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

Glaciated Coasts

1st Edition
September 3, 2013
Duncan M. Fitzgerald + 1 more
English
eBook
9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 7 0 2 0 3

Glaciated Coasts is a collection of articles that deals with shoreline morphologies of glaciated coasts and the processes that formed these coastlines in North America. This book examines nonsandy shorelines and covers a range of geologic and geographic coastal settings in a northern-southern order. This text investigates and compares the glaciated northern shorelines. These shorelines north of the glacial limit are mostly of the primary form in different stages of modification by marine agents. Shorelines are associated with embayments; baymouth barriers in turn enclose embayments. This book describes beaches as having coarse or mixed sediment populations. Most beaches worldwide have gravel clasts that have been rounded and sorted by marine processes. In the southeastern coast of Alaska, active tectonics on a mountainous shoreline is evident. The region also shows emergent and submerging shorelines with a glacial imprint undergoing formation by modern processes. This book also gives examples of gravel beach environments in various coastal settings. This book can prove useful for students of meteorology, oceanography as well as to marine ecologists and biologists. It can also benefit readers whose interest lie with coastal environment or with the general earth sciences.

Optimal Seismic Deconvolution

1st Edition
September 3, 2013
Jerry M. Mendel
English
eBook
9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 5 8 1 9 5

Optimal Seismic Deconvolution: An Estimation-Based Approach presents an approach to the problem of seismic deconvolution. It is meant for two different audiences: practitioners of recursive estimation theory and geophysical signal processors. The book opens with a chapter on elements of minimum-variance estimation that are essential for all later developments. Included is a derivation of the Kaiman filter and discussions of prediction and smoothing. Separate chapters follow on minimum-variance deconvolution; maximum-likelihood and maximum a posteriori estimation methods; the philosophy of maximum-likelihood deconvolution (MLD); and two detection procedures for determining the location parameters in the input sequence product model. Subsequent chapters deal with the problem of estimating the parameters of the source wavelet when everything else is assumed known a priori; estimation of statistical parameters when the source wavelet is known a priori; and a different block component method for simultaneously estimating all wavelet and statistical parameters, detecting input signal occurrence times, and deconvolving a seismic signal. The final chapter shows how to incorporate the simplest of all models—the normal incidence model—into the maximum-likelihood deconvolution procedure.

Finite Element Simulation in Surface and Subsurface Hydrology

1st Edition
September 3, 2013
George F. Pinder + 1 more
English
eBook
9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 7 0 4 2 5

Finite Element Simulation in Surface and Subsurface Hydrology provides an introduction to the finite element method and how the method is applied to problems in surface and subsurface hydrology. The book presents the basic concepts of the numerical methods and the finite element approach; applications to problems on groundwater flow and mass and energy transport; and applications to problems that involve surface water dynamics. Computational methods for the solution of differential equations; classification of partial differential equations; finite difference and weighted residual integral techniques; and The Galerkin finite element method are discussed as well. The text will be of value to engineers, hydrologists, and students in the field of engineering.

The Genesis and Classification of Cold Soils

1st Edition
September 3, 2013
Samuel Rieger
English
eBook
9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 6 9 9 7 9

The Genesis and Classification of Cold Soils exposes the processes involved in the development of the principal kinds of soils that occur in cold regions and introduces readers to the classification of those soils. The book uses the terminologies and concepts of the description of soils provided by the Soil Taxonomy of the United States. Topics covered in the book include aspects of temperature relationships in cold soils; effects of freezing temperatures on the soil properties; the salient features of the U.S. Soil Taxonomy system; and the taxonomies of Canada, the U.S.S.R., and The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Pedologists, agriculturists, engineers, and researchers will find the book insightful.

Principles of Zoological Micropalaeontology

1st Edition
September 3, 2013
Vladimír Pokorný
John W. Neale
English
eBook
9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 2 2 7 0 7

Principles of Zoological Micropalaeontology, Volume 2 highlights the morphological, phylogenetic and ecological analysis of microfossils. This book is composed of eight chapters that survey the most important microfossil taxa, their variety of form, evolution, relationships, and distribution. The first chapters describe the general morphology and characteristics of skeletal elements of main groups of sponges, melanoscleritoids, polychaetes, and conodonts. Other chapters deal with the anatomy, reproduction, ecology, phylogenetics, classification, and geological distribution of Ostracod and Echinodermata. The last chapters examine the morphological, phylogenetic, and structural aspects of class Ascidiacea and fish microfossils. This book is of great value to micropalaeontologist... zoologists, phylogeneticists, and taxonomists.

Methods of Celestial Mechanics

1st Edition
September 3, 2013
Dirk Brouwer + 1 more
English
eBook
9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 2 5 7 8 4

Methods of Celestial Mechanics provides a comprehensive background of celestial mechanics for practical applications. Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that is devoted to the motions of celestial bodies. This book is composed of 17 chapters, and begins with the concept of elliptic motion and its expansion. The subsequent chapters are devoted to other aspects of celestial mechanics, including gravity, numerical integration of orbit, stellar aberration, lunar theory, and celestial coordinates. Considerable chapters explore the principles and application of various mathematical methods. This book is of value to mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, and celestial researchers.

The Geology of the U.S.S.R.

1st Edition
September 3, 2013
D. V. Nalivkin
Earl Ingerson
English
eBook
9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 2 6 1 9 4

The Geology of the U.S.S.R: A Short Outline is a 10-chapter text that considers the topographical features, the main stratigraphical description, tectonics, magmatism, and economic deposits of U.S.S.R. territories. The entire US.S.R territory covers an area of approximately eight and a half million square miles, or about one-sixth of the total land surface of the Earth. The first chapters explore the geological features of specific territories, including the mainland, Siberian platform, West Siberian lowlands, Ural Mountains, and Western Arctic and Timan. The remaining chapters deal with other territories, such as the Angara, Pacific Ocean, and Mediterranean geosynclines, Central Asia, and North-Western border of the Mediterranean geosyncline. This book will prove useful to practitioners of general geology, petrology, economic geology, and geography.

The Problems of Birds as Pests

1st Edition
September 3, 2013
R. K. Murton + 1 more
English
eBook
9 7 8 1 4 8 3 2 6 8 3 6 1

The Problems of Birds as Pests covers the proceedings of the symposium held at the Royal Geographical Society in London on 28 and 29 September 1967. The text focuses on the problems posed by birds on agriculture and air transport, as well as control of population, scaring techniques, and warning systems. The selection first discusses prospective considerations concerning bio-acoustics in relation to bird-scaring techniques and recent developments in bird scaring on airfields. Topics include system of behavior and hierarchy of signals, informative content of acoustic signals, and signal-noise ratio. The book also ponders on bird recognition by radar and bird warning system for aircrafts in flight. The publication reviews the rook issue in North-East Scotland and the problems brought by the oystercatchers, including availability of field crops and their utilization by rooks, rook population, and food intake of the birds and comparison with stock and fishing levels. The manuscript then surveys predator-prey relationships in bird damage and population control and the quelea problem in Africa. The selection is a valuable source of information for ornithologists and readers interested in the characteristic of birds as pests.

Seismic Safety Evaluation of Concrete Dams

1st Edition
August 23, 2013
Chong Zhang
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 1 2 4 0 8 0 8 3 6
eBook
9 7 8 0 1 2 4 0 7 9 1 9 9

The consequences of a large dam failing can be disastrous. However, predicting the performance of concrete dams during earthquakes is one of the most complex and challenging problems in structural dynamics. Based on a nonlinear approach, Seismic Safety Evaluation of Concrete Dams allows engineers to build models that account for nonlinear phenomena such as vertical joint slippage, cracks, and cavitation. This yields more accurate estimates. Advanced but readable, this book is the culmination of the work carried out by Tsinghua University Research Group on Earthquake Resistance on Dams over the last two decades.

Interpreting Aerial Photographs to Identify Natural Hazards

1st Edition
August 14, 2013
Charles E. Glass
English
Paperback
9 7 8 0 1 2 4 2 0 0 1 8 0
eBook
9 7 8 0 1 2 4 2 0 0 2 8 9

Authored by a world-renowned aerial photography and remote sensing expert, Geographic Aerial Photography: Identifying Earth-Surface Hazards Through Image Interpretation is the most practical and authoritative reference available for any professional or student looking for a reference on how to recognize, analyze, interpret and avoid – or successfully plan for – dangerous contingencies. Whether they are related to natural terrain, geology, vegetation, hydrology or land use patterns – it’s critical for you to be able to recognize dangerous conditions when and where they exist. Failure to adequately recognize and characterize geomorphic, geologic, and hydrologic dangers on the ground using aerial photography is one of the major factors contributing to due to natural hazards and disasters, damage to architectural structures, and often the subsequent loss of human life as a result. Aerial photographs provide one of the most prevalent, inexpensive and under-utilized tools to those with the knowledge and expertise to interpret them.

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