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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.

BooksJournals

  • Quaternary Coral Reef Systems

    History, development processes and controlling factors
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 5
    • Lucien F. Montaggioni + 1 more
    • English
    This book presents both state-of-the art knowledge from Recent coral reefs (1.8 million to a few centuries old) gained since the eighties, and introduces geologists, oceanographers and environmentalists to sedimentological and paleoecological studies of an ecosystem encompassing some of the world's richest biodiversity. Scleractinian reefs first appeared about 300 million years ago. Today coral reef systems provide some of the most sensitive gauges of environmental change, expressing the complex interplay of chemical, physical, geological and biological factors. The topics covered will include the evolutionary history of reef systems and some of the main reef builders since the Cenozoic, the effects of biological and environmental forces on the zonation of reef systems and the distribution of reef organisms and on reef community dynamics through time, changes in the geometry, anatomy and stratigraphy of reef bodies and systems in relation to changes in sea level and tectonics, the distribution patterns of sedimentary (framework or detrital) facies in relation to those of biological communities, the modes and rates of reef accretion (progradation, aggradation versus backstepping; coral growth versus reef growth), the hydrodynamic forces controlling water circulation through reef structures and their relationship to early diagenetic processes, the major diagenetic processes affecting reef bodies through time (replacement and diddolution, dolomitization, phosphatogenesis), and the record of climate change by both individual coral colonies and reef systems over the Quaternary.

  • Paleoseismology

    • 2nd Edition
    • Volume 95
    • James P. McCalpin
    • English
    Paleoseismology has become an important component of seismic risk analysis, which is mandated for nuclear power plants, dams, waste repositories, and other critical structures. This book is the first in the English language to be devoted solely to paleoseismology. It summarizes the development of the field from the 1960s to the present, encompassing material that is currently widely dispersed in journal articles.

  • Well Testing Project Management

    Onshore and Offshore Operations
    • 1st Edition
    • Paul J. Nardone
    • English
    Well test planning is one of the most important phrases in the life cycle of a well, if done improperly it could cost millions. Now there is a reference to ensure you get it right the first time. Written by a Consultant Completions & Well Test Engineer with decades of experience, Well Test Planning and Operations provides a road map to guide the reader through the maze of governmental regulations, industry codes, local standards and practices. This book describes how to plan a fit-for-purpose and fault free well test, and to produce the documents required for regulatory compliance. Given the level of activity in the oil and gas industry and the shortage of experienced personnel, this book will appeal to many specialists sitting in drilling, completion or exploration departments around the world who find themselves in the business of planning a well test, and yet who may lack expertise in that specialty. Nardone provides a roadmap to guide the planner through this complex subject, showing how to write the necessary documentation and to coordinate the many different tasks and activities, which constitute well test planning. Taking the reader from the basis for design through the well Test program to well test reports and finally to the all-important learning to ensure continuous improvement.

  • Calcareous algae

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 4
    • English

  • Climate Change

    Observed impacts on Planet Earth
    • 1st Edition
    • Trevor Letcher
    • English
    The climate of the Earth is always changing. As the debate over the implications of changes in the Earth's climate has grown, the term climate change has come to refer primarily to changes we've seen over recent years and those which are predicted to be coming, mainly as a result of human behavior. This book serves as a broad, accessible guide to the science behind this often political and heated debate by providing scientific detail and evidence in language that is clear to both the non-specialist and the serious student.

  • The Earth's Ionosphere

    Plasma Physics and Electrodynamics
    • 2nd Edition
    • Volume 96
    • Michael C. Kelley
    • English
    Although interesting in its own right, due to the ever-increasing use of satellites for communication and navigation, weather in the ionosphere is of great concern. Every such system uses trans-ionospheric propagation of radio waves, waves which must traverse the commonly turbulent ionosphere. Understanding this turbulence and predicting it are one of the major goals of the National Space Weather program. Acquiring such a prediction capability will rest on understanding the very topics of this book, the plasma physics and electrodynamics of the system.

  • Geophysical Electromagnetic Theory and Methods

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 43
    • Michael S. Zhdanov
    • English
    In this book the author presents the state-of-the-art electromagnetic (EM)theories and methods employed in EM geophysical exploration.The book brings together the fundamental theory of EM fields and the practicalaspects of EM exploration for mineral and energy resources.This text is unique in its breadth and completeness in providing anoverview of EM geophysical exploration technology. The book is divided into four parts covering the foundations of EMfield theory and its applications, and emerging geophysical methods.Part I is an introduction to the field theory required for baselineunderstandin... Part II is an overview of all the basic elements ofgeophysical EM theory, from Maxwell's fundamental equations to modernmethods of modeling the EM field in complex 3-D geoelectrical formations. Part III deals with the regularized solution of ill-posedinverse electromagnetic problems, the multidimensional migration and imaging ofelectromagnetic data, and general interpretation techniques. Part IV describes major geophysical electromagnetic methods—direct current (DC), induced polarization (IP), magnetotelluric(MT), and controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) methods—and covers different applications of EM methods in exploration geophysics, includingminerals and HC exploration, environmental study, and crustal study.

  • Cohesive Sediments in Open Channels

    Erosion, Transport and Deposition
    • 1st Edition
    • Emmanuel Partheniades
    • English
    Approx.384 pages

  • Fault-Zone Properties and Earthquake Rupture Dynamics

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 94
    • Eiichi Fukuyama
    • English
    The dynamics of the earthquake rupture process are closely related to fault zone properties which the authors have intensively investigated by various observations in the field as well as by laboratory experiments. These include geological investigation of the active and fossil faults, physical and chemical features obtained by the laboratory experiments, as well as the seismological estimation from seismic waveforms. Earthquake dynamic rupture can now be modeled using numerical simulations on the basis of field and laboratory observations, which should be very useful for understanding earthquake rupture dynamics.

  • The Changing Alpine Treeline

    The Example of Glacier National Park, MT, USA
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 12
    • David R. Butler + 3 more
    • English
    The alpine treeline ecotone (ATE) is an area of transition high on mountains where closed canopy forests from lower elevations give way to the open alpine tundra and rocky expanses above. Alpine tundra is an island biome and its ecotone with forest is subject to change, and like oceanic islands, alpine tundra is subject to invasion – or the upward advance of treeline. The invasion of tundra by trees will have consequences for the tundra biome as invasion does for other island flora and fauna. To examine the invasibility of tundra we take a plant’s-eye-view, wherein the local conditions become extremely important. Among these local conditions, we find geomorphology to be exceptionally important. We concentrate on aspects of microtopography (and microgeomorphology) and microclimate because these are the factors that matter: from the plant’s-eye-view, but we pay attention to multiple scales. At coarse scales, snow avalanches and debris flows are widespread and create “disturbance treelines” whose elevation is well below those controlled by climate. At medium scales, turf-banked terraces create tread-and-riser topography that is a difficult landscape for a tree seedling to survive upon because of exposure to wind, dryness, and impenetrable surfaces. At fine scales, turf exfoliation of the fronts of turf-banked risers, and boulders, offer microsites where tree seedlings may find shelter and are able to gain a foothold in the alpine tundra; conversely, however, surfaces of needle-ice pans and frost heaving associated with miniature patterned ground production are associated with sites inimical to seedling establishment or survival. We explicitly consider how local scale processes propagate across scales into landscape patterns. The objective of this book is to examine the controls on change at alpine treeline. All the papers are focused on work done in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. Although any one place is limiting, we are able to examine the alpine treeline here in some detail – and an advantage is that the treeline ecotone in Glacier National Park is quite variable in itself due to the underlying variability in geomorphology at multiple scales. This book will provide insights into an important ecological phenomenon with a distinctly geomorphic perspective. The editors collectively have over 100 years of experience in working in geomorphology, biogeography, and ecology. They also have each worked on research in Glacier National Park for several decades. The book will be a reference for a variety of professionals and students, both graduate and undergraduate, with interests in Physical Geography, Geomorphology, Ecology, and Environmental Science. Because of the importance of the alpine treeline ecotone for recreation and aesthetic interests in mountain environments, wildland and park managers will also use this book.

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