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

Surface and Ground Water, Weathering, and Soils

1st Edition
November 21, 2005
J.I. Drever
English
Paperback
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 4 4 7 1 9 3
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 4 7 5 9 6

Volume 5 has several objectives. The first is to present an overview of the composition of surface and ground waters on the continents and the mechanisms that control the compositions. The second is to present summaries of the tools and methodologies used in modern studies of the geochemistry of surface and ground waters. The third is to present information on the role of weathering and soil formation in geochemical cycles: weathering affects the chemistry of the atmosphere through uptake of carbon dioxide and oxygen, and paleosols (preserved soils in the rock record) provide information on the composition of the atmosphere in the geological past. Reprinted individual volume from the acclaimed Treatise on Geochemistry (10 Volume Set, ISBN 0-08-043751-6, published in 2003).

Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences

2nd Edition
Volume 100
November 21, 2005
Daniel S. Wilks
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 4 5 6 2 2 5

Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences, Second Edition, explains the latest statistical methods used to describe, analyze, test, and forecast atmospheric data. This revised and expanded text is intended to help students understand and communicate what their data sets have to say, or to make sense of the scientific literature in meteorology, climatology, and related disciplines. In this new edition, what was a single chapter on multivariate statistics has been expanded to a full six chapters on this important topic. Other chapters have also been revised and cover exploratory data analysis, probability distributions, hypothesis testing, statistical weather forecasting, forecast verification, and time series analysis. There is now an expanded treatment of resampling tests and key analysis techniques, an updated discussion on ensemble forecasting, and a detailed chapter on forecast verification. In addition, the book includes new sections on maximum likelihood and on statistical simulation and contains current references to original research. Students will benefit from pedagogical features including worked examples, end-of-chapter exercises with separate solutions, and numerous illustrations and equations. This book will be of interest to researchers and students in the atmospheric sciences, including meteorology, climatology, and other geophysical disciplines.

Catchment Dynamics and River Processes

1st Edition
Volume 7
November 18, 2005
C. Garcia + 1 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 2 0 8 4 5
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 4 5 7 8 2 6

Maria Sala introduced experimental and field-based studies on soil and fluvial processes in Spain during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Research on this broad topic has grown remarkably worldwide since then. This title shows some of these advances and documents the latest research, although with a particularity: it gives special treatment to research on Mediterranean climate regions, an ever-present issue in Maria Sala's research career. It contains the latest research on slope and river processes with a special emphasis on rivers and catchments with a Mediterranean climate. Papers cover a gamut of topics describing research and applied studies, mainly in Spain, but also in Israel, the USA, Canada, the UK and New Zealand. The book examines natural and anthropogenic processes operating in drainage basins and includes coverage of current experimental and fieldwork investigations on soil erosion, river and catchment hydrology, suspended sediment transport and bedload dynamics in gravel-bed rivers, and present-day diagnosis and future key-paths for catchment and river management.

Dams and Geomorphology

1st Edition
November 17, 2005
P.J. Beyer
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 2 2 3 1 3

Dams profoundly impact the geomorphology of rivers by altering the natural patterns of water, sediment and energy flow in rivers. These changes have a largely negative impact on aquatic and riparian ecosystems upstream and downstream of the dam. Natural dams also impact river geomorphology, although with positive and negative repercussions for aquatic and riparian organisms.In 2002, the 33rd Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium convened under the theme "Dams and Morphology," and featured invited papers and contributed posters on topics of natural dams, artificial dams, and dam removal. Fourteen of these papers have been included in this volume.

World Spatial Metadata Standards

1st Edition
November 8, 2005
Harold Moellering + 2 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 4 3 9 4 9 5
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 4 5 7 6 1 1

World Spatial Metadata Standards represents years of work by the ICA Spatial Data Standards Commission during the 1995-2003 ICA cycles. It consists of an Introduction and six Regional Summary chapters that describe the spatial metadata activities happening in Europe, North America, Asia/Pacific, Latin America, Africa/Middle East, and the ISO community. These chapters provide the broader context and description of the milieu in which these standards operate, so that the reader can more easily understand the scientific and technical framework from whence a particular standard has emerged. The third section is a complete listing of all of the three levels of scientific and technical characteristics, and their meaning by the inclusion of a set of definitions for metadata terms used in the book. The fourth section, and by far the largest, contains 22 chapters that assess each of the major national and international spatial metadata standards in the world, and also contains a few representative subject matter profile derived from a major standard. They have been carried out in terms of all three levels of characteristics. Each assessment has been carried out by a Commission member who has been an active participant in the development of the standard being assessed in the native language of that standard. The fifth section contains a summary cross-table wall size summary chart that includes all 22 standards and profiles that are cross tabulated by 70 of the crucial characteristics. The columns provide a thumbnail sketch of each individual standard, while the rows facilitate a quick comparison of individual critical characteristics across all of the 22 standards and profiles. Many readers of our previous book have begun their standards evaluation process with this cross-table. This current book on spatial metadata standards has been purposely designed to serve as a companion working volume to the 1997 book the Commission published on Spatial Data Transfer Standards, Moellering & Hogan, Editors, ISBN 008042433.

Underground Injection Science and Technology

1st Edition
Volume 52
October 28, 2005
C-F. Tsang + 1 more
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 4 5 7 9 0 1

Chapters by a distinguished group of international authors on various aspects of Underground Injection Science and Technology are organized into seven sections addressing specific topics of interest. In the first section the chapters focus on the history of deep underground injection as well regulatory issues, future trends and risk analysis. The next section contains ten chapters dealing with well testing and hydrologic modeling. Section 3, consisting of five chapters, addresses various aspects of the chemical processes affecting the fate of the waste in the subsurface environment. Consideration is given here to reactions between the waste and the geologic medium, and reactions that take place within the waste stream itself.The remaining four sections deal with experience relating to injection of, respectively, liquid wastes, liquid radioactive wastes in Russia, slurried solids, and compressed carbon dioxide. Chapters in Section 4, cover a diverse range of other issues concerning the injection of liquid wastes including two that deal with induced seismicity. In Section 5, Russian scientists have contributed several chapters revealing their knowledge and experience of the deep injection disposal of high-level radioactive liquid processing waste. Section 6 consists of five chapters that cover the technology surrounding the injection disposal of waste slurries. Among the materials considered are drilling wastes, bone meal, and biosolids. Finally, four chapters in Section 7 deal with questions relating to carbon dioxide sequestration in deep sedimentary aquifers. This subject is particularly topical as nations grapple with the problem of controlling the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Cyclic Development of Sedimentary Basins

1st Edition
Volume 57
October 26, 2005
J.M. Mabesoone + 1 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 2 0 7 0 8
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 4 6 1 3 7 3

Cyclic Development of Sedimentary Basins presents the controversial subject of the cyclic phenomena in the earth's evolutionary history and its reflection in the development of sedimentary basins and its lithic infillings. Galactic rotation of celestial bodies causes cyclicity that is also reflected on a smaller scale in the proper Earth. This book presents the consequences of the earth's cyclic phenomena in the long-term cycles which affect the origin and further evolution of sedimentary basins.

Geology and Geochemistry of Oil and Gas

1st Edition
Volume 52
October 13, 2005
L. Buryakovsky + 3 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 2 0 5 3 1
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 4 6 1 2 1 2

This book discusses the progress that is being made through innovations in instrumental measurements of geologic and geochemical systems and their study using modern mathematical modeling. It covers the systems approach to understanding sedimentary rocks and their role in evolution and containment of subsurface fluids. Fundamental aspects of petroleum geology and geochemistry, generation, migration, accumulation, evaluation and production of hydrocarbons are discussed with worldwide examples. Various physical and chemical properties of subsurface waters, crude oils and natural gases are described which is especially important to production engineering. Among various properties of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons the most important are wettability affecting production characteristics and ultimate recovery: relative permeability affecting reservoir fluid flow to the production wells; density differences between immiscible fluids which affects gravity drainage; viscosity of subsurface fluids affecting the relative mobility of each fluid; and fluid chemistry, which affects the absorption, ultimate recovery and monetary value of produced hydrocarbons. Discussion of the formation and accumulation of hydrocarbons includes (1) the changes in the chemical composition of hydrocarbons that originate from the debris of living plants and organisms to form crude oil and natural gas; (2) the origin of hydrocarbons in different areas of a single reservoir; (3) the conditions, which determine the distribution of water, oil and gas in the reservoir; (4) the migration of subsurface fluids until they eventually accumulate in isolated traps; (5) discussion of the traps as a function of sedimentary geology and tectonics. This is based on the systems approach to the specific geologic and geochemical systems using analytical and statistical principles and examples of modern mathematical modeling of static and dynamic systems.

Geology of North-West Borneo

1st Edition
September 23, 2005
C.S. Hutchison
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 4 6 0 8 9 5

The book is a comprehensive compilation of all aspects of the geology of Northwest Borneo (Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah) and the contiguous South China and Sulu Seas. The sedimentary formations are described, their palaeontology tabulated and ages discussed. Stratigraphic charts illustrate their relationships across the whole region. Detailed geological maps of selected areas are accompanied by cross sections based on outcrop patterns and drilling and seismic data offshore. Palaeocurrent maps are presented and the palaeogeography for different ages described and sedimentary provenance discussed. Descriptions of the ophiolite sequences, volcanic and plutonic rocks are accompanied by tables of selected chemical analyses and geochemical plots and their tectonic significance discussed. All radiometric data are tabulated and discussed. Regional structures and the predominantly Tertiary tectonics are described. In Sarawak the mountains are constructed of Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene greenschist facies shaly turbiditic Rajang Group, uplifted before the end of the Eocene. In Sabah the Western Cordillera is constructed of Eocene to Lower Miocene sandy turbidite uplifted in the Late Miocene and Pliocene. Miocene intrusion of Mount Kinabalu and uplift of the Cordillera is related to collision at the Northwest Borneo Trough. Gold, antimony, mercury and copper deposits are described and the tectonic setting of oil and gas deposits discussed.

Interpretation of Biological and Environmental Changes across the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Boundary

1st Edition
September 23, 2005
L.E. Babcock
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 2 0 6 5 4

The Neoproterozoic-Cambr... transition was a time of fundamental change in the biosphere. Between about 570 and 510 million years ago, marine organisms underwent considerable evolutionary innovation during a time of shifting ecological setting. This dramatic activity culminated in the first stratigraphic appearances of many recognizable groups of animals, an "event" often referred to as the "Cambrian explosion". In addition, there was a major change from a microbial mat-dominated sediment-water interface to a more extensively burrowed interface in shallow-marine settings. The early fossil record is a function not only of the rise or ecological diversification of marine organisms, but also the development of taphonomic and sedimentary conditions suitable for the preservation of mineralizing and nonmineralizing organisms. This book is devoted to an exploration of some of the emerging concepts and techniques used to develop greater insight into the early record of biologic diversification and the preservational record of that diversification during the Neoproterozoic-Cambr... transition.

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