This is the first book in English reviewing and updating the geology of the whole Apennines, one of the recent most uplifted mountains in the world. The Apennines are the place from which Steno (1669) first stated the principles of geology. The Apennines also represent amongst others, the finding/testing sites of processes and products like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, olistostromes and melanges (argille scagliose), salinity crisis, geothermal fluids, thrust-top basins, and turbidites (first represented in a famous Leonardo's painting). As such, the Apennines are a testing and learning ground readily accessible and rich of any type of field data. A growing literature is available most of which is not published in widely available journals. The objective of the book is to provide a synthesis of current data and ideas on the Apennines, for the most part simply written and suitable for an international audience. However, sufficient details and in-depth analyses of the various complex settings have been presented to make this material useful to professional scholars and to students of senior university courses.

This multifaceted study explores new directions for plate tectonic research, especially as a guide for future geodynamic modelling of the earth. In particular, it equips readers with a plate-tectonic toolbox (with derivations and ANSI-C code) for applications and reconstruction analysis, including new continuous calculation methods. Pilger's Geokinematics shows how to apply these tools to Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic kinematics, with a focus on hotspot reference frames, and for empirical analysis of continental stress histories, including fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs. Supported by solid arguments and data, the book integrates theoretical developments of expanded plate kinematic theory and an ensemble of critical observations into a grand model, with the new concept of mesoplates playing a key role.

This volume includes a general description of the Portuguese Cenozoic basins in the Iberian tectonic context. The main stratigraphic units, including sedimentological, stratigraphical and palaeontological data, are characterized. Correlations between different sectors are presented as well as general paleogeographical evolution maps. The volume includes a general bibliography concerning the Cenozoic of Portugal.

Geophysics operations in archaeology have become well known through exposure on television. However, the technique is presented as the action of specialists and something of a mystery, where people walk about with strange contraptions, and results appear from a computer. This is not the case, however. Some scientific knowledge is needed in order to understand how the machines work and what they detect but otherwise it is only necessary to know how to handle the instruments, how to survey a field and how to interpret the computer results. This book provides all the relevant information. It explains geophysics operations in archaeology, describes the science that gives the soil properties to measure and the means by which the instruments make their measurements.

Dr John Oswin is in charge of the geophysics operation of the Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society and his work has recently been the subject of a television programme. He has taught many students how to use geophysical equipment.

A selection of papers on a broad range of military topics ranging from the strategic perspective, through analyses of historical battles at the operational and tactical levels, to the use of advanced technologies applied to present-day military problems.

Caribbean Tsunamis - A 500-Year History from 1498-1998 broadly characterizes the nature of tsunamis in the Caribbean Sea, while bearing in mind both scientific aspects as well as potential interest by the many governments and populations likely to be affected by the hazard. Comprehension of the nature of tsunamis and past effects is crucial for the awareness and education of populations at risk.
Audience: This book provides a thorough, yet highly accessible review of tsunamis in the Caribbean. It is of interest not only to tsunami and natural hazards specialists at academia and governmental institutes, but also to policy makers and to the general public.

A tribute to the pioneers of oil exploration in Indonesia (1850-1898). Using authentic reports, diaries, relevant texts, personal notes and pictures, Poley brings to life the heroic efforts of Reerink (Cheribon, W. Java), Zijlker and Kessler (Deli, NE Sumatra), Stoop (Surabaya and Rembang, E Java), Menten (Kutei, E Kalimantan), Kessler and IJzerman (Palembang, SE Sumatra), and their crews. They faced almost insurmountable odds in many locations: an impenetrable, cruel jungle, an inclement climate, tropical diseases, technical mishaps, financial restrictions, and, last but not least, government and legal constraints. There was no geological science to guide them, and drilling technology was still in its infancy. Yet it was their vision and perseverance which finally put Indonesia on the world map of oil-producing nations, and which contributed materially to the development of today's life of luxury. Much of the present text and several of the pictures are here presented for the first time to the general public.

Mediterranean islands exhibit many similarities in their biotic ecological, physical and environmental characteristics. There are also many differences in terms of their human colonization and current anthropogenic pressures. This book addresses in three sections these characteristics and examines the major environmental changes that the islands experienced during the Quaternary period. The first section provides details on natural and cultural factors which have shaped island landscapes. It describes the environmental and cultural changes of the Holocene and their effects on biota, as well as on the current human pressures that are now threats to the sustainability of the island communities. The second section focuses on the landscapes of the largest islands namely Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Cyprus, Crete, Malta and the Balearics. Each island chapter includes a special topic reflecting a particular characteristic of the island. Part three presents strategies for action towards sustainability in Mediterranean islands and concludes with a comparison between the largest islands. Despite several published books on Mediterranean ecosystems/landscapes there is no existing book dealing with Mediterranean islands in a collective manner. Students, researchers and university lecturers in environmental science, geography, biology and ecology will find this work invaluable as a cross-disciplinary text while planners and politicians will welcome the succinct summaries as background material to planning decisions.

Over the last 25 years considerable information on the geomorphological evolution of the world's largest coral reef system, the Great Barrier Reef, has become available. This book reviews the history of geomorphological studies of the Great Barrier Reef and assesses the influences of sea-level change and oceanographic processes on the development of reefs over the last 10,000 years. It presents analyses of recently attained data from the Great Barrier Reef and reconstructions of the sequence of events which have led to its current geomorphology. The authors emphasise the importance of the geomorphological time span and its applications for present management applications. This is a valuable reference for academic researchers in geomorphology and oceanography, and will also appeal to graduate students in related fields.

In this book, the authors focus on the improvement of the scientific base for the development of environmental risk indicators measured by the presence of pollutants in water and porous media. In pursuit of a correct and complete numerical approach, they deliver insight into the understanding of integrated process, and also of modeling capabilities.

This is the first book to cover the Holocene geology and geomorphology of the 9,200 kilometers of the Brazilian coast. It is written for third and fourth year undergraduates, post-graduate students, scientists and man- ers. It characterizes the Brazilian coast in terms of the Holocene geology, geomorphology, oceanographic and climatic conditions, and the location, morphology and evolution of the barrier types. Separate chapters outline the types of barriers and coastal dynamics in each state, beginning in the south and proceeding to the north. Some emphasis is placed on the stretches of coast where the detailed morphology and stratigraphy of b- riers has been previously determined. To date, the Brazilian coastal barriers have been largely ignored by the international community, partly perhaps because much of the past research has tended to concentrate on barrier islands, of which there are very few in Brazil. In contrast, the Brazilian coastal barriers display a much wider range of types than is generally assumed. The biggest and most spectacular transgressive dunefield barriers in the world exist in Brazil, and dominate the southern and northeastern coasts. Many have never been described - fore. This volume provides a wealth of information on Holocene barrier types, evolution and dynamics. It provides managers, ecologists, biologists and botanists with much needed information on the geology, geomorph- ogy and dynamics of the genesis, types, functioning and ecosystems of the Holocene barriers extending along the entire Brazilian coast.

Modern seismology has faced new challenges in the study of earthquakes and their physical characteristics. This volume is dedicated to the use of new approaches and presents a state of the art in historical seismology. Selected historical and recent earthquakes are chosen to document and constrain related seismic parameters using updated methodologies in the macroseismic analysis, field observations of damage distribution and tectonic effects, and modelling of seismic waveforms. A critical re-evaluation of historical accounts and early seismograms provides us with the basis for a realistic seismic hazard assessment. This book is dedicated to the memory of Jean Vogt (1929 - 2005).

Audience This book is of value to seismologists, earthquake geologists, engineering seismologists, earth scientists and historians of catastrophes.

This book includes an analysis of the Jehoash Inscription Tablet, which describes renovations made to the First Temple and is considered the only written evidence of its existence. At the same time, a new technique for authenticating artifacts is described: this is especially important in determining the authenticity of artifacts collected from unprovenanced sites. Other subjects treated in the book are: the only known stone oil lamp with carved onto seven nozzles, which was archaeometrically analyzed to verify its authenticity, and is thought to have been used during the Second Temple Period in rituals that necessitated that laws of purity be followed; and the James Ossuary, displaying the Aramaic inscription Ya'akov bar-Yosef akhui diYeshua (James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus), which, if genuine, might provide archaeological evidence for Jesus of Nazareth and indicate that the ossuary was that of James the Just, the older brother of Jesus.

The sequence of sediments deposited in lakes forms an archive of a high-resolution record of the changes and rates of changes in continental palaeoenvironments. Global Geological Record of Lake Basins is the first in a short series of books containing concise geological summaries of lake basin deposits. Geoscientists worldwide have co-operated to bring together the information available on a global spectrum of lacustrine deposits - looking in particular at palaeoenvironmental aspects. The compilation has resulted from IGCP 219 - Comparative Lacustrine Sedimentology in Space and Time - which has given impetus to the field of limnogeology. Lacustrine deposits are widespread throughout the geological record, and this series of books will assess, for every geological time window, key lacustrine sequences worldwide in the form of short summaries of specific deposits. A common language will be defined to describe these deposits.

The present book combines three main aspects: five major mass extinctions; contributions on some other minor extinctions; and more importantly contributions on the current mass extinction. All three aspects are introduced through interesting studies of mass extinctions in diverse organisms ranging from small invertebrates to mammals and take account of the most accepted subjects discussing mass extinctions in insects, mammals, fishes, ostracods and molluscs.

The ''Aral Sea Encyclopedia'' is the first one in the new series of encyclopedias about the seas of the former Soviet Union. Preparing it we faced certain difficulties. The thing is that this encyclopedia is a monument to the sea that is disappearing during our lifetime. The world community considers the situation with the Aral Sea and all changes that occurred in its whereabouts in the recent decades as one of the most serious, if not disastrous anthropogenic environmental crises of the 20th century. Before 1960, this was a water-abundant sea-lake that was fourth among world lakes after the Caspian Sea (USSR, Iran), the Great Lakes (USA, Canada) and Victoria Lake (Africa). This was a real ''pearl'' among the sands of the largest deserts, the Karakums and the Kyzylkums. Navigation between the sea ports Muinak and Aralsk and fisheries famous for the Aral breams, barbells, sturgeons, shemaya, and others were developed here. One could find beautiful recreational zones and beaches here. The deltas of the Amudarya, the major river of Central Asia, and the Syrdarya bringing their waters into the Aral Sea were famous for their biodiversity, fishery, muskrat rearing, reed prod- tion. The local population found occupations related to the water infrastructure.

This book is devoted to the Anthropocene, the period of unprecedented human impacts on Earth's environmental systems, and illustrates how Geographers envision the concept of the Anthropocene. This edited volume illustrates that geographers have a diverse perspective on what the Anthropocene is and represents. The chapters also show that geographers do not feel it necessary to identify only one starting point for the temporal onset of the Anthropocene. Several starting points are suggested, and some authors support the concept of a time-transgressive Anthropocene. Chapters in this book are organized into six sections, but many of them transcend easy categorization and could have fit into two or even three different sections. Geographers embrace the concept of the Anthropocene while defining it and studying it in a variety of ways that clearly show the breadth and diversity of the discipline. This book will be of great value to scholars, researchers, and students interested in geography, environmental humanities, environmental studies, and anthropology. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Annals of the American Association of Geographers.

The inferred positions of global paleoshorelines through the 240 million years of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic are presented within this atlas. Thirty-one maps, generally corresponding to stratigraphic stages, provide a snapshot of the continents and their shorelines at approximately 8 million year intervals. The maps provide a representation of the gross changes in the distribution of land and sea throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic plotted on Mollweide projections of paleocontinental reconstruction. They do not distinguish between well and poorly defined shorelines, but the information sources are set out in a bibliography numbering more than 2000 primary paleographic references. This is a global compilation that presents the first attempt at delineating global shorelines at stage level, and which represents many years of work sponsored by British Petroleum International (BPI), and work by BPI themselves between 1981 and 1987.

Finding Time for the Old Stone Age explores a century of colourful debate over the age of our earliest ancestors. In the mid nineteenth century curious stone implements were found alongside the bones of extinct animals. Humans were evidently more ancient than had been supposed - but just how old were they? There were several clocks for Stone-Age (or Palaeolithic) time, and it would prove difficult to synchronize them. Conflicting timescales were drawn from the fields of geology, palaeontology, anthropology, and archaeology. Anne O'Connor draws on a wealth of lively, personal correspondence to explain the nature of these arguments. The trail leads from Britain to Continental Europe, Africa, and Asia, and extends beyond the world of professors, museum keepers, and officers of the Geological Survey: wine sellers, diamond merchants, papermakers, and clerks also proposed timescales for the Palaeolithic. This book brings their stories to light for the first time - stories that offer an intriguing insight into how knowledge was built up about the ancient British past.

In Search of Ancient Tsunamis takes readers on a journey through the science of tsunamis and acts as a "how to" guide in the geology, geomorphology, anthropology, and archaeology of these devastating phenomena. The book draws on examples from around the world and includes numerous personal accounts of field and laboratory experiences. This journey through tsunami science is framed within the search for ancient tsunamis in the northern part of Chile, a desert environment that requires all the skillsets available to the tsunami researcher. This is a region where numerous attempts to find evidence have failed largely due to the hostile environment that refuses to play by the rules. The story is told through the very personal lens of the author with first-hand accounts of the trials and tribulations of fieldwork and local eccentricities, of serendipitous events, and a growing awareness and understanding of a wide variety of techniques that can be applied to the science. The journey is populated with side stories engaging the reader with deeper insights into the countries, study areas, joys and disappointments of carrying out scientific research across the globe. It is both a very personal story as well as an in-depth look at the science involved in an increasingly sophisticated and interdisciplinary search to better understand the true nature of tsunamis. It contains the wisdom of elders, "Eureka" moments of discovery, and a look at the very latest developments of understanding the effects of ancient tsunamis on prehistoric human populations.

This book contains a selection of papers from the International Military Geology and Geography Conference, held at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York in June 2003. Studies in Military Geography and Geology expands a series of recent publications originating from conferences and symposia on military geology that began in 1994. The 25 contributions address a broad range of military topics ranging from the strategic perspective, through analyses of historical battles at the operational and tactical levels, to the use of advanced technologies applied to present-day military problems.

This third edition of Reconstructing Quaternary Environments has been completely revised and updated to provide a new account of the history and scale of environmental changes during the Quaternary. The evidence is extremely diverse ranging from landforms and sediments to fossil assemblages and geochemical data, and includes new data from terrestrial, marine and ice-core records. Dating methods are described and evaluated, while the principles and practices of Quaternary stratigraphy are also discussed. The volume concludes with a new chapter which considers some of the key questions about the nature, causes and consequences of global climatic and environmental change over a range of temporal scales. This synthesis builds on the methods and approaches described earlier in the book to show how a number of exciting ideas that have emerged over the last two decades are providing new insights into the operation of the global earth-ocean-atmosphere system, and are now central to many areas of contemporary Quaternary research.

This comprehensive and dynamic textbook is richly illustrated throughout with full-colour figures and photographs. The book will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and professionals in Earth Science, Environmental Science, Physical Geography, Geology, Botany, Zoology, Ecology, Archaeology and Anthropology

Table of Contents

1. The Quaternary record 2. Geomorphological evidence 3. Lithological evidence 4. Biological evidence 5. Dating methods 6. Approaches to Quaternary stratigraphy and correlation 7. Global environmental change during the Quaternary

Mineralogical-sedimentological and geochemical investigations in combination with pollen data of a 12.7-m-long dated sediment core from Lake Silvana, SE Brazil, permit the reconstruction of the climatic history over the past 10,000 years. The lowermost section (I) reflects a coarse paleosol-type sediment with abundant plant debris and rootlets; pollen indicates grassland vegetation. Section II represents fine-grained lake sediments; pollen indicates a savanna-like vegetation. Section III represents a pollen-free, coarse-grained allogenic sediment deposited under high transportation energy (increased precipitation). Section IV, a greenish sequence with increasing C content towards the top, has a pollen spectrum of present-day vegetation (semideciduous forest). The different sediment sections show a connection with erosional phases in the catchment of the lake, based on mineralogy and geochemistry, which are a response to climate development.

Steep crustal-scale faults, having their origins in the Late Archean and Early Proterozoic and trending NE-SW, which define the fundamental block lithospheric structure of the North American craton, are seen from geological and geophysical evidence to continue far into the interior of the Late Proterozoic-Phanerozoic Canadian Cordilleran mobile megabelt. This suggests that variously reworked ex-cratonic basement blocks underlie much of the Cordillera. The western edge of the modern craton is probably near the Rocky Mountain-Omineca belt boundary; the Rocky Mountain fold-and-thrust belt on the east side of the Cordillera is evidently rootless and overlies the undisturbed cratonic basement. Phanerozoic differences between the Cordilleran tectonic belts, resulting from a long, dissimilar, multi-cycle history of waxing and waning orogenesis apparent from the rock record, lie chiefly in the degree of indigenous tectonic remobilization and reworking of the ancient crust.

In the last ten to fifteen years there has been a movement to break down old disciplinary boundaries in the geosciences in order to develop a more unified view of the earth as an integrated system. Much of this effort has been stimulated by developments in the atmosphere and ocean sciences that study the effect of humanity's impact on the environment. However, solid earth sciences also have a role to play in the Earth System Science/Global Change Programs but efforts to integrate solid and fluid elements of the geosciences have not progressed as rapidly as other elements of these programs. In this book, the authors present examples of how integrating solid earth and climate studies can lead to better understanding of both disciplines. The focus on the role of tectonic boundary conditions for paleoclimate reconstructions. Chapters presenting background material on the impact of tectonic changes on climate will be followed by individual chapters on the "uncertainties" - with respect to orography, geography, timing of ocean gatewary closures, bathymetry, and CO[2 levels in the atmosphere. The book developed from a discussion at the Geodynamics Committee of the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources of the United States National Academy of Sciences.