Skip to main content
Elsevier
View Cart

Books in Quaternary geology

BooksJournals

    • Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science

      • 3rd Edition
      • September 18, 2024
      • Scott A. Elias
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 3 2 3 9 9 9 3 1 1
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 4 4 3 2 9 9 9 7 1
      Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, Third Edition, Six Volume Set brings together the multidisciplinary expertise needed to understand the history of humans, life, environmental, and climate change to understand what we may expect over the coming decades. Since publication of the previous edition, our understanding of many topics has been revolutionized by new discoveries and new techniques. The development of ancient DNA studies, for example, has revolutionized our thinking about the origins, dispersal, and population dynamics of our ancestors. Every new aDNA analysis from ancient human remains causes the story to become more complex.We are the sole survivors of the genus Homo, yet we harbor genetic fragments from other closely related but long-extinct lineages. The Quaternary is uniquely situated as a laboratory in which to study the shaping of the modern world, including biotic responses to large-scale environmental change. This new edition of this book is the most comprehensive account of state-of-the-art research in this field.

    • Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science

      • 2nd Edition
      • March 25, 2013
      • Cary Mock + 1 more
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 3 6 4 3 3
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 3 6 4 2 6
      The second revised edition of the Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, Four Volume Set, provides both students and professionals with an up-to-date reference work on this important and highly varied area of research. There are lots of new articles, and many of the articles that appeared in the first edition have been updated to reflect advances in knowledge since 2006, when the original articles were written. The second edition will contain about 375 articles, written by leading experts around the world. This major reference work is richly illustrated with more than 3,000 illustrations, most of them in colour.

    • Ostracoda as Proxies for Quaternary Climate Change

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 17
      • December 20, 2012
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 3 6 3 6 5
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 3 6 3 7 2
      Ostracod crustaceans, common microfossils in marine and freshwater sedimentary records, supply evidence of past climatic conditions via indicator species, transfer function and mutual climatic range approaches as well as the trace element and stable isotope geochemistry of their shells. As methods of using ostracods as Quaternary palaeoclimate proxies have developed, so too has a critical awareness of their complexities, potential and limitations. This book combines up-to-date reviews (covering previous work and summarising the state of the art) with presentations of new, cutting-edge science (data and interpretations as well as methodological developments) to form a major reference work that will constitute a durable bench-mark in the science of Ostracoda and Quaternary climate change.

    • Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 15
      • June 29, 2011
      • J. Ehlers + 2 more
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 3 4 4 7 7
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 3 5 3 7 5
      The book presents an up-to-date, detailed overview of the Quaternary glaciations all over the world, not only with regard to stratigraphy but also with regard to major glacial landforms and the extent of the respective ice sheets. The locations of key sites are included. The information is presented in digital, uniformly prepared maps which can be used in a Geographical Information System (GIS) such as ArcView or ArcGIS. The accompanying text supplies the information on how the data were obtained (geomorphology, geological mapping, air photograph evaluation, satellite imagery), how the features were dated (14C, TL, relative stratigraphy) and how reliable they are supposed to be. All references to the underlying basic publications are included. Where controversial interpretations are possible e.g. in Siberia or Tibet, this is pointed out. As a result, the information on Quaternary glaciations worldwide will be much improved and supplied in a uniform digital format.The information on the glacial limits is compiled in digital form by the coordinators of the project, and is available for download at: http://booksite.else...

    • Tropical and sub-tropical West Africa - Marine and continental changes during the Late Quaternary

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 10
      • November 15, 2007
      • P. Giresse
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 2 9 8 4 8
      • Paperback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 5 9 7 7 7
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 5 6 0 3 1
      West Africa and the eastern Atlantic stretching from Mauritania in the north to Namibia in the south offer a large latitudinal stretch incorporating nearly symmetrical climatic gradients from the Equator. On the time scale of Quaternary Glacial and Interglacial cycles, today, we possess well-documented and recently published marine sedimentary records showing changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulations and terrestrial fluxes. Deep-sea sediment records contain a wide range of palaeoenvironmental indicators like oxygen and carbon isotopes, alkenones, foraminiferal and other planktonic assemblages over time periods up to and greater than 125,000 years. These are signals of temperature and circulation shifts and allow Interglacial and Glacial comparisons on a regional and inter-hemispheric scale. However, this effort to synthesize the existing knowledge cannot yet aspire to a global modelling. Linking with terrestrial records, albeit spatially patchy and generally lacking a firm chronology, this book points to shorter time scale chronologies from lakes, marshes and river deposits. Diverse and not very wellknown literature, both French and English, is reported here. Lastly, the book records recent knowledge of the first steps of human occupation of frequently hostile environments and considers the environmental impact of ancient and modern societies.

    • Late Quaternary Climate Change and Human Adaptation in Arid China

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 9
      • May 10, 2007
      • D.B. Madsen + 2 more
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 2 9 6 2 6
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 4 4 3 1 1
      Due to political pressures, prior to the 1990s little was known about the nature of human foraging adaptations in the deserts, grasslands, and mountains of north western China during the last glacial period. Even less was known about the transition to agriculture that followed. Now open to foreign visitation, there is now an increasing understanding of the foraging strategies which led both to the development of millet agriculture and to the utilization of the extreme environments of the Tibetan Plateau. This text explores the transition from the foraging societies of the Late Paleolithic to the emergence of settled farming societies and the emergent pastoralism of the middle Neolithic striving to help answer the diverse and numerous questions of this critical transitional period.

    • Iceland - Modern Processes and Past Environments

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 5
      • April 28, 2005
      • C. Caseldine + 3 more
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 0 6 5 2 8
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 3 4 3 9 8
      Iceland provides an unique stage on which to study the natural environment, both past and present, and it is understanding both aspects of reconstructing the past and observing and interpreting the present that form the focus of the contributions to this volume. The papers are all written by active researchers and incorporate both reviews and new data. Although concentrating largely on the recent Quaternary timescale a wide range of topics is explored including subglacial volcanism, onshore and offshore evidence for the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent deglaciation, current glacial characteristics including jökulhlaups and glacial landsystems, soil development, Holocene ecosystem change, current oceanography, impacts of volcanic sulphur loading, chemical weathering and the CO2 budget and documentary evidence for historical climate. The key element of the volume is that for the first time it provides a wide overview of a range of topics for which Iceland provides an almost unparalleled laboratory emphasizing the importance of research on this small island for studies over a much broader global scale. These reviews point the way to future research directions and are supplemented by extensive illustrations and a comprehensive bibliography.

    • Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 2
      • June 8, 2004
      • J. Ehlers + 1 more
      • English
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 4 0 1 4 6
      This book is the first of three volumes in which the recent knowledge of the extent and chronology of Quaternary glaciations has been compiled on a global scale. This information is seen as a fundamental requirement, not only for the glacial workers, but for the wider user-community of general Quaternary workers. In particular the need for accurate ice-front positions is a basic requirement for the rapidly growing field of palaeoclimate modelling. In order to provide the information for the widest-possible range of users in the most accessible form, a series of digital maps was prepared.The glacial limits were mapped in ArcView, the Geographical Information System (GIS) used by the work group. Digital maps, showing glacial limits, end moraines, ice-dammed lakes, glacier-induced drainage diversions and the locations of key sections through which the glacial limits are defined and dated are included. For major parts of Europe also the extent of the maximum Eemian transgression has been indicated. The digital maps in this volume cover all of Europe and parts of northwestern Siberia. Both overview maps and more detailed maps are provided.

    • The Quaternary Period in the United States

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 1
      • December 17, 2003
      • A.R. Gillespie + 2 more
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 1 4 7 0 7
      • Paperback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 1 4 7 1 4
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 4 7 4 0 9 0
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 9 3 0 4 7 3
      This book reviews advances in understanding of the past ca. two million years of Earth history - the Quaternary Period - in the United States. It begins with sections on ice and water - as glaciers, permafrost, oceans, rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Six chapters are devoted to the high-latitude Pleistocene ice sheets, to mountain glaciations of the western United States, and to permafrost studies. Other chapters discuss ice-age lakes, caves, sea-level fluctuations, and riverine landscapes. With a chapter on landscape evolution models, the book turns to essays on geologic processes. Two chapters discuss soils and their responses to climate, and wind-blown sediments. Two more describe volcanoes and earthquakes, and the use of Quaternary geology to understand the hazards they pose. The next part of the book is on plants and animals. Five chapters consider the Quaternary history of vegetation in the United States. Other chapters treat forcing functions and vegetation response at different spatial and temporal scales, the role of fire as a catalyst of vegetation change during rapid climate shifts, and the use of tree rings in inferring age and past hydroclimatic conditions. Three chapters address vertebrate paleontology and the extinctions of large mammals at the end of the last glaciation, beetle assemblages and the inferences they permit about past conditions, and the peopling of North America. A final chapter addresses the numerical modeling of Quaternary climates, and the role paleoclimatic studies and climatic modeling has in predicting future response of the Earth's climate system to the changes we have wrought.

    • Ice Age Southern Andes

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 3
      • November 12, 2003
      • C.J. Heusser
      • English
      • Paperback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 4 0 3 1 7
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 3 4 3 8 1
      The Southern Andes, stretching from the subtropics to the subantarctic, are ideally located for palaeoenvironmental research. Over the broad and continuous latitudinal extent of the cordillera (-24˚), vegetation is adjusted to climatic gradients and atmospheric circulation patterns.Opposed to the prevailing Southern Westerlies, the Southern Andes are positioned to receive the brunt of the winds, while biota are set to record the shifting of incoming storm systems over time. Sequential, latitudinally-placed... sedimentary deposits containing microfossils and macroremains, as archives of past vegetation and climate, make possible the detection of equatorward and poleward displacement of plant communities and, as a consequence, changes in climatic controls. No terrestrial setting in the Southern Hemisphere is so unique for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction during and since the last ice age. Twenty radiocarbon-dated fossil pollen and spore records chosen to place emphasis on the last ice age include high-resolution, submillennial data sets that also cover the Holocene, thus providing contrast between present interglacial and past glacial ages. From a refined data base, the records constitute the foundation for interpreting factors responsible for vegetation change over >50,000 14C years, glacial-interglacial migration and refugial patterns for a diversity of taxa, and the extent of intrahemispheric and polar hemispheric synchroneity versus asynchroneity.