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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.

    • Volcanic Ash

      • 1st Edition
      • May 24, 2016
      • Shona Mackie + 4 more
      • English
      Volcanic Ash: Hazard Observation presents an introduction followed by four sections, each on a separate topic and each containing chapters from an internationally renowned pool of authors. The introduction provides a volcanological context for ash generation that sets the stage for the development and interpretation of techniques presented in subsequent sections. The book begins with an examination of the methods to characterize ash deposits on the ground, as ash deposits on the ground have generally experienced some atmospheric transport. This section will also cover basic information on ash morphology, density, and refractive index, all parameters required to understand and analyze assumptions made for both in situ measurements and remote sensing ash inversion techniques. Sections two, three, and four focus on methods for observing volcanic ash in the atmosphere using ground-based, airborne, and spaceborne instruments respectively. Throughout the book, the editors showcase not only the interdisciplinary nature of the volcanic ash problem, but also the challenges and rewards of interdisciplinary endeavors. Additionally, by bringing together a broad perspective on volcanic ash studies, the book not only ties together ground-, air-, academic, and applied approaches to the volcanic ash problem, but also engages with other scientific communities interested in particulate transport.
    • Precambrian Geology

      • 1st Edition
      • February 6, 2016
      • Alan M. Goodwin
      • English
      • eBook
        9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 8 8 5 5 0
      The main goal of this book is to provide a modern comprehensive statement on the Earth's Precambrian crust. It uses geographic and tectonic location, lithostratigraphy, geochronology, and petrogenesis as a basis for considering Precambrian coastal evolution--including the role of plate tectonics. Detailed consideration is given to the endogenic and exogenic processes which formed the continental crust and also to its subsequent secular evolution across Precambrian time**An essential reference volume for every Precambrian geologist.
    • Education and Training for the Oil and Gas Industry

      • 1st Edition
      • November 3, 2016
      • Phil Andrews + 2 more
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 1 2 8 0 0 9 8 0 2
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 1 2 8 0 1 1 8 3 6
      Education and Training for the Oil and Gas Industry: Localising Oil and Gas Operations, Volume Four in the Getenergy series will set out the case for localising the oil and gas operations within hydrocarbon-producin... countries. The focus of this final Volume in the series will be to explore the value of engaging with local suppliers, local talent and other local stakeholders in the exploration and production of oil and gas resources. Specifically, we will set out an agenda around which operators and service companies can coalesce and that highlights the ways in which smart, targeted investments in education, training and local infrastructure can create a new way of doing business, particularly in developing or emerging energy economies. Getenergy Intelligence have developed a unique tool to evaluate the potential cost benefits of localisation for any given project. This volume lays out the rationale, methodology and processes we have developed to successfully map out localisation and implement strategic capacity development for oil and gas operations. The significant cost benefits of localisation have been recognised by a number of major oil and gas companies, but localisation is still an aspect of doing business that is poorly understood by much of the global industry. In the first section of this book, the authors provide the rationale for localisation and layout the core reasons for developing the tool. In the second section, the tool is described and the exact methodology is explained. In the final section the authors provide three case studies, demonstrating the tool in action and showing how we are able to measure the cost effectiveness and wider value of a coherent approach to localisation.
    • Mountain Ice and Water

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 21
      • November 18, 2016
      • John F. Shroder + 1 more
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 6 3 7 8 7 1
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 4 4 4 6 3 7 8 8 8
      Mountain Ice and Water: Investigations of the Hydrologic Cycle in Alpine Environments is a new volume of papers reviewed and edited by John Shroder, Emeritus Professor of Geography and Geology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA, and Greg Greenwood, Director of the Mountain Research Initiative from Bern, Switzerland. Chapters in this book were derived from research papers that were delivered at the Perth III Conference on Mountains of our Future Earth in Scotland in October 2015. The conference was established to help develop the knowledge necessary to respond effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change and to support transformations toward global sustainability in the coming decades. To this end, the conference and book have investigated the future situation in mountains from three points of view. (1) Dynamic Planet: Observing, explaining, understanding, and projecting Earth, environmental, and societal system trends, drivers, and processes and their interactions to anticipate global thresholds and risks, (2) Global Sustainable Development: Increasing knowledge for sustainable, secure, and fair stewardship of biodiversity, food, water, health, energy, materials, and other ecosystem services, and (3) Transformations towards Sustainability: Understanding transformation processes and options, assessing how these relate to human values, emerging technologies and social and economic development pathways, and evaluating strategies for governing and managing the global environment across sectors and scales.
    • Seismic Wave Propagation in the Earth

      • 1st Edition
      • July 29, 2016
      • A. Hanyga
      • English
      • eBook
        9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 9 1 8 4 0
      This volume contains an extensive presentation of the theory, phenomenology and interpretation of seismic waves produced by natural and artificial sources. Each theoretical topic discussed in the book is presented in a self-contained and mathematically rigorous form, yet without excessive demands on the reader's mathematical background. It is the only book to include such a complete presentation of the mathematical background and modern developments of the WKBJ theory of seismic waves, and detailed discussions of its wide ranging applications. The book will therefore be useful to postgraduate students and research workers specialising in seismic wave theory, theoretical seismology, electromagnetic wave theory and other fields of wave propagation theory.
    • Energy at the Surface of the Earth

      • 1st Edition
      • June 3, 2016
      • David H. Miller
      • J. Van Mieghem + 1 more
      • English
      • Paperback
        9 7 8 0 1 2 4 9 7 1 5 2 3
      • eBook
        9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 5 7 4 6 4
      Energy at the Surface of the Earth: An Introduction to the Energetics of Ecosystems presents way of looking at the manner in which the biological, physical, and cultural systems that mantle the landmasses of our planet receive, transform, and give off energy, which is an essential condition of existence that takes many forms. Energy conversions establish the climate in which these systems operate. The principal forms of energy that are converted at the ecosystem scale include radiant, latent, mechanical, chemical and fossil, and thermal. The book begins with radiant energy absorbed by ecosystems—a phenomenon that is independent of their surface temperature and that can be looked on as a burden or a gift, depending on circumstances. An increase in such absorption raises surface temperature, as described in the fulcrum chapter of the book, Chapter VIII. This increase in turn sets into action outflows of energy that by the first law of thermodynamics are equal in energy units, although not necessarily equal in quality to the inflows. The final chapters deal with vertical stratification and areal contrasts in energy budgets, the augmented energy budget of the city, and the responses that serve to keep the budget balanced.
    • Geophysical Case Study of the Woodlawn Orebody, N.S.W., Australia

      • 1st Edition
      • May 4, 2016
      • R. J. Whiteley
      • English
      • eBook
        9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 8 5 6 1 0
      The Woodlawn orebody is located in eastern New South Wales, Australia. It is one of an important class of massive, copper-lead-zinc, stratiform volcanogenic mineral deposits and has reserves of about 10 million tonnes of ore. Deposits such as Woodlawn are the object of considerable worldwide exploitation effort because they yield the highest rate of return on mining investment with modest capital requirements. This detailed geophysical case study contains individual contributions by professionals from diverse backgrounds (industry, government and university) and includes the latest geophysical methods. It is the only detailed geophysical study of an economic sulphide deposit ever undertaken for educational purposes
    • Nickel Sulfide Ores and Impact Melts

      • 1st Edition
      • August 23, 2016
      • Peter C. Lightfoot
      • English
      • Paperback
        9 7 8 0 1 2 8 0 4 0 5 0 8
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 1 2 8 0 4 1 0 5 5
      Nickel Sulfide Ores and Impact Melts: Origin of the Sudbury Igneous Complex presents a current state of understanding on the geology and ore deposits of the Sudbury Igneous Complex in Ontario, Canada. As the first complete reference on the subject, this book explores the linkage between the processes of meteorite impact, melt sheet formation, differentiation, sulfide immiscibility and metal collection, and the localization of ores by magmatic and post-magmatic processes. The discovery of new ore deposits requires industry and government scientists and academic scholars to have access to the latest understanding of ore formation process models that link to the mineralization of their host rocks. The ore deposits at Sudbury are one of the world’s largest ore systems, representing a classic case study that brings together very diverse datasets and ways of thinking. This book is designed to emphasize concepts that can be applied across a broad range of ore deposit types beyond Sudbury and nickel deposit geology. It is an essential resource for exploration geologists, university researchers, and government scientists, and can be used in rock and mineral analysis, remote sensing, and geophysical applications.
    • Physics of the Earth's Interior

      • 1st Edition
      • June 4, 2016
      • Beno Gutenberg
      • J. Van Mieghem
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 2 9 8 3 6
      • Paperback
        9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 5 3 0 8 4
      • eBook
        9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 8 2 1 2 1
      Physics of the Earth's Interior embraces such a wide range of properties and processes that the space available in one volume imposes severe limitations on their discussion. Moreover, the uneven familiarity of any geophysicist with the many fields of natural science which are involved favors their uneven treatment. For these reasons, the author has limited discussions related to gravity, terrestrial magnetism, tectonic processes, and the history of the earth, to such problems which, if solved, may give information on the earth's interior. On the other hand, seismological investigations are discussed only insofar as they bear upon the structure of the earth and the physics of its interior; seismology is to be treated in detail in another monograph of this series. The book contains nine chapters and begins with a discussion of methods of investigating the earth's interior, and the accuracy of the results. This is followed by separate chapters on the structure of the earth; the crust, mantle, and core; temperature and thermal processes in the earth; density, pressure, gravity, and flattening in the earth; elastic constants, and elastic processes; and nonelastic processes in the earth.
    • Giant Coal-Derived Gas Fields and Their Gas Sources in China

      • 1st Edition
      • May 9, 2016
      • Jinxing Dai
      • English
      • Hardback
        9 7 8 0 1 2 8 0 5 0 9 3 4
      • eBook
        9 7 8 0 1 2 8 0 5 2 6 1 7
      Giant Coal-Derived Gas Fields and Their Gas Sources in China presents a thorough look at 32 coal-derived gas fields in China. This reference book includes two main parts, the first discussing the geologic characteristics of the tectonic, stratigraphy, source and cap rock assemblage for the accumulation periods. The second part features multiple differential indexes, charts, phase states (gas, liquid, solid), and the methods used to determine the sources of the coal-derived giant gas fields. As the first comprehensive coverage of the methods of gas to source correlation in China, this book will be a classic reference for researchers working in natural gas geology and geochemistry, and teachers working in universities around the world.