One of the most influential, most controversial books in science, the classic statement for continental drift. Full 1966 translation. 64 illus.

First integrated treatment of main ideas behind Rene Thom's theory of catastrophes stresses detailed applications in the physical sciences. Mathematics of theory explained with a minimum of technicalities. Over 200 illustrations clarify text designed for researchers and postgraduate students in engineering, mathematics, physics and biology. 1978 edition. Bibliography.

The Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the intermountain basins in Wyoming and adjacent states contain a rich diversity of plant and animal life that has long captured the interest of outdoor enthusiasts, scientists, and natural resource managers. This book by an eminent ecologist presents in word and photograph the ecology of this beautiful area. Dennis H. Knight begins by introducing the diverse environments in the region and their geologic history. He then discusses the landscapes along streams and rivers, the lowland plains and basins, the foothills and mountains, and three regions of special interest-Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains. He concludes by explaining land use constraints and opportunities in the region. Throughout the book, Knight considers plant ecology, plant-animal interactions, geologic influences, nutrient cycling, land management, and disturbances such as fires and insect epidemics. Over 150 photographs, maps, and line drawings illustrate ecological processes and landscape patterns. A remarkable synthesis of information on land management, ecosystem science, and plant and animal adaptation, the book will be of interest to naturalists as well as to ecologists and professional land managers.

"The book provides an excellent historical summary of the debates over continental drift theory in this century." Contemporary Sociology

"This is a useful discussion of the way that science works. The book will be of value to philosophers of science... " Choice

..". will find an important place in university and department libraries, and will interest afficionados of the factual and intellectual history of the earth sciences." Terra Nova

..". an excellent core analysis... " The Times Higher Education Supplement

..". an ambitious and important contribution to the new sociology of science." American Journal of Sociology

..". Stewart's book is a noble effort, an interesting and readable discussion, and another higher notch on the scoreboard of critical scholarship that deserves wide examination and close attention." Geophysics

This fascinating book describes the rise and fall and rebirth of continental drift theory in this century. It uses the recent revolution in geoscientinsts' beliefs about the earth to examine questions such as, How does scientific knowledge develop and change? The book also explores how well different perspectives help us to understand revolutionary change in science."

Nothing new from the Ice Age? Far from it! Barely ten years have passed since the first edition of this book was published, but in that time researchers around the world have developed new methods and published their findings in scientific journals. Consequently, ideas about the course of the Ice Age have changed dramatically. The sequence of the individual ice advances, the direction of ice movement and the direction of meltwater drainage are only partially known, but they can be reconstructed. This book offers in-depth information about the state of the investigations. Ice ages are the periods of the earth's history in which at least one polar region is glaciated or covered by sea ice. Thus, we are currently living in an Ice Age. The present Ice Age is also the period in which humans started to intervene in the shaping of the earth. The results are obvious. Aerial and satellite images can be used to trace the melting of glaciers, but also the decay of the Arctic permafrost, and the clearing of the Brazilian rainforest. This book is a translation of the original German 2nd edition Das Eiszeitalter by Juergen Ehlers, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature, in 2020. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and promotes technologies to support the authors.

Approximately 99% of all life that has ever existed is extinct. Fortunately, these long dead species have left traces of their lives and interactions with other species in the rock record that paleoecologists use to understand how species and ecosystems have changed over time. This record of past life allows us to study the dynamic nature of the Earth and gives context to current and future ecological challenges. This book brings together forty-four classic papers published between 1924 and 1999 that trace the origins and development of paleoecology. The articles cross taxonomic groups, habitat types, geographic areas, and time and have made substantial contributions to our knowledge of the evolution of life. Encompassing the full breadth of paleoecology, the book is divided into six parts: community and ecosystem dynamics, community reconstruction, diversity dynamics, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, species interaction, and taphonomy. Each paper is also introduced by a contemporary expert who gives context and explains its importance to ongoing paleoecological research. A comprehensive introduction to the field, Foundations of Paleoecology will be an essential reference for new students and established paleoecologists alike.

Earth's climate has undergone dramatic changes over the geologic timescale. At one extreme, Earth has been glaciated from the poles to the equator for periods that may have lasted millions of years. At another, temperatures were once so warm that the Canadian Arctic was heavily forested and large dinosaurs lived on Antarctica. Paleoclimatology is the study of such changes and their causes. Studying Earth's long-term climate history gives scientists vital clues about anthropogenic global warming and how climate is affected by human endeavor.

In this book, Michael Bender, an internationally recognized authority on paleoclimate, provides a concise, comprehensive, and sophisticated introduction to the subject. After briefly describing the major periods in Earth history to provide geologic context, he discusses controls on climate and how the record of past climate is determined. The heart of the book then proceeds chronologically, introducing the history of climate changes over millions of years--its patterns and major transitions, and why average global temperature has varied so much. The book ends with a discussion of the Holocene (the past 10,000 years) and by putting manmade climate change in the context of paleoclimate.

The most up-to-date overview on the subject, "Paleoclimate" provides an ideal introduction to undergraduates, nonspecialist scientists, and general readers with a scientific background.

The 1960s revealed a new and revolutionary idea in geological thought: that the continents drift with respect to one another. After having been dismissed for decades as absurd, the concept gradually became part of geology's basic principles. We now know that the Earth's crust and upper mantle consist of a small number of rigid plates that move, and there are significant boundaries between pairs of plates, usually known as earthquake belts. Plate tectonics now explains much of the structure and phenomena we see today: how oceans form, widen, and disappear; why earthquakes and volcanoes are found in distinct zones which follow plate boundaries; how the great mountain ranges of the world were built. The impact of plate tectonics is studied closely as these processes continue: the Himalaya continues to grow, the Atlantic is widening, and new oceans are forming. In this Very Short Introduction Peter Molnar provides a succinct and authoritative account of the nature and mechanisms of plate tectonics and its impact on our understanding of Earth. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

'Radioactivity is like a clock that never needs adjusting', writes Doug Macdougall. 'It would be hard to design a more reliable timekeeper.' In "Nature's Clocks", Macdougall tells how scientists who were seeking to understand the past arrived at the ingenious techniques they now use to determine the age of objects and organisms. By examining radiocarbon (C-14) dating - the best known of these methods - and several other techniques that geologists use to decode the distant past, Macdougall unwraps the last century's advances, explaining how they reveal the age of our fossil ancestors such as 'Lucy', the timing of the dinosaurs' extinction, and the precise ages of tiny mineral grains that date from the beginning of the earth's history. In lively and accessible prose, he describes how the science of geochronology has developed and flourished. Relating these advances through the stories of the scientists themselves - James Hutton, William Smith, Arthur Holmes, Ernest Rutherford, Willard Libby, and Clair Patterson - Macdougall shows how they used ingenuity and inspiration to construct one of modern science's most significant accomplishments: a timescale for the earth's evolution and human prehistory.

A non-technical (but serious) treatment of those parts of Earth history leading up to human history, as well as some pre-historical aspects of humanity. Many "events" in Earth's history necessarily preceded the emergence of human beings (and intelligence). Geology has provided us with a great deal of information about these various steps on the way to intelligent life, and how and why they were important. Some of these events were on a cosmic scale (no universe - no life!), some were planetological/astronomical (no Earth - no life), some were essentially chemical (how did life emerge in the primordial ocean and why do we have oxygen in the atmosphere?), and some were details of evolutionary history (how did life colonize the land and how did mammals develop?). In this book an enthusiastic professor of geosciences presents a broad introduction from the Big Bang to the present and into the future, lucidly explaining aspects from various disciplines to interested, non-specialist readers.

This Italian work, published in Naples in 1897, provides a comprehensive bibliography of works, published in Europe and the United States prior to the twentieth century, on the subject of Mount Vesuvius. Federigo Furchheim (b. 1844) begins with the famous eruption of 1631, on the ground that ancient accounts are sufficiently well known, and that reports and descriptions before the seventeenth century are not reliable. The bibliography is wide-ranging and includes works on other volcanos (such as Santorini), earthquakes and mineralogy. Nor is it confined to factual observations: travel writing, poetry, and even fiction, including Bulwer Lytton's The Last Days of Pompeii, appear alongside scientists such as Sir Humphry Davy and enthusiastic amateurs such as Sir William Hamilton. The book includes a chronological listing of published maps and illustrations, and an appendix, arranged chronologically and by topic, that briefly lists ancient and medieval accounts as well as more modern publications.

Mount Etna in Sicily is one of a small number of active volcanoes in the Mediterranean area, where written history survives from more than two millennia: its eruptions are therefore among the best documented in the world. This account of the eruption of 1819 was written by the chemist and vulcanologist Carmelo Maravigna, a professor at the University of Catania, who was commissioned by his colleagues to make scientific observations of the phenomena and to publish them in a clear and methodical format. Maravigna's book opens with the diary of his own observations from 27 May to 5 August 1819; it then describes the physical consequences of the eruption, including the spread and depth of lava flows, and discusses various theories of volcanic activity. The sixth chapter analyses the mineral deposits in the lava, and the last describes the volcano returned to its dormant state.

Wally Broecker is one of the world's leading authorities on abrupt global climate change. More than two decades ago, he discovered the link between ocean circulation and climate change, in particular how shutdowns of the Great Ocean Conveyor--the vast network of currents that circulate water, heat, and nutrients around the globe--triggered past ice ages. Today, he is among the researchers exploring how our planet's climate system can abruptly "flip-flop" from one state to another, and who are weighing the implications for the future. In "The Great Ocean Conveyor," Broecker introduces readers to the science of abrupt climate change while providing a vivid, firsthand account of the field's history and development.

Could global warming cause the conveyor to shut down again, prompting another flip-flop in climate? What were the repercussions of past climate shifts? How do we know such shifts occurred? Broecker shows how Earth scientists study ancient ice cores and marine sediments to probe Earth's distant past, and how they blend scientific detective work with the latest technological advances to try to predict the future. He traces how the science has evolved over the years, from the blind alleys and wrong turns to the controversies and breathtaking discoveries. Broecker describes the men and women behind the science, and reveals how his own thinking about abrupt climate change has itself flip-flopped as new evidence has emerged.

Rich with personal stories and insights, "The Great Ocean Conveyor" opens a tantalizing window onto how Earth science is practiced.

'Radioactivity is like a clock that never needs adjusting,' writes Doug Macdougall. 'It would be hard to design a more reliable timekeeper.' In "Nature's Clocks", Macdougall tells how scientists who were seeking to understand the past arrived at the ingenious techniques they now use to determine the age of objects and organisms. By examining radiocarbon (C-14) dating - the best known of these methods - and several other techniques that geologists use to decode the distant past, Macdougall unwraps the last century's advances, explaining how they reveal the age of our fossil ancestors such as 'Lucy,' the timing of the dinosaurs' extinction, and the precise ages of tiny mineral grains that date from the beginning of the earth's history. In lively and accessible prose, he describes how the science of geochronology has developed and flourished. Relating these advances through the stories of the scientists themselves - James Hutton, William Smith, Arthur Holmes, Ernest Rutherford, Willard Libby, and Clair Patterson - Macdougall shows how they used ingenuity and inspiration to construct one of modern science's most significant accomplishments: a timescale for the earth's evolution and human prehistory.

Burchfield charts the enormous impact made by Lord Kelvin's application of thermodynamic laws to the question of the earth's age and the heated debate his ideas sparked among British Victorian physicists, astronomers, geologists, and biologists.
"Anyone interested in geologic time, and that should include all geologists and a fair smattering of biologists, physicists and chemists, should make Burchfield's commendable and time-tested volume part of their personal library"—Brent Darymple, "Quartely Review of Biology"

Regolith is the layer of broken and unconsolidated rock and soil material that forms the surface of the land and covers the bedrock nearly everywhere. An understanding of its properties and structure is very important in topics such as groundwater supply, soil conservation and exploration efforts for economic materials. Regolith, Soils and Landforms is a manual for students, professionals and researchers concerned with the practical examination and analysis of earth surface materials in the field. The text describes many economic aspects of regolith studies, such as the formation of mineral deposits, the importance of weathering zones and how the chemistry of regolith affects human health. Presenting a new view of the geological history of the earth, it places emphasis on the formation and destruction of regolith materials and provides a challenge for established concepts in landscape evolution. It will be an essential text to a wide range of readership including students of Geology, Geomorphology, Geography, Agriculture and Engineering as well as professionals dealing with regolith in their own work.

From Whakaari / White Island and Huka Falls to the Moeraki Boulders and Milford Sound, Aotearoa New Zealand overflows with extraordinary landforms and other natural features.This is not a random quirk of nature, but a result of the unique and complex geological history of this part of planet Earth. In this beautiful book, geologist Bruce W. Hayward guides readers through 100 natural wonders of Aotearoa – introducing the geology and history with words, explanatory diagrams and remarkable aerial photography by Alastair Jamieson and Lloyd Homer. Through these 100 special places – and many more that almost made the cut – we begin to understand the shape of Aotearoa and the 500-million-year history of our small, mostly submerged continent of Zealandia. For every car and coffee table, Mountains, Volcanoes, Coasts and Caves is the essential guide to the deep story of this country – how it was formed and how it has changed over millennia.

Addressing the history of the earth in terms of geological process and the resolution of the fossil record, Ronald Martin presents a report on the current state of knowledge on a group of interconnected themes - process, scale and hierarchy, and the methodologies of historical sciences.;He examines several questions about geological history: What is the evidence for processes that occur over long periods of geologic history? Why are these long term earth processes significant to the human race? How does one test hypotheses using the fossil record? And what, at the present rate of knowledge, are the limits of that record? As Martin explains, the project of the geologist is to interpret natural phenomena by integrating data into large contexts and constructing a historical narrative. Through the critical examination of these narratives, geologists can determine how the earth evolved into its present state. However, the scale employed in measurement can cause wide variations in the results of any inquiry into geologic process. Martin addresses a wide range of topics, including taphonomy, bioturbation, cycles of carbon dioxide, global cooling, and extinction. He supplements the theatri

Collector's Guide to Fort Payne Crinoids and Blastoids is the first comprehensive guide for identifying the fossils of echinoderms from hundreds of millions of years ago, when North America was covered by a warm, equatorial sea. Crinoids and blastoids, echinoderms (the same family of marine animals to include starfish, sea urchins, and sand dollars) from the Fort Payne Formation in Kentucky, are rarely seen at gem, mineral, and fossil shows, nor are they regularly displayed at major museums. By combining high-quality color photographs and an accompanying descriptive text, William W. Morgan provides the first comprehensive identification guide to these fascinating fossils. Collector's Guide to Fort Payne Crinoids and Blastoids features photographs, often offering more than one view, of the best-quality specimens curated in the Smithsonian and other prominent invertebrate fossil museums. Morgan includes photographs that are unlabeled so that readers can test themselves to see whether they can differentiate some of the more subtle features that may be necessary for accurate identification.

Quaternary of the Levant presents up-to-date research achievements from a region that displays unique interactions between the climate, the environment and human evolution. Focusing on southeast Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel, it brings together over eighty contributions from leading researchers to review 2.5 million years of environmental change and human cultural evolution. Information from prehistoric sites and palaeoanthropological studies contributing to our understanding of 'out of Africa' migrations, Neanderthals, cultures of modern humans, and the origins of agriculture are assessed within the context of glacial-interglacial cycles, marine isotope cycles, plate tectonics, geochronology, geomorphology, palaeoecology and genetics. Complemented by overview summaries that draw together the findings of each chapter, the resulting coverage is wide-ranging and cohesive. The cross-disciplinary nature of the volume makes it an invaluable resource for academics and advanced students of Quaternary science and human prehistory, as well as being an important reference for archaeologists working in the region.

Das Eiszeitalter ist eine Zeit extremer Klimaschwankungen, die bis heute nicht beendet sind. Zeitweilig bedeckten gewaltige Inlandeismassen grosse Teile der Nordkontinente. Zu anderen Zeiten war die Sahara grun und von Menschen besiedelt, und der Tschadsee war so gross wie die Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Was sich im Eiszeitalter abgespielt hat, kann nur aus Spuren rekonstruiert werden, die im Boden zuruckgeblieben sind. Die Eiszeit hat andere Schichten hinterlassen als andere Erdzeitalter. Dieses Buch beschreibt die Prozesse, unter denen sie gebildet worden sind und die Methoden, mit denen man sie untersuchen kann. Die Arbeit des Geowissenschaftlers gleicht der eines Detektivs, der aus Indizien den Ablauf des Geschehens rekonstruieren muss. Und diese Tatigkeit ist genauso spanned wie die eines Detektivs. Von den in diesem Buch vorgestellten Untersuchungsergebnissen werden einige hier zum ersten Mal veroeffentlicht. Das Eiszeitalter ist auch der Zeitabschnitt, in dem der Mensch in die Gestaltung der Erde eingreift. Welche Veranderungen das mit sich bringt, kann jeder selbst verfolgen. Alle relevanten Daten sind frei verfugbar; dieses Buch beschreibt, wie man sie erhalt. Dr. Jurgen Ehlers arbeitet seit 1978 als Quartargeologe fur das Geologische Landesamt Hamburg, wo er fur die Geologische Landesaufnahme zustandig ist. Er hat daruber hinaus Forschungsprojekte im In- und Ausland durchgefuhrt. Zusammen mit Prof. Philip L. Gibbard, Cambridge, hat er fur die International Union for Quaternary Research das Projekt 'Extent and Chronology of Quaternary Glaciations' durchgefuhrt. Er gilt als einer der hervorragendsten deutschen Kenner der Eiszeitgeologie. Er ist Autor mehrerer Bucher uber das Quartar (Enke und Wiley) und die Nordsee (WBG) und auch als Autor von Kriminalgeschichten bekannt geworden.

Global climate during the Quaternary has been deeply influenced by glacial-interglacial oscillations. Since the onset of glaciations, the Earth has experienced alternations between warm and stable climatic periods coinciding with interglacials, and cold and highly variable climatic intervals coinciding with glacials. In a suborbital timescale, climate oscillations were maximal during glacial onsets and, very especially, during deglaciations. Previous deglaciation events were associated with diverse changes in earths atmospheric, physical and biotic environments. Chapter One contains a brief outline of a case study conducted in western Canada to constrain the Late Pleistocene retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from the region. Chapter Two reports on the influence of deglaciations in the mid-latitude European climate. Chapter Three aims to highlight the influence of global and regional paleoceanographic changes on the deglaciation of the marine based Barents ice sheet since the last glacial maximum (LGM) until the onset of marine environment in the Holocene.

This interdisciplinary study of the disruptions threatening aquatic systems in Africa provides a continent-wide perspective on multidimensional environmental problems in the context of a rapidly expanding human population. Contributors confront both local and international water resource issues in Africa, illustrate commonalities among countries, and examine varied approaches used to solve water resources management problems. Linking social and natural sciences in diverse environmental and social settings at different scales of analysis (historical, regional, and ecosystem), the contributors identify regional issues and detect generalities to provide a baseline for decision making in the 21st century. CONTENTS Conservation and Management of African Aquatic Ecosystems: An Introduction, by Lauren J. Chapman, Colin A. Chapman, Thomas L. Crisman, and Les S. Kaufman Part 1. Historical Perspective 1. A Historical View of African Inland Waters, by Daniel A. Livingstone 2. Deep Time Landscape Histories and the Improvement of Environmental Management in Africa, by Peter Schmidt Part 2. Regional Perspectives 3. Management of Water Resources and Freshwater Ecosystems in Southern Africa, by Jenny Day 4. Aquatic Resource Management and Freshwater Ecosystems in West Africa, by Christopher Gordon 5. East African Species Introductions and --Wetland Management: Sociopolitical Dimensions, by Fred W.B. Bugenyi and John S. Balirwa 6. Human Interactions and Water Quality in the Horn of Africa, by Gebre-Mariam Zinabu 7. Water Management Issues in Madagascar: Biodiversity, Conservation, and Deforestation, by Peter N. Reinthal, Karen J. Riseng, and John S. Sparks Part 3. Ecosystems, Processes, and EmergingWater Management Issues 8. River Fisheries in Africa: Their Past, Present, and Future, by Robin L. Welcomme 9. Fishes of African Rain Forests: Emerging and Potential Threats to a Little-Known Fauna, by Lauren J. Chapman and Colin A. Chapman 10. Incorporating Wetlands and Their Ecotones into the Conservation and Management of Freshwater Ecosystems of Africa, by Thomas L. Crisman, Lauren J. Chapman, and Colin A. Chapman 11. Deforestation in Tropical Africa: Impacts on Aquatic Ecosystems, by Colin A. Chapman and Lauren J. Chapman 12. Evolutionary Footprints in Ecological Time: Fish Community Structure and Water Management in African Lakes, by Les S. Kaufman 13. Implications of Eutrophication for Fish Vision, Behavioral Ecology, and Species Coexistence, by Ole Seehausen, Jacques J. M. van Alphen, and Frans Witte 14. How Issues of Genetic Diversity Affect Management of African Inland Fisheries: The Example of the Lake Victoria Region Fishery, by Wilson Mwanja and Paul Fuerst 15. The Aswan High Dam at Thirty: An Environmental Impact Assessment, by Scot E. Smith 16. Eutrophication in African Lakes with Particular Reference to Phosphorus Modeling, by Jeff A. Thornton and William R. Harding Part 4. Human Dimensions of Water Management 17. Riparian Resource Utilization, Management, and Conservation in Southern Africa, with Special Reference to Botswana, by Robert K. Hitchcock 18. Energy Synthesis as a Tool for Evaluating Management Options for Freshwater Ecosystems in Africa, by Mark Brown and Andres Buenfil 19. Ecotourism as a Sustainable Land-Use Option in African Wetlands: The Okavango Delta and Kwando Wildlife Management Areas of Botswana, by Michael Murray-Hudson and Thomas L. Crisman 20.Fisheries in National Parks: A Case Study of Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda, by Arthur R. Mugisha 21. Monitoring Settlement as Part of an Integrated Model of Aquatic Ecology: The Onchocerciasis Control Programme of West Africa, by Della McMillian and Davide Calamari The Conservation and Management of African Inland Waters: A Synthesis, by Lauren J. Chapman, Colin A. Chapman, Thomas L. Crisman, and Les S. Kaufman

Each year, thousands of tourists visit Mount Mitchell, the most prominent feature of North Carolina's Black Mountain range and the highest peak in the eastern United States. From Native Americans and early explorers to land speculators and conservationists, people have long been drawn to this rugged region. Timothy Silver explores the long and complicated history of the Black Mountains, drawing on both the historical record and his experience as a backpacker and fly fisherman. He chronicles the geological and environmental forces that created this intriguing landscape, then traces its history of environmental change and human intervention from the days of Indian-European contact to today. Among the many tales Silver recounts is that of Elisha Mitchell, the renowned geologist and University of North Carolina professor for whom Mount Mitchell is named, who fell to his death there in 1857. But nature's stories - of forest fires, chestnut blight, competition among plants and animals, insect invasions, and, most recently, airborne toxins and acid rain - are also part of Silver's narrative, making it the first history of the Appalachians in which the natural world gets equal time with human history. It is only by understanding the dynamic between these two forces, Silver says, that we can begin to protect the Black Mountains for future generations.