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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.

  • Advances in Geophysics

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 44
    • English
    This series provides a venue for longer reviews of current advances in geophysics. Written at a level accessible to graduate students, the articles serve to broaden knowledge of various fields and may be useful in courses and seminars.
  • Advances in Geophysics

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 43
    • Barry Saltzman
    • English
    This series provides a venue for longer reviews of current advances in geophysics. Written at a level accessible to graduate students, the articles serve to broaden knowledge of various fields and may be useful in courses and seminars.
  • Earthquake Thermodynamics and Phase Transformation in the Earth's Interior

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 76
    • Roman Teisseyre + 1 more
    • English
    A group of distinguished scientists contributes to the foundations of a new discipline in Earth sciences: earthquake thermodynamics and thermodynamics of formation of the Earth's interior structures. The predictive powers of thermodynamics are so great that those aspiring to model earthquake and the Earth's interior will certainly wish to be able to use the theory. Thermodynamics is our only method of understanding and predicting the behavior of many environmental, atmospheric, and geological processes. The need for Earth scientists to develop a functional knowledge of thermodynamic concepts and methodology is therefore urgent. Sources of an entropy increase the dissipative and self-organizing systems driving the evolution and dynamics of the Universe and Earth through irreversible processes. The non-linear interactions lead to the formation of fractal structures. From the structural phase transformations the important interior boundaries emerge.Non-linear interactions between the defects in solids lead the authors to develop the physics of continua with a dense distribution of defects. Disclinations and dislocations interact during a slow evolution as well as during rapid dynamic events, like earthquakes. Splitting the dynamic processes into the 2D fault done and 3D surrounding space brings a new tool for describing the slip nucleation and propagation along the earthquake faults. Seismic efficiency, rupture velocity, and complexity of seismic source zone are considered from different points of view, fracture band earthquake model is developed on the basis of thermodynamics of line defects, like dislocations. Earthquake thermodynamics offers us a microscopic model of earthquake sources.Physics of defects helps the authors decscribe and explain a number of precursory phenomena caused by the buildup of stresses. Anomalies in electric polarization and electromagnetic radiation prior to earthquakes are considered from this point of view. Through the thermodynamic approach, the authors arrive at the fascinating question of posssibility of earthquake prediction. In general, the Earth is considered here as a multicomponent system. Transport phenomena as well as wave propagation and shock waves are considered in this system subjected also to chemical and phase transformations.
  • Sea Level Rise

    History and Consequences
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 75
    • Bruce Douglas + 2 more
    • English
    Sea Level Rise, History and Consequences includes a special emphasis on the evidence for historical sea level change; case studies are used to demonstrate the resulting consequences. A CD-ROM is included which contain tide gauge data and trends of relative sea level from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level. The material on the CD-ROM is either in the form of text files, or web sites that can be opened by widely available web-browsers.Sea level is expected to rise as much as 60-100 centimeters over the next century due to greenhouse-induced global warming -- or at least that is what the some scientists predict. However, the concept of sea level is extremely complex, which makes the prediction of sea level rise anything but certain. The reviewers are in consensus in enthusiastically endorsing this comprehensive book and CD-ROM treatment. This book will be a comprehensive review of the subject using the data themselves (on CD-ROM) to illustrate the principles involved, rather than detailed mathematical treatments. The book should be readily accessible to upper division and first-year graduate students in the environmental sciences, geography, geology, and other interdisciplinary fields. Four pages (up to 16 pages) of color in the printed text.The book will have wide appeal. It will be read by geologists, geophysicists, climatologists, oceanographers, meteorologists, environmental scientists, geomorphologists, coastal engineers, and policy makers in all of these fields.
  • ISSC 2003 14th International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress

    ISSC 2003 - 3 volume set
    • 1st Edition
    • Alaa Mansour + 1 more
    • English
    These 3 volumes contain the eight Technical Committee reports, six Specialist Committee and 2 Special Task Committee reports which were presented for the 14th International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress (ISSC 2000) in Nagasaki, Japan between 2nd and 6th October 2000.Volume III will be published in 2001 and is to contain the discussion of the above subjects.
  • Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems in Epidemiology

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 47
    • English
    Global problems require global information, which satellites can now provide. With ever more sophisticated control methods being developed for infectious diseases, our ability to map spatial and temporal variation in risk is more important than ever. Only then may we plan control campaigns and deliver novel interventions and remedies where the need is greatest, and sustainable success is most likely. This book presents a comprehensive guide to using the very latest methods of surveillance from satellites, including analysing spatial data within geographical information systems, interpreting complex biological patterns, and predicting risk both today and as it may change in the future. Of all infectious disease systems, those that involve free-living invertebrate vectors or intermediate hosts are most susceptible to changing environmental conditions, and have hitherto received most attention from the marriage of analytical biology with this new space technology. Accordingly, this volume presents detailed case studies on malaria, African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), tick-borne infections and helminths (worms). For those who are unfamiliar with this science, and unsure how to start, the book ends with a chapter of practical advice on where to seek hands-on instruction. The lessons to be learned from these studies are applicable to many other epidemiological and ecological problems that face us today, most significantly the preservation of the world's biodiversity.
  • Asphaltenes and Asphalts, 2

    Part B
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 40B
    • T.F. Yen + 1 more
    • English
    This is the second volume in the series of Asphaltenes and Asphalts. Since the publication of the first volume in 1994, there has been a significant advancement in our knowledge. Knowledge of both asphaltenes and asphalts is needed by several disciplines, and often the progress is dictated by interdisciplinary sciences and technology. This includes material sciences, fuel sciences, chemical engineering, civil engineering, environmental engineering, polymer sciences, transportation engineering, petroleum engineering, chemistry, geological sciences, physics, geochemistry rheology, biological sciences, tribology, soil sciences, petroleum science. The development in this field is not based on our knowledge of chemistry or petroleum engineering alone, as many chemists and petroleum engineers believe. In this volume, therefore, significant contributions from different disciplines have been included.
  • Wave Mechanics for Ocean Engineering

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 64
    • Paolo Boccotti
    • English
    In a unitary way, this monograph deals with a wide range of subjects related to the mechanics of sea waves. The book highlights recent theoretical results on the dynamics of random wind-generated waves, on long-term wave statistics, and on beach planform evolution. A fresh approach is given to more traditional concepts. For example, new evidence from a recent series of small-scale field experiments is used to introduce some crucial topics like wave forces. Also, the book gives some worked examples for the design of offshore or coastal structures. An exciting subject dealt with in the book is the quasi-deterministic mechanics of three-dimensional wave groups in sea storms, and the loads exerted by these wave groups on offshore structures.The text is intended for researchers and graduate students in ocean engineering, but may also be understood by undergraduates. The more complex concepts are explained with examples or more extensive case studies.
  • Small Scale Processes in Geophysical Fluid Flows

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 67
    • Lakshmi H. Kantha + 1 more
    • English
    While ocean waves are the most visible example of oceanic mixing processes, this macroscale mixing process represents but one end of the spectrum of mixing processes operating in the ocean. At the scale of a typical phytoplanktoic diatom or larval fish inhabiting these seas, the most important mixing processes occur on the molecular scale - at the scale of turbulence. Physical-biological interactions at this scale are of paramount importance to the productivity of the seas (fisheries) and the heat balance that controls large scale ocean climate phenomena such as El Niño and tornadoes. This book grew out of the need for a comprehensive treatment of the diverse elements of geophysical fluid flow at the microscale. Kantha and Clayson have arranged a logial exposition of the various mixing processes operating within and between the oceans and its boundaries with the atmosphere and ocean floor. The authors' intent is to develop a volume that would provide a comprehensive treatment of the fundamental elements of ocean mixing so that students, academics, and professional fluid dynamicists and oceanographers can access this essential information from one source. This volume will serve as both a valuable reference tool for mathematically inclined limnologists, oceanographers and fluid modelers.
  • Fractals in Soil Science

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 27
    • Y. Pachepsky + 2 more
    • English
    This book presents the state-of-the-art after fifteen years of exponentially growing applications of fractal geometry in soil science. It demonstrates the wide-ranging applicability of fractal models in soil science and indicates new opportunities to integrate processes in soils within or across scales using fractals. Contributed by some of the pioneers in the field, chapters represent a broad spectrum of applications from geochemistry to microbiology and from scales of micrometers to the landscape, and serve as an introduction to the subject.Topics include fractal aspects of soil structure, porosity and texture, scaling in preferential and hydraulic conductivity, anoxic volumes and adsorption in fractal models of soil, characterization of the pore surface irregularity, fractal properties of soil organic matter, fractal concepts in studies of soil fauna and mycelium in soils, and fractal analysis of spatial and temporal variability in soil properties and crop yields. A wide spectrum of methods for identifying and measuring fractal properties is introduced and critically discussed. Although the book focussed on solving problems in soil science, the applications and the fractal approach used share much in common with many other fields within and outside of the earth sciences. A unique bibliography on fractals in soils science is included.