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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.

  • The Omega-Theory

    A New Physics of Earthquakes
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 2
    • Jure Žalohar
    • English
    The Omega-Theory: A New Physics of Earthquakes, Second Edition offers a unifying, mathematical framework to describe and answer the most pressing and unexamined dilemmas of earthquake sequences. Those in the fields of seismology and geology are currently faced with a vast and complex mathematical structure, involving many new, natural laws and theorems. This book interprets this structure as a new physical theory and paradigm, helping users understand the tectonic and seismic processes within the Earth. As such, it is an essential resource for future researchers in the fields of structural geology, physics of the Earth, and seismology. In the last decades, generations of seismologists, geophysicists, and geologists have accumulated enough knowledge and information to allow for the reformulation and solution of this essential problem. Hence, this book provides a great resource for researchers and professionals.
  • Resilience

    The Science of Adaptation to Climate Change
    • 1st Edition
    • Zinta Zommers + 1 more
    • English
    In Resilience: The Science of Adaptation to Climate Change leading experts analyze and question ongoing adaptation interventions. Contributions span different disciplinary perspectives, from law to engineering, and cover different regions from Africa to the Pacific. Chapters assess the need for adaptation, highlighting climate change impacts such as sea level rise, increases in temperature, changing hydrological variability, and threats to food security. The book then discusses the state of global legislation and means of tracking progress. It reviews ways to build resilience in a range of contexts— from the Arctic, to small island states, to urban areas, across food and energy systems. Critical tools for adaptation planning are highlighted - from social capital and ethics, to decision support systems, to innovative finance and risk transfer mechanisms. Controversies related to geoengineering and migration are also discussed. This book is an indispensable resource for scientists, practitioners, and policy makers working in climate change adaptation, sustainable development, ecosystem management, and urban planning.
  • Volcanic and Igneous Plumbing Systems

    Understanding Magma Transport, Storage, and Evolution in the Earth's Crust
    • 1st Edition
    • Steffi Burchardt
    • English
    Volcanic and Igneous Plumbing Systems: Understanding Magma Transport, Storage, and Evolution in the Earth's Crust synthesizes research from various geoscience disciplines to examine volcanic and igneous plumbing systems (VIPS) in-depth. VIPS comprise a network of magma transport and storage features in the Earth’s crust. These features include dykes, sills and larger magma bodies that form the pathway and supply system of magma beneath active volcanoes. Combining basic principles with world-class research and informative illustrations, this unique reference presents a holistic view of each topic covered, including magma transport, magma chambers, tectonics and volcanism. Addressing a variety of approaches to these topics, this book offers researchers and academics in the Earth Science fields, such as geophysics, volcanology and igneous petrology the information they need to apply the information to their own disciplines.
  • Made in Africa

    Hominin Explorations and the Australian Skeletal Evidence
    • 1st Edition
    • Steve Webb
    • English
    Made in Africa: Hominin Explorations and the Australian Skeletal Evidence describes and documents the largest collection of modern human remains in the world from its time period. These Australian fossils, which represent modern humans at the end of their great 20,000 km journey from Africa, may be reburied in the next two years at the request of the Aboriginal community. Part one of the book provides an overview of modern humans, their ancestors, and their journeys, explores the construct of human evolution over the last two and half million years, and defines the background to the first hominins and later modern humans to leave Africa, cross the world and meet other archaic peoples who had also travelled and undergone similar evolutionary pathways. Part two focuses on Australia and the evidence for its earliest people. The Willandra Lakes fossils represent the earliest arrivals and are the largest and most diverse late Pleistocene collection from this part of the world. Although twenty to twenty-five thousand years younger than the oldest archaeological site in Australia, they exemplify the migrating end-point of the human story that reflect a diversity and culture not recorded elsewhere in the world. Part three records the Willandra Lake Collection itself from a photographic and descriptive perspective. Evolutionary biologists and geneticists will find this book to be a valuable documentation of the 20,000 km hominid migration from Africa to the most distant parts of the world, and of the challenges and findings of the Willandra Lake Collection.
  • Integrating Disaster Science and Management

    Global Case Studies in Mitigation and Recovery
    • 1st Edition
    • Pijush Samui + 2 more
    • English
    Integrated Disaster Science and Management: Global Case Studies in Mitigation and Recovery bridges the gap between scientific research on natural disasters and the practice of disaster management. It examines natural hazards, including earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis, and uses integrated disaster management techniques, quantitative methods and big data analytics to create early warning models to mitigate impacts of these hazards and reduce the risk of disaster. It also looks at mitigation as part of the recovery process after a disaster, as in the case of the Nepal earthquake. Edited by global experts in disaster management and engineering, the book offers case studies that focus on the critical phases of disaster management.
  • Handbook of Borehole Acoustics and Rock Physics for Reservoir Characterization

    • 1st Edition
    • Vimal Saxena + 2 more
    • English
    The Handbook of Borehole Acoustics and Rock Physics for Reservoir Characterization combines in a single useful handbook the multidisciplinary domains of the petroleum industry, including the fundamental concepts of rock physics, acoustic logging, waveform processing, and geophysical application modeling through graphical examples derived from field data. It includes results from core studies, together with graphics that validate and support the modeling process, and explores all possible facets of acoustic applications in reservoir evaluation for hydrocarbon exploration, development, and drilling support. The Handbook of Borehole Acoustics and Rock Physics for Reservoir Characterization serves as a technical guide and research reference for oil and gas professionals, scientists, and students in the multidisciplinary field of reservoir characterization through the use of petrosonics. It overviews the fundamentals of borehole acoustics and rock physics, with a focus on reservoir evaluation applications, explores current advancements through updated research, and identifies areas of future growth.
  • Indian Shield

    Precambrian Evolution and Phanerozoic Reconstitution
    • 1st Edition
    • A.B. Roy + 1 more
    • English
    Indian Shield: Precambrian Evolution and Phanerozoic Reconstitution highlights unique evolutionary trends covering a period of over 3,500 million years, from the oldest crust to the most recent geological activity of the Indian Subcontinent. The book discusses regional terrain geology in terms of the evolutionary history of the crust, describing how the Precambrian Shield evolved from a stable continental region to a tectonically unstable zone marked by frequent high-intensity earthquakes in a Plate-interior setting. It is a complete and readable account of the history of growth and evolution of the Indian Subcontinent, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan. The book is intended for graduate students, researchers, and teachers in the geosciences, especially geophysics, geomorphology and geology. The book also serves as an important resource for tectonics and petrology researchers, as well as those involved in exploration of mineral resources.
  • Geology and Landscape Evolution

    General Principles Applied to the United States
    • 2nd Edition
    • Joseph A. DiPietro
    • English
    Geology and Landscape Evolution: General Principles Applied to the United States, Second Edition, is an accessible text that balances interdisciplinary theory and applications within the physical geography, geology, geomorphology and climatology of the United States. The vast diversity of terrain and landscape across the United States makes this an ideal tool for geoscientists worldwide who research the country’s geological and landscape evolution. The book provides an explanation of how landscape forms, how it evolves and why it looks the way it does. This new edition is fully updated with greater detail throughout and additional figures, maps, drawings and photographs. Rather than limiting the coverage specifically to tectonics or to the origin and evolution of rocks with little regard for the actual landscape beyond general desert, river and glacial features, this book concentrates specifically on the origin of the landscape itself, with specific and exhaustive reference to examples from across the United States. The book begins with a discussion of how rock type and rock structure combine with tectonic activity, climate, isostasy and sea level change to produce landscape and then explores predicting how landscape will evolve. The book goes on to apply those concepts to specific examples throughout the United States, making it a valuable resource for understanding theoretical geological concepts through a practical lens.
  • Geophysical Data Analysis

    Discrete Inverse Theory
    • 4th Edition
    • William Menke
    • English
    Geophysical Data Analysis: Diverse Inverse Theory, Fourth Edition is a revised and expanded introduction to inverse theory and tomography as it is practiced by geophysicists. It demonstrates the methods needed to analyze a broad spectrum of geophysical datasets, with special attention to those methods that generate images of the earth. Data analysis can be a mathematically complex activity, but the treatment in this volume is carefully designed to emphasize those mathematical techniques that readers will find the most familiar and to systematically introduce less-familiar ones. Using problems and case studies, along with MATLAB computer code and summaries of methods, the book provides data scientists and engineers in geophysics with the tools necessary to understand and apply mathematical techniques and inverse theory.
  • Magmas Under Pressure

    Advances in High-Pressure Experiments on Structure and Properties of Melts
    • 1st Edition
    • Yoshio Kono + 1 more
    • English
    Magmas under Pressure: Advances in High-Pressure Experiments on Structure and Properties of Melts summarizes recent advances in experimental technologies for studying magmas at high pressures. In the past decade, new developments in high-pressure experiments, particularly with synchrotron X-ray techniques, have advanced the study of magmas under pressure. These new experiments have revealed significant changes of structure and physical properties of magmas under pressure, which significantly improves our understanding of the behavior of magmas in the earth’s interior. This book is an important reference, not only in the earth and planetary sciences, but also in other scientific fields, such as physics, chemistry, material sciences, engineering and in industrial applications, such as glass formation and metallurgical processing.