (v) petrology, geochemistry and petrogenesis of dykes, (vi) emplacement mechanism of dykes, (vii) dyke swarms and planetary bodies, and (viii) links to mineralization and resources.

The liquid phase of soil (soil solution) is a very thin, penetrating and all-embracing water layer. It has the most extensive surface among the biosphere components and interacts with all these components. Presented in this work is a new complex approach developed for soil liquid phase investigation that is based on "in situ" measurements. Investigation of the soil liquid phase can be of great significance in environmental research.

This volume sums up the vast experience of the authors' research into soil liquid phase composition in various ecosystems of Central and Eastern Europe. It describes the methodological basics of soil liquid phase research: methods of soil solution extraction, the main problems of application of ion-selective electrodes for immediate "in situ" assessment of ionic activity in soil liquid phase and redox potential, and ways to overcome those problems. Data are presented on soil liquid phase composition in natural and agricultural ecosystems, their redox, pH, carbonate and other regimes as well as the relations between the composition of the soil liquid phase and different ecological properties.

This work is devoted to the pursuit of new approaches to soil liquid phase analysis with a goal of discovering the role of soil liquid phase in the functioning of natural and agricultural ecosystems in recent soil-formation, formation of primary biological production, and in bio-geochemical turnover of elements. It includes new field investigation data as well as all data generalization carried out by means of a special complex database (developed by the authors) on soil liquid phase composition and other soil-ecological properties in various ecosystems in Central and Eastern Europe.

This book is the first English edition that integrally considers both methodological aspects and results of investigation of composition, formation, dynamics, spatial heterogeneity, and interrelations of soil liquid phase with other components of ecosystems. Soil scientists, agricultural chemists and ecologists will find this title of great interest.

The book introduces tourism earth-science as a new scientific discipline by applying the principles of earth-science in the study of natural and human tourism resources. It involves studying the geo-scientific characteristics of these tourism resources through surveys, evaluation and aesthetic value assessment. It also discusses about the principles behind geopark establishment and management. It is an important publication providing direction for geopark and tourism developments in China. The book is a tool for geological heritage survey, assessment and research. It can also be used to assist planning of geopark, national parks, heritage protection and scientific interpretation. It is a valuable teaching material for teachers and students of geoscience and tourism as well as providing useful guidance for geopark managers and tour guides in their operation. In addition, the book also offers scientific knowledge of the surrounding natural and cultural landscapes to the public and the general visitors.

The Tide-Dominated Han River Delta provides a thorough analysis of a river delta in which tidal currents have reworked the river-borne sediment, generating characteristic geomorphological and sedimentological signatures in the process. Such "tide-dominated" deltas are common in the modern ocean, forming the substrate upon which entire populations are built. Furthermore, ancient examples contain enormous volumes of hydrocarbon. Despite this, tide-dominated deltas remain less well understood than their wave- and river-dominated counterparts, largely because processes within them are inherently more complex and fewer modern examples have been investigated in detail. This multi-year study by a team of experts in coastal geoscience represents the most complete documentation of a tide-dominated delta to date. Results help advance, and are applicable to, a broad range of fields within sedimentary geology, including clastic sedimentology, seismic and sequence stratigraphy, and coastal geomorphology, in addition to petroleum geology and reservoir engineering.

This thesis explores fluid distribution along the Nankai-Trough megathrust fault around the Kii Peninsula of Japan, where devastating earthquakes are expected to occur in the near future. Exploring fluid distribution along subduction zones is an important issue because the fluid is considered to control the occurrence of earthquakes. One of the effective strategies to estimate fluid content is retrieving receiver functions (RFs) from seismograms, but in the case of ocean-bottom seismometers (OBSs), noisy P-wave reverberations within the seawater column make such an analysis difficult. The author therefore developed a novel technique to suppress the water reverberations, which allows obtaining the fluid distribution data along a wide depth range on the plate interface. This thesis first presents the new technique, called the water layer filter method, and demonstrates its efficiency by using both synthetic and observation data. Then, using the method, a receiver function image of the Philippine Sea Plate is constructed to reveal dehydration processes of the subducting oceanic crust around the Kii Peninsula. Finally, the author performs high-frequency receiver function inversion analysis. The results indicate the presence of a thin fluid-rich sediment layer along the megathrust fault off the Kii Peninsula that acts as a pathway of fluid. Nowadays, the number of offshore observations is increasing worldwide. In this respect, the attempt to better analyze OBS data employing the new method will become more important in future studies.

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. Many chapters highlight and compare the efficiency and economic advantages of phytoremediation to currently practiced soil and water treatment practices. Volume 5 of Phytoremediation: Management of Environmental Contaminants provides the capstone of the series. Taken together, the five volumes provide a broad-based global synopsis of the current applications of phytoremediation using plants and the microbial communities associated with their roots to decontaminate terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

This book presents insights into the complex processes controlling sediment behavior in river basins and into state of the art integrated sediment management concepts. Main topics are: sediment transport, modelling sediment transfer in rivers, sediment quality, sediment monitoring and integrated sediment management at catchment scale. Interlinkages of sediment dynamics and quality with biogeochemistry, ecology, climate change and human activities are discussed. Drivers, boundary conditions and processes of erosion, sediment transport and sedimentation are presented with the aim to help the reader putting sediment quantity and quality issues into perspective.

Rapid Penetration into Granular Media: Visualizing the Fundamental Physics of Rapid Penetration introduces readers to the variety of methods developed to visualize, observe, and model the rapid penetration of natural and man-made projectiles into earth materials while providing seasoned practitioners with a standard reference that showcases the topic's most recent developments in research and application. There has been a flurry of recently funded research both in the U.S. and Europe on studying the behavior of projectiles in granular media. This book compiles the findings of recent research on the subject and outlines the fundamental physics of rapid earth penetration, and assembles a comprehensive collection of experimental and numerical techniques to study the problem.

This book provides a global review of the mechanisms, incidence and control measures related to the problems of soil compaction in agriculture, forestry and other cropping systems. Among the disciplines which relate to this subject are soil physics, soil mechanics, vehicle mechanics, agricultural engineering, plant physiology, agronomy, pedology, climatology and economics.

The volume will be of great value to soil scientists, agricultural engineers, and all those involved with irrigation, drainage and tillage. It will help to facilitate the exchange of information on current work throughout the world, as well as to promote scientific understanding and stimulate the development, evaluation and adoption of practical solutions to these widespread and urgent problems.

The aim of this book is to unlock the power of the freeware R language to advanced university students and researchers dealing with whole-rock geochemistry of (meta-) igneous rocks. The first part covers data input/output, calculation of commonly used indexes and plotting in R. The core of the book then focusses on the presentation and practical implementations of modelling techniques used for fingerprinting processes such as partial melting, fractional crystallization, binary mixing or AFC using major-, trace-element and radiogenic isotope data. The reader will be given a firm theoretical basis for forward/reverse modelling, followed by exercises dealing with typical problems likely to be encountered in real life, and their solutions using R. The concluding sections demonstrate, using practical examples, how a researcher can proceed in developing a realistic model simulating natural systems. The appendices outline the fundamentals of the R language and provide a quick introduction to the open-source R-package GCDkit for interpretation of whole-rock geochemical data from igneous and metamorphic rocks.

This book describes the huge efforts by the Chinese Government concerning the restoration and future sustainable management of Chinese water systems. It presents the results of a Sino-European joint project concerning the Songhuajiang-Liaohe River Basin (SLRB) in Northeast China conducted by the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES), the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Germany, and the Natural Environment Research Council as represented by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), UK. The book explains in great detail the development of risk assessment and corresponding management methods for (i) controlling water pollution, (ii) assessing river health and ecological restoration options, (iii) characterizing persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and (iv) protecting fragile groundwater resources. It also describes the implemented demonstration sites of SLRB during the project course as well as lessons learnt on efficient project management and the dissemination of knowledge and technologies.