No engineering structure can be built on the ground or within it without the influence of geology being experienced by the engineer. Yet geology is an ancillary subject to students of engineering and it is therefore essential that their training is supported by a concise, reliable and usable text on geology and its relationship to engineering. In this book all the fundamental aspects of geology are described and explained, but within the limits thought suitable for engineers.It des...

"[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...

How did life begin? What really was 'snowball earth'? Why did the dinosaurs go extinct? Are we all descended from 'African Eve'? Will humans be responsible for the next major extinction? All these are addressed in this fascinating book. The story unfolds with the formation of the earth around four thousand million years ago, though it took until after massive bombardment by asteroids a hundred million years later for life to emerge and another fifteen million years until more complex life ...

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.

Fossils provide a powerful tool for the study of the nearly 4-billion-year history of life, and its role in the evolution of Earth systems. They also provide important data for evolutionary studies, and contribute to our understanding of the extinction of organisms and the origins of modern biodiversity.Fossils At A Glance is written for students taking an introductory level course in paleontology. Short chapters introduce the main topics in the modern study of fossils. Th...

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...

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

Geology for Nongeologists introduces basic concepts in geology: how rocks, minerals, and fossils are classified, how wind, ice, and water have shaped the earth, how mountains are formed, and how volcanoes, geysers, earthquakes, glaciers, and groundwater work to modify the physical structure of Earth.Primarily designed as an information source, and intended to be a non-technical survey for those with little background in science, this book is presented in a reader-friendly ...

The invasion of land by ocean-dwelling plants and animals was one of the most revolutionary events in the evolution of life on Earth, yet the animal invasion almost failed—twice—because of the twin mass extinctions of the Late Devonian Epoch. Some 359 to 375 million years ago, these catastrophic events dealt our ancestors a blow that almost drove them back into the sea. If those extinctions had been just a bit more severe, spiders and insects—instead of vertebrates—might have become the ec...

This concise, accessible, market-leading textbook brings together the wide-ranging fundamentals students need to understand rocks and minerals, and shows them how they relate to the broader Earth, materials and environmental sciences. Designed specifically for one-semester courses, it is beautifully illustrated to explain the key concepts in mineralogy and petrology. This edition has been fully updated based on classroom experience, and new features include a completely new chapter providi...

This text is designed for students and anyone else with an interest in the history of life on our planet. The author describes the biological evolution of Earth’s organisms, and reconstructs their adaptations to the life they led, and the ecology and environment in which they functioned. On the grand scale, Earth is a constantly changing planet, continually presenting organisms with challenges. Changing geography, climate, atmosphere, oceanic and land environments set a stage in which orga...