A timely review of state-of-the-art tsunami research, covering case studies and recent developments from various approaches. Provides a practical guide to improving operational tsunami warning systems and mitigating coastal hazard from tsunamis.

Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) synthesize intracellular nano-sized minerals of magnetite and/or greigite magnetosomes for magnetic orientation. They play important roles in global iron cycling and sedimentary magnetism, and have a broad range of potential applications in both biotechnological and biomedical fields. However, because the majority of MTB in nature remain unculturable, our understanding of these specific bacteria remains fairly limited. This thesis describes the development of a novel approach for effectively collecting, purifying and characterizing uncultivated magnetotactic bacteria. The diversity, genomic information and rock magnetic properties of various uncultivated MTB are investigated and characterized using a combination of biological and geophysical methods. The results will lead to a better understanding of the biogeography and biomineralization mechanisms of MTB in nature, and improve our knowledge of the contributions of MTB to biogeochemical cycles of elements and sedimentary magnetism. Dr. Wei Lin works at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

This is the first book to cover actinide nano research. It is of interest both for fundamental research into the chemistry and physics of f-block elements as well as for applied researchers such as those studying the long-term safety of nuclear waste disposal and developing remediation strategies. The authors cover important issues of the formation of actinide nano-particles, their properties and structure, environmental behavior of colloids and nanoparticles related to the safe disposal of nuclear wastes, modeling and advanced methods of characterization at the nano-scale.

The contributions to the 151st IAU Colloquium cover different fields of recent research, observational as well as theoretical, on solar and stellar flares ranging from radio up to gamma-ray wavelengths. A special chapter is devoted to all-sky monitoring and, finally, the excerpts of a round-table discussion present the reader with an interesting outlook on future developments. This book is therefore a unique source for those who want to get a complete picture of this fascinating part of modern astrophysics.

These workshop proceedings aim to provide a broad overview of recent developments in the study of hot stars, both from the observational and the theoretical point of view. Included are first results from the Hubble Space Telescope and ROSAT, the effects of non-radial pulsations, mass loss, magnetic fields, and diffusion, as well as modern theoretical methods to treat radiative transfer and compute model atmospheres. Many new results are described, including the discovery of a B star in the halo of M31. Together the reviews provide a general overview of hot-star spectroscopy suitable for preparing advanced lecture courses and as an introductory text for graduate students.

The subject of the book, the ubiquitous circumstellar disks around very young stars and the corresponding jets of outflowing matter, has recently become one of the hottest areas in astrophysics. The disks are thought to be precursors to planetary systems, and the outflows are thought to be a necessary phase in the formation of a young star, helping the star to get rid of angular momentum and energy as it makes its way onto the main sequence. The possible connections to planetary systems and stellar astrophysics makes these topics especially broad, appealing to generalists and specialists alike. The CD not only contains papers that could not be printed in the book but allows the authors to include a fair amount of data, often displayed as color images.

Based on Cretaceous-Tertiary accretionary sequences of the Shimanto Belt in Japan, the complex history of these exceptionally exposed rocks is summarized through a series of outcrop- to microscopic scale photographs, sketches, and geological maps, most of which are in full colour. This atlas broadens the base of general knowledge of the growth of continental margins, and provides both a general introduction to research in accretionary prisms as well as an education aid for students in sedimentology, structural geology and tectonics.

In the Spring of 2000 the idea of a consortium of Mediterranean countries support- ing the Italian bid to host the 32nd International Geological Congress took off during ageological fieldtrip on the slopes ofMountVesuviushosted byProf. Bruno D'Argenio (University of Naples) with the sponsorship of SMED(the UNESCO-CNR Office for Scientific and Technological Cooperation with Mediterranean Countries). On that st occasion, the head of the Italian delegation to the coming 31 IGCProf. Gian Battista Vaichampionedthe notionthat - had the bid been accepted - such cooperationshould have not only translated into the participation of the Mediterranean countries in the organization of the future congress, but also should have been a springboard for launching a scientific project focused on the Mediterranean region and whose re- sults had to be presented at the congress. st During the 31 IGCin Riode Janeiro,after the designation of Florence bythe lUGS nd Council as the venue for the 32 IGC,the Mediterranean Consortium was set up. In its full configuration, the Consortium was an association of thirty-one Mediterra- nean and nearbycountries. Alongwith Italy,they are:Albania,Algeria,Austria, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya,Macedonia, Malta,Morocco,Palestine, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia,Slovenia,Spain, Switzerland, Syria,Tunisia, and Turkey. Each member country nominated a National Representative who served as a liai- son between his/her national geological community and the IGCOrganizing Commit- tee.

There have been considerable advances in recent times in understanding many common material processes that are of practical importance, such as nonlinear response, fracture, breakdown, earthquakes, packing, and granular flow, that are of immense practical importance. This has been mainly due to new applications of statistical physics, including percolation theory, fractal concepts and self-organized criticality. This collection of articles brings together research in those closely allied fields. It deals with problems in material science involving random geometries and nonlinearity at a mesoscopic scale, where local disorder and nonlinearity influence the global behaviour of cracks, for example, and problems where randomness in time evolution is as crucial as the geometry itself.

The book reviews the knowledge obtained from ground-based and space-borne solar flare research thus at the same time preparing for the forthcoming mission of the satellite Solar A which will be launched in 1991. Accordinglyone section is devoted to experiments on Solar A. The rest review both theory and observational facts to give a physically realistic picture of flares, including problems of magnetic flux emergence, high energy particles in flares, heating and flows in flares, and further problems of solar activity.

These proceedings give a rather complete overview of the most recent research in the areas of fundamental processes and phase transitions, cloud droplet and ice nucleation in the atmosphere, and aerosol formation and aerosol characteristics in the atmosphere. Nine review papers on topics of special importance are supplemented by about 200 summaries on topics of greatest current importance. The volume should be of interest to scientists working in the atmospheric and environmental sciences, in chemistry and in physics, as well as to engineers working in these areas.

This volume offers an account of the scientific outcome of a Priority Programme (Schwerpunktprogramm) which the Deutsche Forschungsgemein- schaft (DFG; German Research Society) promoted during 6 years from 1976 to 1982. In the understanding of the DFG, a Priority Programme involves the financing and coordination of research efforts of a group of investigators, possibly from several institutions, and is in- tended to concentrate on one particular topic and/or on one maJor area of interest over a period of, as a rule, 5 years. Discussions on the feasibility of a major programme on vertical move- ments started in 1971. The tentative programme was published under the title Terrestrial Vertical Movements in the DFG's planning docu- ment Grauer Plan IV: 1972-1974; p. 152. Deliberations within the Na- tional Committee for the International Geodynamics Project and in the Senate Commission for Joint Research in Earth Sciences (Geokommission) set out the scope of the project and envisaged an investigation of the Rheinische Schild, (i. e. , the Rhenish Massif east and west of the River Rhine). Seventeen geoscientists participated in a round-table dis- cussion on the subject Vertical movements and their causes as exempli- fied in the case of the Rheinische Schild, which took place at Bonn- Bad Godesberg on 8th July 1975. At this meeting the scientific objec- tives came more clearly into focus. A Programme Committee formulated the proposal to be put to the Senate of the DFG.

The contributions in this volume discuss the magnetic structures in the outer atmospheres of active late-type stars, and in particular the various methods available for imaging surface features on these objects. Emphasis has been laid upon multiwavelength studies of the phenomena and the application of solar astrophysics to stellar objects. The book is recommended to research workers or postgraduate students in stellar astrophysics.

This book collects together a selection of the best papers presented at the Third International Bioastronomy Symposium held in 1990. The subject is bioastronomy, the search for life in the universe, andthe book is devided according to the five main stages of life as recognized by this new branch of science: cosmic organic, prebiotic, primitive biological, and advanced. Thereader will find here the most recent results obtained by top specialists from all over the world on hot topics such as the formation and discovery of planets, organic chemistry in meteorites and comets, prebiotic chemistry in the atmosphere of Titan, the search for primitive life in the permafrost of Mars, and, SETI itself, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Complemented by live discussions each presentation forms a review of the state-of-the-art treatment of a particular area and also looks toward those developments in bioastronomywhich will surely be realized in the next few years.

Forest fIres are considered a major environmental problem in many European Union Member States as well as in other parts of the world. According to a recent report of the European Commission, forest fues are a dominant feature of the landscapes of the fIve Southern European Member States - Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece, and almost a half of the Community's forests have been classed as fue-risk areas. Protection from forest fues is an interdisciplinary endeavour, which needs to be addressed from both the technological and methodological point of view, and which necessitates a wide spectrum of various scientifIc disciplines. It also implies the solution of numerous practical problems (both of a generic nature and of a specifIc one) and the consideration of the characteristics of the specifIc areas in which fue fIghting is carried out. ScientifIc research is offering a major contribution to forest fIre fIghting. The European Commission (DG XII, Directorate General for Science, Research and Development) has supported since the 1980s a number of multinational research projects through its successive RTD programmes in the fIeld of the Environment.

Distinguished authors discuss topics in physical oceano- graphy, transonic aerodynamics, dynamics of vorticity, numerical simulation of turbulent flows, astrophysical jets, strange attractors, human-powered flight, and thefluid mechanics of the Old Faithful geyser and of the Mount St. Helens eruption of 1980. The authors deal with specific problems, but the emphasis is usually on the way that re- search is carried out at the edge of understanding, and often on the role of new techniques, instruments, and re- search strategies.

The contributions in this volume report recent studies on the sun and late-type stars. Particular emphasis is placed on observations that are relevant to the question of large-scale magnetic activity, and also on the theoretical (dynamo) models for such activity. Experimental papers deal with surface imaging techniques. Explicit computer simulations of hydromagnetic turbulence give insight into the magnetic topology and associated fluid motions, especially near the base of the convection zone. In addition, mean-field dynamo models are presented. The book addresses researchers but should also AEjbe useful for graduate students.

The chemical, physical and physicochemical processes that are at work in the depths of the Earth, both connected and unconnected with man's activities and coupled to the relevant properties and characteristics of the rocks, began to be intensively studied in the early decades of the present century. Until then little evidence had been available concerning the physical and physicochemical properties of rocks, and the data that existed were one-sided and uncoordinated. Both in this country and elsewhere an interest in investigating natural processes, the processes taking place in rocks, and the properties and characteristics of rocks arose as a result of the intensive development of oil and gas engineering, the mining of coal and ore, the construction of large projects, railroads, etc. Information on the properties of rocks was needed, in particular, to facilitate progress in engineering, technology, and geological and geophysical methods of prospecting for extracting and processing mineral deposits. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, methods involving intrinsic and induced pola rization were introduced. Moreover, little information was available concerning the petrophysical and petrochemical quantities characterizing the different contribution of various rocks to electrical processes. Electrical methods were followed by other methods of applied physics based on the novel electrical, thermal, magnetic, nuclear, elastic and other properties of rocks.

Precambrian Crustal Evolution of China integrates the theory of plate tectonics, structural geology and petrology to identify the tectonic and metamorphic environment in different stages of development of the Archaean and Proterozoic crust. Further, the evolution of the Precambrian atmosphere and hydrosphere is approached by using geochemical data and traces of life. For the first time, the results of the study of the Precambrian geology of China are made available in English to scientists and students not having access to the huge amount of Chinese literature.

This combination of textbook and reference manual provides a comprehensive account of gravity and magnetic methods for exploring the subsurface using surface, marine, airborne, and satellite measurements. It describes key current topics and techniques, physical properties of rocks and other Earth materials, and digital data analysis methods used to process and interpret anomalies for subsurface information. Each chapter starts with an overview and concludes by listing key concepts to consolidate new learning. An accompanying website presents problem sets and interactive computer-based exercises, providing hands-on experience of processing, modeling and interpreting data. A comprehensive online suite of full-color case histories illustrates the practical utility of modern gravity and magnetic surveys. This is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses, and a reference for research academics and professional geophysicists. It is a valuable resource for all those interested in petroleum, engineering, mineral, environmental, geological and archeological exploration of the lithosphere.

This two-part book is devoted to classic fundamentals and current practices and perspectives of modern plasma astrophysics. This second part discusses the physics of magnetic reconnection and flares of electromagnetic origin in space plasmas in the solar system, single and double stars, relativistic objects, accretion disks and their coronae. More than 25% of the text is updated from the first edition, included the additions of new figures, equations and entire sections on topics such as topological triggers for solar flares and the magnetospheric physics problem. This book is aimed at professional researchers in astrophysics, but it will also be useful to graduate students in space sciences, geophysics, applied physics and mathematics, especially those seeking a unified view of plasma physics and fluid mechanics.

17 readable articles give a thorough and self-contained overview of recent developments in relativistic gravity research. The subjects covered are: gravitational lensing, the general relativistic n-body problem, observable effects in the solar system, gravitational waves and their interferometric detection, very-long-baseline interferometry, international atomic time, lunar laser- ranging measurements, measurement ofthe gravitomagnetic field of the Earth, fermion and boson stars and black holes with hair, rapidly rotating neutron stars, matter wave interferometry, and the laboratory test of Newton's law of gravity.Any scientist interested in experimentally or observatio- nally oriented relativistic gravity will read the book with profit. In addition, it is perfectly suited as a complementary text for courses on general relativity and relativistic astrophysics.

This book describes the state of the art in the field of modeling and solving numerically inverse problems of wave propagation and diffraction. It addresses mathematicians, physicists and engineers as well. Applications in such fields as acoustics, optics, and geophysics are emphasized. Of special interest are the contributions to two and three dimensional problems without reducing symmetries. Topics treated are the obstacle problem, scattering by classical media, and scattering by distributed media.

From June 7-9, 1995, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Max Plank Institut fiir Astrophysik (MPA) jointly held the Workshop on Spiral Galaxies in the Near-IR. This meeting took place at the ESO headquarters in Garching bei Miinchen, Germany. The weather waschanging, with the biergarten closed, but that did not stop 85 people from allover the world from attending the meeting. The three days were intensive, with talks and coffee and posters from 9 am to 6 pm, and very productive indeed for everyone. The topics covered the stellar populations of the Milky Way and other more distant spirals, the role of dust, the dynamics of spiral galaxies, and the nuclear activity seen at near-IR wavelengths. This volume presents the original contributions from the participants, including several papers that review the state-of-the-art knowledge in these various subjects. The editors would like to thank first and foremost Christina Stoffer, for she took care of everything. The meeting would not have been so successful without her expertise and efficiency. We are deeply indebted to the directors of MPA and ESO Science, Simon White and Jacqueline Bergeron, for their support and encouragement. We would also like to thank the other members of the scientific organizing committee: R. Genzel, K. Freeman, A. Moorwood, S. White, M. Rieke and E. Athannasoula, for their advice with the organization of the program. We also thank G. Rieke, R. Genzel, L. Athannasoula, A. Renzini and R.

In this volume the full range of astrophysical maser research is covered, with contributions from many of the foremost researchers in the field. The topics include masers in star-forming, circumstellar and extragalactic environments, solar system masers, newly discovered masing transitions, variability, proper-motion studies, and theory. Since this was the first ever conference devoted exclusively to astrophysical masers, these proceedings provide a reference for this field which has not previously been available. "Astrophysical Masers" will be useful both to those who wish to study the physics of masers, and to those who wish to better understand the astrophysically important regions with which they are associated.