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Elsevier

Books in Earth and planetary sciences

Elsevier's Earth and Planetary Sciences collection brings together pioneering research on the complexities of our planet and beyond. Covering topics from Earth's structural dynamics and ecosystems to planetary exploration, these titles support advancements in geoscience, environmental science, and space studies, offering essential insights for researchers, professionals, and students.

  • Clays and Clay Minerals

    Proceedings of the Ninth National Conference on Clays and Clay Minerals
    • 1st Edition
    • Ada Swineford
    • English
    Earth Sciences, Volume 11: Clays and Clay Minerals covers the proceedings of the Ninth National Conference on Clays and Clay Minerals, held at the Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana on October 5-8, 1960, sponsored by the Committee on Clay Minerals of the National Academy of Sciences – National Research Council. The Conference features two symposia, namely, the “Engineering Aspects of Physico-Chemical Properties of Clays” and the “Clay-Organic Complexes”. This book is composed of 42 chapters and begins with descriptions of the mechanical, structural, thermodynamic, physical, and thermal properties of clay minerals. The succeeding chapters are devoted to certain reactions, theoretical and experimental aspects, occurrence, formation, and sorption properties of these minerals. Other chapters explore other involved mineral reactions, including interlamellar, cation exchange, swelling, and adsorption. The concluding chapters examine the viscometric constants of suspension, stabilization mechanism, and random growth of certain clay minerals. This book will be of value to geologists, mineralogists, and researchers in the field.

  • The Earth’s Electric Field

    Sources from Sun to Mud
    • 1st Edition
    • Michael C. Kelley
    • English
    The Earth’s Electric Field provides you with an integrated and comprehensive picture of the generation of the terrestrial electric fields, their dynamics and how they couple/propagate through the medium. The Earth’s Electric Field provides basic principles of terrestrial electric field related topics, but also a critical summary of electric field related observations and their significance to the various related phenomena in the atmosphere. For the first time, Kelley brings together information on this topic in a coherent way, making it easy to gain a broad overview of the critical processes in an efficient way. If you conduct research in atmospheric science, physics, atmospheric chemistry, space plasma physics, and solar terrestrial physics, you will find this book to be essential reading.

  • Reflection Seismology

    Theory, Data Processing and Interpretation
    • 1st Edition
    • Yang Wencai
    • English
    Authored by a geophysicist with more than 50 years of experience in research and instruction, Reflection Seismology: Theory, Data Processing and Interpretation provides a single source of foundational knowledge in reflection seismology principles and theory.Reflection seismology has a broad range of applications and is used primarily by the oil and gas industry to provide high-resolution maps and build a coherent geological story from maps of processed seismic reflections. Combined with seismic attribute analysis and other exploration geophysics tools, it aids geologists and geo-engineers in creating geological models of areas of exploration and extraction interest. Yet as important as reflection seismology is to the hydrocarbon industry, it’s difficult to find a single source that synthesizes the topic without having to wade through numerous journal articles from a range of different publishers. This book is a one-stop source of reflection seismology theory, helping scientists navigates through the wealth of new data processing techniques that have emerged in recent years.

  • Fossil and Living Dinoflagellates

    • 1st Edition
    • W. A. S. Sarjeant
    • English
    Fossil and Living Dinoflagellates presents a detailed account of the cell physiology, morphology, and mode of life of dinoflagellates. This book discusses the development in the research, both on fossil and living dinoflagellates. Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of dinoflagellates as the most important producers of luminescence in the oceans, which sometimes cause tropical seas to glow with phosphorescent light. This text then examines the characteristic feature of dinoflagellates to possess two flagella. Other chapters consider the sequence of events during reproduction in the armored dinoflagellate Glenodinium foliaceum based on culture. This book discusses as well the encystment in non-marine dinoflagellates, which occurs in response to the oncoming of adverse environmental conditions. The final chapter deals with the distribution pattern of dinoflagellate cysts in fossil sediments. This book is a valuable resource for marine biologists, zoologist, paleontologists, micropaleontologists... geologists, taxonomists, microscopists, geneticists, and research workers.

  • Regulatory Change in an Atmosphere of Crisis

    Current Implications of the Roosevelt Years
    • 1st Edition
    • Gary M. Walton
    • English
    Regulatory Change in an Atmosphere of Crisis: Current Implications of the Roosevelt Years is a collection of papers presented at a conference on Regulatory Change in an Atmosphere of Crisis: The Current-Day Implications of the Roosevelt Years, held in April 1978, at Washington State University. The book presents the findings on several of the major economic reforms of the Roosevelt years and assesses their implications. The text discusses a variety of issues of the period such as the short term measures implemented during the crisis of the 1930s; the Roosevelt New Deal and its consequences; banking reforms in the 1930s; and the social welfare programs that originated in the Roosevelt years. Historians, economists, financial experts, and students will find the book a great source of insight and information.

  • The Platyrrhine Fossil Record

    • 1st Edition
    • John G. Fleagle + 1 more
    • English
    The Platyrrhine Fossil Record is a compendium of papers presented in a symposium of the 12th Congress of the International Congress of Primatology held in Brazil. One paper reviews evidence from fossil platyrrhines where the author concludes new dating and environmental data where these animals lived. Another paper describes the major changes pertaining to South American mammalian fauna during the Cenozoic Era, which he relates to global and regional geotectonic changes. Other papers review the paleontology and geology of the Miocene Pintura Formation and reassess the morphological transformations traditionally assumed as having been involved in platyrrhine phylogeny. One author also proposes that a prosimian-like ancestor is probably the predecessors of anthropoids; any similarities and primitive mammals can be evolutionary reversals associated with quadrupedal movements. The text also addresses the issue whether anthropoids, including platyrrhines, evolved from a prosimian ancestor or prosimians are just a group with mammalian postcranial skeletal structure. One author also reviews fossil remains found in the Caribbean, citing seven endemic taxa of platyrrhines in Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica. Anthropologists, researchers involved in anatomical sciences, academicians, and administrators whose works are connected with museums of natural history or institutes of primate research will find this collection valuable.

  • The Lunar Surface Layer

    Materials and Characteristics
    • 1st Edition
    • John W. Salisbury + 1 more
    • English
    The Lunar Surface Layer: Materials and Characteristics focuses on the characteristics, nature, and materials located in the lunar surface layer, including lunar soil mechanics, water vapor adsorption, and soil behavior. The selection first elaborates on soil mechanics considerations in the testing of lunar soil models, an experimental study in lunar soil mechanics, and gravity effects on soil behavior. Discussions focus on cohesion in lunar soils, gravity effect on dynamic shear strength of soils, porosity, soil bearing strength, lunar effects, soil cohesion in the lunar environment, gradation, structure and contact characteristics, and statics and dynamics. The book then examines the investigation of soil adhesion under high vacuum; water vapor adsorption behavior of kaolinite after high-vacuum storage; and sonic velocity and shear strength of possible lunar surface materials. Concerns cover shear strength, sonic velocity, experimental apparatus, and calibration. The manuscript takes a look at the consideration of properties of simulated lunar soil with possible stabilization techniques; feasibility of remote compositional mapping of the lunar surface; thermal emission characteristics of mineral dusts; and thermal properties of postulated lunar surface materials. The selection is highly recommended for researchers wanting to study the lunar surface layer.

  • A Colour Guide to Clouds

    • 1st Edition
    • Richard Scorer + 1 more
    • R. S. Scorer + 1 more
    • English
    A Colour Guide to Clouds contains 48 pictures that illustrate the most important cloud making processes. These pictures provide insights into the mode of formation of almost every cloud. This book is composed of six sections, and begins with an introduction to cloud name identification and the importance of clouds in the circumstances in which they occur. The succeeding sections deal with the major cloud names, namely, cumulus, cirrus, nimbus, and stratus. These topics are followed by illustrations of various cloud forms, the low pressure area of clouds, as well as ice clouds. The final chapters contain text and colored plates of different cloud forms. This book will prove useful to meteorologists, naturalists, and cloud scientists and researchers.

  • On the Nature of Continental Shelves

    • 1st Edition
    • John J Walsh
    • English
    On the Nature of Continental Shelves discusses continental margins using techniques of systems analysis applied on minicomputers. The book describes insights and theories of mechanisms of enhanced primary production at the continental shelves, emphasizing these as the source energy, food, and recreation, and a possible means to detect global change while in its early phases. The text explains circulation, equations of motion, Ekman dynamics, and baroclinic effects of vertical changes in water density. Production in the seas involves the process of photosynthesis by organisms in which instruments on aircraft platforms can measure salinity and chlorophyll fluorescence. During photosynthesis, some of the light energy absorbed by phytoplankton pigments is emitted as fluorescence, at longer wavelengths, which can then detected. Adult fish and crustaceans are mobile and add a biological vector to the physical movement of organisms on the continental shelves. The book examines food limitation and the conditions of the Bering Sea, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico. The text also investigates sinking losses, present depocenters, atmospheric forcing, eutrophication, overfishing, and the effects of climate on primary production at the continental shelves. The book can be beneficial for students of meteorology, oceanography as well as to marine ecologists, biologists, and environmentalists.

  • Descriptive Meteorology

    • 2nd Edition
    • Hurd C. Willett + 1 more
    • English
    Descriptive Meteorology, Second Edition describes the principal weather phenomena. This book consists of 10 chapters. Chapter I discusses the composition and vertical extent of the atmosphere. The adiabatic changes and vertical stability of the atmosphere are considered in Chapter II, while the heat balance of the atmosphere and observed temperature distribution are explained in Chapter III. The fourth chapter elaborates the condensation processes in the atmosphere and their respective forms. In Chapter V, the determination of wind velocity and vertical distribution of winds in the atmosphere are analyzed. The formation of characteristic air masses in the general circulation with the migratory types of cyclones, anticyclones, and tropical hurricanes and small-scale circulations which constitute most local weather phenomena are covered in Chapters VI to IX. The last chapter discusses the principles of weather forecasting and modification and present prospects for advances in meteorology. This edition is a good reference for meteorologists and college students familiar with general physics and elementary calculus.

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