Summarizes invited and contributed papers from the May 1992 Project pangea workshop in Lawrence, Kansas. Topics include the climatic evolution of India and Australia, pangean orogenic and epeirogenic uplifts, permian climatic cooling in the Canadian Arctic, and pangean shelf carbonates. Annotation c
In recent years, efforts to integrate solid earth geophysical studies and climate studies have progressed slowly, but this volume responds to the deficiency with an in-depth examination of climate modeling. Written by eminent figures from both disciplines, it focuses on the role of tectonic boundary conditions for paleoclimate reconstruction at the same time it presents background material on the impact of tectonic changes on climate and the uncertainties in tectonic boundary conditions.
To this day, there is a great amount of controversy about where, when and how the so-called supercontinents--Pangea, Godwana, Rodinia, and Columbia--were made and broken. Continents and Supercontinents frames that controversy by giving all the necessary background on how continental crust is formed, modified, and destroyed, and what forces move plates. It also discusses how these processes affect the composition of seawater, climate, and the evolution of life. Rogers and Santosh begin with a survey of plate tectonics, and go on to describe the composition, production, and destruction of continental and oceanic crust, and show that cratons or assemblies of cratons became the first true continents, approximately one billion years after the earliest continental crust evolved. The middle part of the book concentrates on supercontinents, beginning with a discussion of types of orogenic belts, distinguishing those that formed by closure of an ocean basin within the belt and those that formed by intracontinental deformation caused by stresses generated elsewhere. This information permits discrimination between models of supercontinent formation by accretion of numerous small terranes and by reorganization of large old continental blocks. This background leads to a description of the assembly and fragmentation of supercontinents throughout earth history. The record is most difficult to interpret for the oldest supercontinent, Columbia, and also controversial for Rodinia, the next youngest supercontinent. The configurations and pattern of breakup of Gondwana and Pangea are well known, but some aspects of their assembly are unclear. The book also briefly describes the histories of continents after the breakup of Pangea, and discusses how changes in the composition of seawater, climate, and life may have been affected by the sizes and locations of continents and supercontinents.
This book provides an up-to-date compilation of the latest research on the petrography, facies, paleonvironmental significance and economic aspects of continental carbonates. The overall organization of the book first emphasizes the descriptive aspects and processes operating on carbonate deposits in greatly varied settings, and then considers applications for basin analysis, as well as economic and historical aspects. This volume will be a valuable tool for graduate and postgraduate students as well as for experienced researchers. The first part (volume 61 in this series) will deal with the facies, environments, and processes of carbonates in continental settings. - Covering the greatly varied aspects of carbonate deposits from continental settings deposits - Clear and easy to follow organization of the book - Graduate to postgraduate level - Up to date information, so readers can find references from the classic literature to the most recent research
Science is never settled. New revolutionary ideas have always overturned the settled sciences of the past. In this far–reaching book the author looks beyond plate tectonics in order to detail the next earth science revolution. Drawing upon his work from four decades as a professional geologist and researcher the author reveals the weaknesses of conventional plate tectonic theory. This research utilizes an extensive range of global observational data in order to reverse–engineer geology back in time. Reverse–engineering seafloor and crustal geology enables past plate assemblages and configurations of the ancient continents to be accurately constrained using geology rather than geophysics. From this, a series of spherical geological models of the Earth are presented showing the precise locations and configurations of the ancient continents, ranging back in time to the early–Archaean. These plate assemblages represent the first time that models of the ancient Earth have been geologically constrained back to the early–Archaean. An extensive range of additional global observational data are then displayed on the spherical models in order to quantify the location of the ancient poles and equator, climate zones, biogenic distributions, exposed lands and seas, as well as global distributions of hydrocarbon and metallic resources. The research outcomes presented in this book are applicable to all disciplines of the Earth sciences and will appeal to a broad range of professional expertise, in particular those with a grounding in the Earth sciences. It is a must read for undergraduates and professionals alike.
This volume presents the proceedings of Symposium I "Stratigraphy" of the 30th International Geological Congress at Beijing. The proceedings aim to present a view of contemporary geology and should be of interest to researchers in the geological sciences.
The book discusses the ideas and creates a framework for building toward a theory of paleoclimate. Using the rich and mounting array of observational evidence of climatic changes from geology, geochemistry, and paleontology, Saltzman offers a dynamical approach to the theory of paleoclimate evolution and an expanded theory of climate. Saltzman was a distinquished authority on dynamical meteorology. This book provides a comprehensive framework based on dynamical system ideas for a theory of climate and paleoclimatic evolution which is intended for graduate students and research workers in paleoclimatology, earth system studies, and global change research. The book includes an extensive bibliography of geological and physical/dynamical references. Written by the late Barry Saltzman who was a distinquished authority on dynamical meteorology This book provides a comprehensive framework based on dynamical system ideas for a theory of climate and paleoclimatic evolution The book includes extensive bibliography of geological and physical/dynamical references
From the Preface: The chapters of this book contain contributions from an international group of specialists. They address some important themes in both modern and ancient reef systems. Some chapters contain `snapshots' of reefs of particular intervals, while others touch on relevant themes of both modern and ancient reefs - themes that weave their way through reefs of all ages. This book opens and sets the stage with an introduction to both modern and ancient reefs and reef ecosystems. This chapter is also intended as a basic introduction for students, general geologists, and professionals or others who may be unfamiliar with reefs and reef ecosystems. The chapter addresses the living coral reef ecosystem, stressing among other relevant factors, the importance of ecological and physical interactions between the organisms and their environment. The chapter also addresses mass extinction and provides a general overview of the history of reefs.
Accessibly written by a team of international authors, the Encyclopedia of Environmental Change provides a gateway to the complex facts, concepts, techniques, methodology and philosophy of environmental change. This three-volume set illustrates and examines topics within this dynamic and rapidly changing interdisciplinary field. The encyclopedia includes all of the following aspects of environmental change: Diverse evidence of environmental change, including climate change and changes on land and in the oceans Underlying natural and anthropogenic causes and mechanisms Wide-ranging local, regional and global impacts from the polar regions to the tropics Responses of geo-ecosystems and human-environmental systems in the face of past, present and future environmental change Approaches, methodologies and techniques used for reconstructing, dating, monitoring, modelling, projecting and predicting change Social, economic and political dimensions of environmental issues, environmental conservation and management and environmental policy Over 4,000 entries explore the following key themes and more: Conservation Demographic change Environmental management Environmental policy Environmental security Food security Glaciation Green Revolution Human impact on environment Industrialization Landuse change Military impacts on environment Mining and mining impacts Nuclear energy Pollution Renewable resources Solar energy Sustainability Tourism Trade Water resources Water security Wildlife conservation The comprehensive coverage of terminology includes layers of entries ranging from one-line definitions to short essays, making this an invaluable companion for any student of physical geography, environmental geography or environmental sciences.
