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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.

  • Earth System Science

    From Biogeochemical Cycles to Global Changes
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 72
    • Michael Jacobson + 3 more
    • English
    Over the last decade, the study of cycles as a model for the earth's changing climate has become a new science. Earth Systems Science is the basis for understanding all aspects of anthropogenic global change, such as chemically forced global climate change. The work is aimed at those students interested in the emerging scientific discipline.Earth Systems Science is an integrated discipline that has been rapidly developing over the last two decades. New information is included in this updated edition so that the text remains relevant. This volume contains five new chapters, but of special importance is the inclusion of an expanded set of student exercises.The two senior authors are leading scientists in their fields and have been awarded numerous prizes for their research efforts.
  • Marine Geology of Korean Seas

    • 2nd Edition
    • Sung Kwun Chough + 2 more
    • English
    Tremendous progress has been made in the geological understanding of the Korean seas with the advances in sophisticated exploration techniques, specifically in the areas of marine geophysics, sedimentology, geochemistry, and palaeoceanography, since Marine Geology of Korean Seas was first published in 1983.This book gives a comprehensive overview of the marine geology of these unique seas, including physiography, sedimentary facies and depositional processes of surface sediments, sequence stratigraphy, geologic structures, and basin evolution.In this edition, new results and interpretations have been incorporated that help to formulate geological models on the evolution of the Korean seas in relation to the adjacent continents.
  • Acoustic and Elastic Wave Fields in Geophysics, Part I

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 32
    • Avital Kaufman + 1 more
    • English
    This book is dedicated to basic physical principles of the propagation of acoustic and elastic waves. It consists of two volumes. The first volume includes 8 chapters and extended Appendices explaining mathematical aspects of discussed problems. The first chapter is devoted to Newton's laws, which, along with Hooke's law, govern the behavior of acoustic and elastic waves. Basic concepts of mechanics are used in deriving equations which describe wave phenomena. The second and third chapters deal with free and forced vibrations as well as wave propagation in one dimension along the system of elementary masses and springs which emulates the simplest elastic medium.In addition, shear waves propagation along a finite and infinite string are discussed.In chapter 4 the system of equations describing compressional waves is derived.The concepts of the density of the energy carried by waves, the energy flux, and the Poynting vector are introduced. Chapter 5 is dedicated to propagation ofspherical, cylindrical, and plane waves in homogeneous media, both in time andfrequency domains. Chapter 6 deals with interference and diffraction. Thetreatment is based on Helmholtz and Kirchhoff formulae. The detailed discussion of Fresnel's and Huygens's principles is presented. In Chapter 7 the effects of interference of waves with close wave numbers and frequencies are considered. Concepts such as the wave group, the group velocity, andthe stationary phase important for understanding propagation of dispersive waves are introduced. The final chapter of the first volume is devoted to the principles of geometrical acoustics in inhomogeneous media.
  • Waves, Tides and Shallow-Water Processes

    • 2nd Edition
    • Open Open University
    • English
    Completely revised and updated for its second edition, this volume belongs to the Open University series on oceanography. It is designed so that it can be read on its own or studied as part of the Open University third-level course, S330 Oceanography.The book begins by describing the characteristics of waves and tides, and their behaviour in shallow water. After outlining the sources of sediment supply to the oceans, some theoretical aspects of sediment movement and deposition by currents are considered. After looking at wave action in the littoral zone, the interplay of tidal currents, river flow and wave action in estuaries and deltas are explored. The final chapter provides an overview of shelf processes.This is a vital book for all oceanography undergraduate students worldwide.
  • Caribbean Basins

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 4
    • P. Mann
    • English
    This 21-chapter volume provides a regionally-comprehen... collection of original studies of Caribbean basins conducted by academic and petroleum geologists and geophysicists in the early and mid-1990s. The common tectonic events discussed in the volume including the rifting and passive margin history of North and South America that led to the formation of the Caribbean region; the entry of an exotic, Pacific-derived Great Arc of the Caribbean at the leading edge of the Caribbean oceanic plateau; the terminal collision of the arc and plateau with the passive margins fringing North and South America; and subsequent strike-slip and accretionary tectonics that affected the arc-continent collision zone.Two introductory chapters (Part A) utilize recent advances in quantitative plate tectonic modeling and satellite-based gravity measurements to place the main phases of Caribbean basin formation into a global plate tectonic framework. Nineteen subsequent chapters are organized geographically and focus on individual or groups of genetically-linked basins. Part B consists of five chapters which mainly focus on basins overlying the North America plate in the Gulf of Mexico, Cuba and the Bahamas that record its rifting from South America in late Jurassic to Cretaceous time. Part C has six chapters that focus on smaller, usually heavily faulted and onshore Cenozoic basins of the northern Caribbean that formed in response to arc collisional and strike-slip activity along the evolving North America-Caribbean plate boundary. The two chapters in Part D focus on Cenozoic basins related to the Lesser Antilles arc system of the eastern Caribbean. Part E is comprised of three chapters on the Jurassic-Recent sedimentary basins of the eastern Venezuela and Trinidad area of the southeastern Caribbean. These basins reflect both the Jurassic-Cretaceous rifting and passive margin history of separation between the North and South America plates as well as a much younger phase of Oligocene to recent transpression between the eastward migrating Lesser Antilles arc and accretionary wedge and the South America continent. The three chapters of Part F contain deep penetration seismic reflection and other geophysical data on the largely submarine Cretaceous Caribbean oceanic plateau that forms the nucleus of the present-day Caribbean plate.
  • Modeling the Earth's Climate and its Variability

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 67
    • W.R. Holland + 2 more
    • English
    Understanding and predicting the Earth's climate system, particularly climate variability and possible human-induced climate change, presents one of the most difficult and urgent challenges in science. Climate scientists worldwide have responded to that challenge over the past decade by creating a wide variety of ever more sophisticated climate models that are beginning to show considerable ability to replicate many aspects of the climate system. At the same time, to fully understand climate change, one also has to look to past climates. For this purpose five eminent scholars who span the disciplines of modeling and observation, including elements of past, present and future climate studies came together at this Les Houches school. They presented a systematic development of each of their respective subjects which provided a comprehensive overview of this vast and complex subject. These core lectures were supplemented by a set of shorter lectures and of seminars.
  • Stratigraphic Systems

    Origin and Application
    • 1st Edition
    • Glenn S. Visher
    • English
    The statigraphic record represents the history of processes and events that occurred at the surface of the earth. Presently, there are no textbooks on the market that integrate physical, chemical, and biological processes to predict stratigraphic patterns. Visher's authoritative Stratigraphic Systems fills this niche. It outlines the principle stratigraphic concepts for exploration of hydrocarvon accumulations, with more than 700 illustrations. Can be used as a primary textbook for an undergraduate course in stratigraphy and sedimentation.
  • Aspects of Multivariate Statistical Analysis in Geology

    • 1st Edition
    • E. Savazzi + 1 more
    • English
    The book presents multivariate statistical methods useful in geological analysis. The essential distinction between multivariate analysis as applied to full-space data (measurements on lengths, heights, breadths etc.) and compositional data is emphasized with particular reference to geochemical data. Each of the methods is accompanied by a practically oriented computer program and backed up by appropriate examples. The computer programs are provided on a compact disk together with trial data-sets and examples of the output.An important feature of this book is the graphical system developed by Dr. Savazzi which is entitled Graph Server. Geological data often deviate from ideal statistical requirements. For this reason, close attention has been paid to the analysis of data that contain atypical observations.
  • Chemistry of the Upper and Lower Atmosphere

    Theory, Experiments, and Applications
    • 1st Edition
    • Barbara J. Finlayson-Pitts + 1 more
    • English
    Here is the most comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of one of the hottest areas of chemical research. The treatment of fundamental kinetics and photochemistry will be highly useful to chemistry students and their instructors at the graduate level, as well as postdoctoral fellows entering this new, exciting, and well-funded field with a Ph.D. in a related discipline (e.g., analytical, organic, or physical chemistry, chemical physics, etc.). Chemistry of the Upper and Lower Atmosphere provides postgraduate researchers and teachers with a uniquely detailed, comprehensive, and authoritative resource. The text bridges the "gap" between the fundamental chemistry of the earth's atmosphere and "real world" examples of its application to the development of sound scientific risk assessments and associated risk management control strategies for both tropospheric and stratospheric pollutants.
  • Chemistry of the Natural Atmosphere

    • 2nd Edition
    • Peter Warneck
    • English
    Knowledge of thc chemical behavior of trace compounds in the atmosphere has grown steadily, and sometimes even spectacularly, in recent decades. These developments have led to the emergence of atmospheric chemistry as a new branch of science. This book covers all aspects of atmospheric chemistry on a global scale, integrating information from chemistry and geochemistry, physics, and biology to provide a unified account. For each atmospheric constituent of interest, the text summarizes the principal observations on global distribution, chemical reactions, natural and anthropogenic sources, and physical removal processes. Coverage includes processes in the gas phase, in aerosols and c1ouds, and in precipitation, as well as biogeochemical cycles and the evolution of the atmosphere. Chemistry of the Natural Atmosphere, Second Edition, will serve as a textbook for senior undergraduate and graduate courses, and as an essential reference for atmospheric chemists, meteorologists, and anyone studying the biogeochemical cycles of trace gases.