A concise account of all major branches of sedimentary geology, highlighting the connecting links between them. Introduction; Processes of sedimentation; Sedimentary texture; Sedimentary petrology; Hydraulics, sediment transportation and structures of mechanical origin; Sedimentary environments and facies; Tectonics and sedimentation; Stratigraphy and sedimentation; Basin analysis: A synthesis; References; Index.

By looking backward at the course of great extinctions, a paleontologist sees what the future holds.More than 200 million years ago, a cataclysmic event known as the Permian extinction destroyed more than 90 percent of all species and nearly 97 percent of all living things. Its origins have long been a puzzle for paleontologists. During the 1990s and the early part of this century, a great battle was fought between those who thought that death had come from above and those who thou...

Plants have profoundly moulded the Earth's climate and the evolutionary trajectory of life. Far from being 'silent witnesses to the passage of time', plants are dynamic components of our world, shaping the environment throughout history as much as that environment has shaped them. In The Emerald Planet, David Beerling puts plants centre stage, revealing the crucial role they have played in driving global changes in the environment, in recording hidden facets of Earth's history, an...

A History Of Life On Earth, is a guided tour from the beginning of time until modern times. Taking the reader from the origins of everything, without which life on Earth would not be possible. To the origins of life, through the different Eons and Geological Periods, explaining the diversifications and adaptations of all life. A History Of Life On Earth presents the scientific evidence and explains the origins of that evidence. The Earth has also gone through various changes, ideal conditi...

"[A] scholarly but accessible analysis . . . [explores] forces that led to 'The Great Dying'—and the rebound of life in its aftermath." — Gemma Tarlach, Discover magazineTwo hundred sixty million years ago, life on Earth suffered wave after wave of cataclysmic extinctions, with the worst wiping out nearly every species on the planet. The Worst of Times delves into the mystery behind these extin...

Rivers are significant geomorphological agents, they show an amazing diversity of form and behaviour and transfer water and sediment from the land surface to the oceans. This book examines how river systems respond to environmental change and why this understanding is needed for successful river management. Highly dynamic in nature, river channels adjust and evolve over timescales that range from hours to tens of thousands of years or more, and are found in a wide range of environments.

This is a book about the dramatic periods in the Earth's history called mass extinctions - short periods (by geological standards) when life nearly died out on Earth. The most famous is the mass extinction that happened about 65 million years ago, and that caused the death of the dinosaurs. But that was not the worst mass extinction: that honour goes to the extinction at the end of the Permian Period, about 250 million years ago, when over 90% of life is thought to have become extinct. Wha...

Questions about the Earth continue to haunt engineers. For instance: What do we know about our ancient planet? How should we be using it? And what are the best technologies and strategies to sustain us?Earth Engineering provides the background necessary to analyze these questions as well as perspectives, principles, and practices to guide your understanding of geoengineering problems. Scientists, engineers, regulators, designers, constructors, educators and students will find this ...

The book that helped launch 1000 marine aquariums (and many more) is coming back in a greatly expanded five volume, ebook edition. Martin A. Moe, Jr. is releasing the second volume of The (New) Marine Aquarium Reference in July of 2014. The original Marine Aquarium Reference has been out of print since about 2000, but used copies are still available and sought after. This second ebook volume, The Physical and Biological Environment, is the second and third chapter of the original MAR and h...

Mapping closely to how ore deposit geology is now taught, this textbook systematically describes and illustrates the major ore deposit types, linking this to their settings in the crust and the geological factors behind their formation. Written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students with a basic background in the geosciences, it provides a balance of practical information and coverage of the relevant geological sciences, including petrological, geochemical, hydrological and tecto...

"A splendid introduction to geology and paleontology for the lay reader. To compress Earth's history into a single, lucidly written volume is a major achievement." —Publishers Weekly, starred review"Few people have both the knowledge and the writing ability to capture such a long and varied history in a compelling manner. In A Short History of Planet Earth, J.D. Macdougal demonstrates that he is one of the few." —Earth

Humans are rather weak when compared with many other animals. We are not particular fast and have no natural weapons. Yet Homo sapiens currently number nearly 7.5 billion and are set to rise to nearly 10 billion by the middle of this century. We have influenced almost every part of the Earth system and as a consequence are changing the global environmental and evolutionary trajectory of the Earth. So how did we become the worlds apex predator and take over the planet? Fundamental to our su...