The Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science contains 350 alphabetically arranged entries. The topics include cave and karst geoscience, cave archaeology and human use of caves, art in caves, hydrology and groundwater, cave and karst history, and conservation and management. The Encyclopedia is extensively illustrated with photographs, maps, diagrams, and tables, and has thematic content lists and a comprehensive index to facilitate searching and browsing.
This text explores the natural history of Texas and more than 2900 springs in 183 Texas counties. It also includes an in-depth discussion of the general characteristics of springs - their physical and prehistoric settings, their historical significance, and their associated flora and fauna.
This account of the archaeology of a cave in southern New Mexico makes a dramatic contribution to the ongoing debate over how long human beings have lived in the Americas. The findings presented here show that human settlement may go back as far as 75,000 years before the present, whereas the long-accepted Clovis dates showed humans only about 12,000 years ago. MacNeish and his colleagues subjected the cave, its environs, and its contents to rigorous interdisciplinary investigation. The first section of this volume comprises their reports on the changing environment of the area. The second section concentrates on the excavation of the cave's layers, presenting the results of radiocarbon dating and describing the evidence of human occupation, including friction skin prints and human hair. The third section discusses the cultural implications of the materials recovered and suggests how the ancient peoples may have exploited the changing environment and developed different ways of life throughout the Americas before the time of Clovis man. No serious discussion of early inhabitants in the New World can disregard the findings presented in this monumental work of scholarship.
The aim of this edited volume is to introduce the scientific community to paleoenvironmental studies of estuaries, to highlight the types of information that can be obtained from such studies, and to promote the use of paleoenvironmental studies in estuarine management. Readers will learn about the the application of different paleoecological approaches used in estuaries that develop our understanding of their response to natural and human influences. Particular attention is given to the essential steps required for undertaking a paleoecological study, in particular with regard to site selection, core extraction and chronological techniques, followed by the range of indicators that can be used. A series of case studies are discussed in the book to demonstrate how paleoecological studies can be used to address key questions, and to sustainably manage these important coastal environments in the future. This book will appeal to professional scientists interested in estuarine studies and/or paleoenvironmental research, as well as estuarine managers who are interested in the incorporation of paleoenvironmental research into their management programs.
At the time of ?nalising this second volume of the ?Yearbook on Space Policy? which covers the period mid-2007 to mid-2008, Europe is as visible and strong in the area of space activities as never before. Its space probes are present on the Moon, around Mars, and on Saturn?s Moon Titan, and are chasing asteroids and comets; Ariane V is the most successful commercial launch vehicle; and more and more European space applications satellites are in operation. Finally, with the successful launch of the Columbus Orbital Facility (COF) – the most prominent highlight of this period which is also depicted on the cover of this Yearbook – and the ?rst Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), Europe has become a decisive player in human space?ight. This is accompanied by new policy initiatives on the ministerial level which have been bringing the European Space Agency and the European Union steadily closer. Europe?s outstanding development and positioning in the space ?eld is based not only on Europe?s successful engineering and scienti?c capabilities and capacities, but also on the forceful political determination of all European actors to maintain and even further their engagement in the use of outer space. And it is this political determination which provides the focus for this ?Yearbook on Space Policy?. The Yearbook describes and analyses the contexts and contents of space policy. Its primary ?eld of investigation is Europe, but it also covers the whole range of global space activities and their in?uence on European endeavours.
In recent years, there has been increasing interest from geoscientists in potassic ig neous rocks. Academic geoscientists have been interested in their petrogenesis and their potential value in defining the tectonic setting of the terranes into which they were intruded, and exploration geoscientists have become increasingly interested in the association of these rocks with major epithermal gold and porphyry gold-copper deposits. Despite this current interest, there is no comprehensive textbook that deals with these aspects of potassic igneous rocks. This book redresses this situation by elucidating the characteristic features of potassic (high-K) igneous rocks, erecting a hierarchical scheme that allows interpre tation of their tectonic setting using whole-rock geochemistry, and investigating their associations with a variety of gold and copper-gold deposits, worldwide. About two thirds of the book is based on a PhD thesis by Dr Daniel Muller which was produced at the Key Centre for Strategic Mineral Deposits within the Department of Geology and Geophysics at The University of Western Australia under the supervision of Professor David Groves, the late Dr Nick Rock, Professor Eugen Stumpf!, Dr Wayne Taylor, and Dr Brendon Griffin. The remainder of the book has been compiled from the literature using the collective experience of the two authors. The book is dedi cated to the memory of Dr Rock who initiated the research project but died before its completion.
