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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.

    • Microbial Enhancement of Oil Recovery - Recent Advances

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 31
      • E.C. Donaldson
      • English
      This conference was instituted to examine field activities in Microbial Enhancement of Oil Recovery. The U.S. Department of Energy has sponsored several field projects and the details from some of these were presented, as well as a few from industry. The balance of the program was concerned with new developments in research.Today's oil production technology leaves one third to one half of the original oil in place in the reservoir at abandonment of secondary recovery (waterflooding). This leaves a very large target for microbial enhanced oil recovery which was shown by the research papers of this conference to be capable of producing up to 50% of the residual oil. The field trials show that the normal projected oil production decline curve can be reversed, or leveled off by microbial enhancement of oil recovery.This conference has shown that a variety of applications are possible to correct oilfield problems as well as to enhance oil recovery. Among these is the suppression of hydrogen sulfide production which alone is a tremendous advance because of the large quantity of sour oil production. If hydrogen sulfide production can be curtailed it would increase the value of the produced oil, decrease it toxicity, and largely decrease it corrosiveness. All of these would be welcome both in the field and at the petroleum refinery where special precautions must be taken to process sour crude oil.Another very important discovery is the ability of certain bacteria to eliminate paraffin deposition around the producing well and in the tubulars. This is a welcome improvement for many producers who have considerable difficulty in controlling paraffin deposition.
    • Water Resources Development in Developing Countries

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 41
      • M.S. Peterson + 1 more
      • English
      Water resources exploitation has been regarded as a way of initiating economic development in many countries. Planning concepts are now changing. Thorough environmental studies, sociological and economic studies now preceed project formulation. Justification solely on the basis of benefit cost studies is no longer sufficient for many development agencies. The broader approach is introduced in this book, but the real emphasis is on the situation in and needs of developing countries.Some of the problems experienced in building water resources in developing countries are described in this book, and methods of solution based on the limited experience of the authors, are offered. These range from use of unbiased common sense, coupled with a close understanding of people's requirements, to a comprehensive computer simulated planning model. Some types of water resources development are described in more detail. These include irrigation, hydro electric power and rural water supply. Sections on socio-economics and human resource development are also included, as well as on data collection, and project planning. Lessons from the failure of multimillion dollar projects are not hard to come by, and examples and pointers which will assist future planners are given. Attention is paid to the need for aid to include training and to stimulate local economies. However big water projects appear, they cannot escape the effects of the rest of the country's economy. Attention is also drawn to environmental problems, particularly soil erosion, often caused by water resources development. The fact that water resources development cannot be carried out by engineers only, is recognized. The input of many professions, and vast experience, is needed. Drawn on international case studies, much of the material has been presented in postgraduate courses by the authors.
    • Fluid Mechanics of the Atmosphere

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 47
      • Robert A. Brown
      • English
      Fluid Mechanics of the Atmosphere presents the fundamental equations which govern most of the flow problems studied by atmospheric scientists. The equations are derived in a systematic way that is intended to facilitate critical evaluation. The goal of this text is twofold. First the book supplies the student a background familiarity in the underlying physics behind the mathematics. Second it explores some systematic methods of relating these physics to atmospheric problems, including rotating frames of reference effects, vorticity dynamics, and turbulence effects on closure.
    • International Review of Research in Mental Retardation

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 16
      • English
      This volume addresses three important areas of current research in mental retardation: behavioral toxicology research and its implications for the cause and prevention of some types of mental retardation, cognitive processes in mentally retarded individuals and the significance of this issue for the further development of remediation techniques, and social adaptation and family functioning and the importance of these topics for the study of mental retardation.
    • Advances in Soil Organic Matter Research

      The Impact on Agriculture and the Environment
      • 1st Edition
      • W S Wilson
      • English
      The papers in this volume provide a balanced account of developments in soil organic matter research. It focuses on composition and structure, water quality, organic matter turnover, humus quality and fertility, and is essential reading for all those concerned with the environmental aspects of soil conservation and improvement.
    • Glacigenic Sediments

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 49
      • K. Brodzikowski + 1 more
      • English
      This book aims primarily at providing those involved in fundamental or applied research in the fields of geology, geomorphology and hydrology with a systematic overview of glacigenic sediments. A generally applicable terminology is proposed which should facilitate communication between scientists from several fields. Also it should form a bridge between western and eastern "schools" dealing with Quaternary geology. Because the book is mainly devoted to depositional processes and the resulting deposits, the approach and the terminology followed in this book are obviously founded strongly on sedimentology, the geological discipline that deals specifically with these phenomena.The book will be helpful in describing the sediments involved, interpreting their genesis, establishing their extent and their mutual relationships, and thus in the reconstruction of the palaeogeographic development.The large list of references reflects the author's extensive search of the literature.
    • Advances in Marine Biology

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 27
      • English
      This authoritative review will be valuable reference for marine biologists, ecologists, and taxonomists. It is also an essential handbook for the penaeid fisheries biologist or aquaculturist and is a prerequisite for the rational exploitation and cultivation of penaeids.**Although penaeids are a large and diverse decapod group which have been exploited commercially in both fisheries and aquaculture for hundreds of years, no comprehensive review of their biology has never been written. The group's commercial importance has led to an unbalanced literature, dominated by the fisheries and aquaculture aspects of the genus Penaeus, often without an appreciation of their underlying biology.**This review adopts a multidisciplinary approach to give a comprehensive and up-to-date account of morphology, taxonomy (including larvae), zoogeography, physiology, reproduction, feeding, growth, behaviour, and life histories. Chapters discussing the parasites of, and predation on penaeids, are also included. So much new material is presented that the book is more than just a review of the existing literature. In synthesising the published information across this diverse family, it puts the commercially important species and genera into a larger perspective, pointing to deficiencies in our understanding and creating a framework for areas of future research.
    • Compressibility of Sandstones

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 29
      • R.W. Zimmerman
      • English
      This book is a comprehensive treatment of the elastic volumetric response of sandstones to variations in stress. The theory and data presented apply to the deformations that occur, for example, due to withdrawal of fluid from a reservoir, or due to the redistribution of stresses caused by the drilling of a borehole. Although the emphasis is on reservoir-type sandstones, results and methods discussed are also applicable to other porous rocks.Part One concerns the effect of stress on deformation and discusses porous rock compressibility coefficients. Elasticity theory is used to derive relationships between the porous rock compressibility coefficients, the porosity, and the mineral grain compressibility. Theoretical bounds on the compressibility coefficients are derived. The concept of effective stress coefficients is examined, as is the integrated form of the stress-strain relationships. Undrained compression and induced pore pressures are treated within the same general framework. Part One is concluded with a brief, elementary introduction to Biot's theory of poroelasticity. All the results in Part One are illustrated and verified with extensive references to published compressibility data.Part Two deals with the relationship between pore structure and compressibility, and presents methods that permit quantitative prediction of the compressibility coefficients. Two- and three-dimensional models of tubular pores, spheroidal pores, and crack-like "grain boundary" voids are analyzed. A critical review is made of various methods that have been proposed to relate the effective elastic moduli (bulk and shear) of a porous material to its pore structure. Methods for extracting pore aspect ratio distributions from stress-strain data or from acoustic measurements are presented, along with applications to actual sandstone data.Part Three is a brief summary of experimental techniques that are used to measure porous rock compressibilities in the laboratory.The information contained in this volume is of interest to petroleum engineers, specifically those involved with reservoir modeling, petroleum geologists, geotechnical engineers, hydrologists and geophysicists.
    • Well Test Analysis for Fractured Reservoir Evaluation

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 27
      • G. Da Prat
      • English
      The main purpose of this book is to provide the reader with a basic understanding of the behaviour of fractured reservoirs, using evaluation techniques based on processing pressure and flow-rate data resulting from production testing.It covers the fundamental reservoir engineering principles involved in the analysis of fluid flow through fractured reservoirs, the application of existing models to field cases, and the evaluation and description of reservoirs, based on processed data from pressure and production tests. The author also discusses production decline analysis, the understanding of which is a key factor influencing completion or abandonment of a well or even a field.The theoretical concepts are presented as clearly and simply as possible in order to aid comprehension. The book is thus suitable for training and educational purposes, and will help the reader who is unfamiliar with the subject acquire the necessary skills for successful interpretation and analysis of field data.One of the most important features of the book is that it fills the gap between field operations and research, in regard to proper management of reservoirs. The book also contains a computer program (FORTRAN language) which can be incorporated in existing software designed for reservoir evaluation; type curves generation, test design and interpretation, can be achieved by using this program.Petroleum engineers, reservoir engineers, petroleum geologists, research engineers and students in these fields, will be interested in this book as a reference source. It can also be used as a text book for training production and reservoir engineering professionals. It should be available in university and oil company libraries.