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.

Books Journals

Climate, Environment, and Society in the Pacific during the Last Millennium

1st Edition
Volume 6
September 6, 2007
Patrick D. Nunn
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 4 8 2 1 0

The nature of global change in the Pacific Basin is poorly known compared to other parts of the world. Climate, Environment, and Society in the Pacific during the Last Millennium describes the climate changes that occurred in the Pacific during the last millennium and discusses how these changes controlled the broad evolution of human societies, typically filtered by the effects of changing sea level and storminess on food availability and interaction. Covering the entire period since AD 750 in the Pacific, this book describes the influences of climate change on environments and societies during the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age, focusing on the 100-year transition between these – a period of rapid change known as the AD 1300 Event.

Downhole Drilling Tools

1st Edition
September 1, 2007
G. Robello Samuel
English
Hardback
9 7 8 1 9 3 3 7 6 2 1 3 5

As the first and only comprehensive guide for engineers on downhole drilling tools, this is a must-have for the drilling community. Downhole Drilling Tools describes all the critical tools for the engineer and covers the practical aspects of downhole equipment. Going beyond the basic bottomhole assembly, this guide includes detailed mechanics and theory on tubulars, fishing, cementing, coiled tubing and various other downhole tools. A must have for both the engineering professional and student alike, this textbook includes worked examples and additional references at the end of each chapter. In its entirety, Downhole Drilling Tools enables the reader to recognize drilling benefits and limitations associated with each tool, find solutions to common drilling problems while reducing costs and perform successful well completions.

Surface Production Operations, Volume 1

3rd Edition
August 30, 2007
Maurice Stewart + 1 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 7 5 0 6 7 8 5 3 7
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 5 5 0 7 2

The latest edition of this best-selling title is updated and expanded for easier use by engineers. New to this edition is a section on the fundamentals of surface production operations taking up topics from the oilfield as originally planned by the authors in the first edition. This information is necessary and endemic to production and process engineers. Now, the book offers a truly complete picture of surface production operations, from the production stage to the process stage with applications to process and production engineers.

Atlas of Microbial Mat Features Preserved within the Siliciclastic Rock Record

1st Edition
Volume 2
August 14, 2007
Juergen Schieber + 6 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 2 8 5 9 9
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 4 9 3 0 9

Drawing on a combination of modern occurrences and likely ancient counterparts, this atlas is a treatise of mat-related sedimentary features that one may expect to see in ancient terrigenous clastic sedimentary successions. By combining modern and ancient examples, the connection is made to likely formative processes and the utilization of these features in the interpretation of ancient sedimentary rocks.

Borehole Climatology

1st Edition
August 9, 2007
Louise Bodri + 1 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 4 5 3 2 0 0
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 4 5 9 5 0

Climate for the 21st century is expected to be considerably different from the present and recent past. Industrialization growth combined with the increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and massive deforestation are well above the values over the past several decades and are expected to further grow. Air temperature is rising rapidly well as does the weather variability producing frequent extreme events. Six of the ten warmest years occurred in the 1990s. Temperatures predicted for the 21st century ranges well above the present day value. The time period of the last 100-200 years covered by the direct meteorological observations is too short and does not provide material to reliably assess what may happen over the next hundred(s) years. A faithful prediction of the future requires understanding how climate system works, i.e. to reconstruct past climate much further in the past. Borehole paleoclimatology enables climate reconstruction of the past several millennia, unlike proxy methods provides direct past temperature assessment and can well broaden the areal range to the remote regions poorly covered with meteorological observations. Considerable debates have recently focused on the causes of the present-day warming, i.e. to distinguish between the natural and anthropogenic contribution to the observed temperature increase, eventually to quantify their regional distribution. Complex interpretation of borehole data with the proxies and additional socio-economic information can hopefully help. On observed data taken in various places all over the world we demonstrate suitable examples of the interaction between the subsurface temperature response to time changes in vegetation cover, land-use (farming) and urbanization. Precise temperature-time monitoring in shallow subsurface can further provide the magnitude of the present-day warming within relatively short time intervals. As far as we know, there exists so far no book dealing entirely with the subject of the Borehole climatology. Only relatively rarely this method is mentioned in otherwise plentiful literature on climate reconstruction or on climate modelling. There are, however, series of papers focussing on various borehole--climate related studies in numerous journals (e.g. Global and Planetary Change, Climate Change, Tectonophysics, Journal of Geophysical Research, Geophysical Research Letters, etc). Time to time a special issue appears to summarize papers on this topic presented during specialized symposia.Key Features- Description of a new useful alternative paleoclimate reconstruction method- A suitable source of information for those wishing to learn more about climate change- Material for lecturing and use in the classroom- Ample practical examples of borehole temperature inversions worldwide- Ample illustrations and reference list- Authors have a good knowledge of the problem based on more than 20 years of experience, one of them actually pioneered the method

Heavy Minerals in Use

1st Edition
Volume 58
August 3, 2007
Maria A. Mange + 1 more
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 4 8 5 9 3

The book is structured thematically, encompassing principles, processes and products, practice and applications. Discussion of processes that control heavy mineral assemblages throughout the rock cycle are presented by leading experts, whose key-note works are followed by specialist case studies. Each work also provides details on the geology of the study area, techniques and data treatment. The high number of contributions represent the collective experience and wisdom of generations of geologists, and provide an invaluable source of references to works carried out in many parts of the world.

Estuarine Ecohydrology

1st Edition
August 1, 2007
Eric Wolanski
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 5 0 3 5 0

Estuarine Ecohydrology focuses on the principal components of an estuary. The book demonstrates how one can quantify an estuarine ecosystem's ability to cope with human stresses. The theories, models, and real-world solutions covered will serve as a toolkit for designing a management plan for the ecologically sustainable development of an estuary. This book is organized into seven chapters dealing with topics such as estuarine water circulation; estuarine sediment dynamics; tidal wetlands; estuarine food webs; and ecohydrology models and solutions. Although each chapter contains rigorous specialist knowledge, it is presented in an accessible way that encourages multi-disciplinary collaboration between such fields as hydrology, ecology and mathematical modeling. Estuarine Ecohydrology is appropriate for use as a textbook and as a reference for researchers; advanced undergraduate and graduate students in marine biology, oceanography, coastal management, and coastal engineering; coastal developers; resources managers, shipping operators; and those involved in estuarine fisheries and sustainable development communities.

Fundamentals of Discrete Element Methods for Rock Engineering: Theory and Applications

1st Edition
Volume 85
July 18, 2007
Lanru Jing + 1 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 8 2 9 3 7 5
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 5 1 8 5 2

This book presents some fundamental concepts behind the basic theories and tools of discrete element methods (DEM), its historical development, and its wide scope of applications in geology, geophysics and rock engineering. Unlike almost all books available on the general subject of DEM, this book includes coverage of both explicit and implicit DEM approaches, namely the Distinct Element Methods and Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) for both rigid and deformable blocks and particle systems, and also the Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) approach for fluid flow and solute transport simulations. The latter is actually also a discrete approach of importance for rock mechanics and rock engineering. In addition, brief introductions to some alternative approaches are also provided, such as percolation theory and Cosserat micromechanics equivalence to particle systems, which often appear hand-in-hand with the DEM in the literature. Fundamentals of the particle mechanics approach using DEM for granular media is also presented.

Integrated and Participatory Water Resources Management - Practice

1st Edition
Volume 1b
July 17, 2007
Rodolfo Soncini-Sessa + 3 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 3 0 1 2 7
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 5 1 4 2 5

A participatory and integrated procedure for the planning of water resources is presented and illustrated through its application to a real-world case study: the planning of a trans-boundary, multi-purpose, regulated lake. Methods and concepts from Hydrology, System Analysis, Optimal Control, Decision and Negotiation Theory are presented and framed in a comprehensive and coherent procedure for the efficient development of the decision-making process. Relevant theoretical and mathematical aspects are briefly presented for the non-expert reader, as well as all those practical details that are often omitted in texts, but that constitute the very essence of a project and make the difference between a successful project and a failure. The book provides practicing professionals, decision-makers and scientists with a complete, immediate example of application of the Integrated Water Resource Management paradigm.

Biogeochemistry in Mineral Exploration

1st Edition
Volume 9
July 11, 2007
Colin E. Dunn
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 4 6 4 9 0

Significant refinements of biogeochemical methods applied to mineral exploration have been made during more than twenty years since the last major publication on this technique. This innovative, practical and comprehensive text is designed as a field handbook and an office reference volume. It outlines the historical development of biogeochemical methods applied to mineral exploration, and provides details of what, how, why and when to collect samples from all major climatic environments with examples from around the world. Recent commercialization of sophisticated analytical technology permits immensely more insight into the multi-element composition of plants. In particular, precise determination of ultra-trace levels of ‘pathfinder’ elements in dry tissues and recognition of element distribution patterns with respect to concealed mineralization. Data handling and interpretation are discussed in context of a wealth of previously unpublished information, including a section on plant mineralogy, much of which has been classified as confidential until recently. Data are provided on the biogeochemistry of more than 60 elements and, by case history examples, their roles discussed in assisting in the discovery of concealed mineral deposits. A look to the future includes the potential role of bacteria to provide new focus for mineral exploration. Analyses of samples from the controlled environment of Britain’s Eden Project are presented on an accompanying CD as part of a database that includes, also, the potential role of the halogens to assist in mineral exploration. Data on this CD provide a ‘hands-on’ approach for the reader to interrogate and personally assess real datasets from the burgeoning discipline of biogeochemical exploration.

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