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Since the early decades of the last century, some eminent European scientists have contributed to the creation of a new perspective of our planet Earth. Some outstanding scientific articles were published in the journal Geologische Rundschau (now International Journal of Earth Sciences), mostly in German. These milestones of geoscientific research are available in English for the first time and are presented in this volume. Famous authors include for example Alfred Wegener, a pioneer of modern geology, Gustav Steinmann, Alexander Du Toit, Wolfgang Schott, Hans Cloos and Carl W. Correns. The reader will find a wealth of information about how new insights in specific fields have influenced the development of geoscientific research.

This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications TIME SERIES ANALYSIS AND APPLICATIONS TO GEOPHYSICAL SYSTEMS contains papers presented at a very successful workshop on the same title. The event which was held on November 12-15, 2001 was an integral part of the IMA 2001-2002 annual program on'Mathematics in the Geosciences.'We would like to thank David R. Brillinger (Department of Statistics, Uni­ versity of California, Berkeley), Enders Anthony Robinson (Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University), and Fred­ eric Paik Schoenberg (Department of Statistics, University of California, Los Angeles) for their superb role as workshop organizers and editors of the proceedings. We are also grateful to Robert H. Shumway (Department of Statistics, University of California, Davis) for his help in organizing the four-day event. We take this opportunity to thank the National Science Foundation for its support of the IMA. Series Editors Douglas N. Arnold, Director of the IMA Fadil Santosa, Deputy Director of the IMA v PREFACE This volume contains a collection of papers that were presented dur­ ing the Workshop on Time Series Analysis and Applications to Geophysical Systems at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) at the University of Minnesota from November 12-15, 2001. This was part of the IMA Thematic Year on Mathematics in the Geosciences, and was the last in a series of four Workshops during the Fall Quarter dedicated to Dynamical Systems and Ergodic Theory.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Association of Geographic Infor- tion Laboratories for Europe (AGILE) promoted the edition of a book with the collection of the scientific papers that were submitted as full-papers to the AGILE annual international conference. Those papers went through a th competitive review process. The 13 AGILE conference call for fu- papers of original and unpublished fundamental scientific research resulted in 54 submissions, of which 21 were accepted for publication in this - lume (acceptance rate of 39%). Published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Car- th graphy, this book is associated to the 13 AGILE Conference on G- graphic Information Science, held in 2010 in Guimarães, Portugal, under the title “Geospatial Thinking”. The efficient use of geospatial information and related technologies assumes the knowledge of concepts that are fundamental components of Geospatial Thinking, which is built on reasoning processes, spatial conc- tualizations, and representation methods. Geospatial Thinking is associated with a set of cognitive skills consisting of several forms of knowledge and cognitive operators used to transform, combine or, in any other way, act on that same knowledge. The scientific papers published in this volume cover an important set of topics within Geoinformation Science, including: Representation and Visualisation of Geographic Phenomena; Spatiotemporal Data Analysis; Geo-Collaboration, Participation, and Decision Support; Semantics of Geoinformation and Knowledge Discovery; Spatiotemporal Modelling and Reasoning; and Web Services, Geospatial Systems and Real-time Appli- tions.

This volume of proceedings is a collection of refereed papers resulting from the VI Hotine-Marussi Symposium on Theoretical and Computational Geodesy. The papers cover almost every topic of geodesy, including satellite gravity modeling, geodynamics, GPS data processing, statistical estimation and prediction theory, and geodetic inverse problem theory. In addition, particular attention is paid to topics of fundamental importance in the next one or two decades in Earth Science.

Self-organized criticality (SOC) has become a magic word in various scientific disciplines; it provides a framework for understanding complexity and scale invariance in systems showing irregular fluctuations. In the first 10 years after Per Bak and his co-workers presented their seminal idea, more than 2000 papers on this topic appeared. Seismology has been a field in earth sciences where the SOC concept has already deepened the understanding, but there seem to be much more examples in earth sciences where applying the SOC concept may be fruitful. After introducing the reader into the basics of fractals, chaos and SOC, the book presents established and new applications of SOC in earth sciences, namely earthquakes, forest fires, landslides and drainage networks.

This book is intended not only for meteorologists but also for scientists in other fields, for teachers, and for interested lay persons who do not want to acquaint themselves with its topics through an academic textbook. In addition to painting a picture of the stratosphere, we want to show how the approach to an understanding of Nature's complex structure of tell is along; winding, unexpected paths. At the beginning of the 20th century observations were accumulating which were essential to understanding climate and its variability. but they could not be treated systematically because important links were missing. among them the realization that there is a stratosphere or an ozone layer. When, however, one reads the scientific papers from the turn of the century and judges them on the basis of our present knowledge --which llndoubtedlr is still incomplete - one must admire the early workers in this field for the care and imagination with which they approached the subject. The discoveries we describe in this book have been important to the progress of meteorology; and it is apposite here to quote Kuhn (1962) on the course science normally takes after a discovery.

This invaluable volume set of Advances in Geosciences continues the excellent tradition of the Asia-Oceania scientific community in providing the most up-to-date research results on a wide range of geosciences and environmental science. The information is vital to the understanding of the effects of climate change and extreme weather on the most populated regions and fastest moving economies in the world. Besides, these volumes also highlight original papers from many prestigious research institutions which are conducting cutting edge studies in atmospheric physics, hydrogical science and water resource, ocean science and coastal study, planetary exploration and solar system science, seismology, tsunamis, upper atmospheric physics and space science.

This invaluable volume set of Advances in Geosciences continues the excellent tradition of the Asia-Oceania scientific community in providing the most up-to-date research results on a wide range of geosciences and environmental science. The information is vital to the understanding of the effects of climate change and extreme weather on the most populated regions and fastest moving economies in the world. Besides, these volumes also highlight original papers from many prestigious research institutions which are conducting cutting edge studies in atmospheric physics, hydrogical science and water resource, ocean science and coastal study, planetary exploration and solar system science, seismology, tsunamis, upper atmospheric physics and space science.

Petrogenesis of Metamorphic Rocks presents a large number of diagrams showing the stability relations among minerals and groups of minerals found in metamorphic rocks. The diagrams help to determine the pressure and temperature conditions under which a given set of metamorphic rocks may have formed. Other parameters that control metamorphic mineral assemblages are also discussed and pitfalls resulting from simplifications and generalizations are highlighted. The book discusses the most common metamorphic rock types, their nomenclature, structure and graphical representation of their mineral assemblages. Part I defines basic principles of metamorphism, introduces metamorphic processes, geologic thermometry and barometry and defines metamorphic grade. Part II presents in a systematic way mineralogical changes and assemblages found in the most common types of metamorphic rocks. The computation of diagrams is based on recent advances in quantitative petrology and geochemistry. An extensive bibliography, including the key contributions and classic papers in the field, make it an invaluable source book for graduate students and professional geologists.

This volume presents a collection of papers given at a Rhine-LUCIFS (Land use and climate impact on fluvial systems), the aim being to bring together researchers with longstanding experience in developing concepts and modelling approaches for long term landscape evolution and scientists involved in more classical studies on the evolution of the Rhine river system. It is divided into two parts: part one reviews the Rhine river system and gives case studies to demonstrate the types of data that can be extracted from sedimentary archives. Part two provides a state of the art review on concepts for fluvial system research, as well as modelling the components of large river basins, written by leading European scientists in this field.

Advances in Earth Science outlines the latest developments and new research directions currently being made world-wide in the earth sciences. It contains invited and refereed articles by leading younger researchers on their cutting-edge research, but aimed at a general scientific audience.This exciting volume explains how powerful methodologies such as satellite remote sensing and supercomputing simulations are now profoundly changing research in the earth sciences; how the earth system is increasingly being viewed in a holistic way, linking the atmosphere, ocean and solid earth; and how the societal impact of the research in the earth sciences has never been more important.Published by Imperial College Press in collaboration with the Royal Society of London, the book features many articles originating from invited papers published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Eleven of the distinguished contributors hold prestigious Royal Society Research Fellowships.

Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny provides insights into the critical parameters of Earth's evolution, particularly in terms of thermal state, tectonics, and the atmosphere-hydrosphere-biosphere system, that control the metallogeny of the planet. World-class to giant mineral systems are described and interpreted in terms of their relationship to critical periods of change in tectonic regimes within the supercontinent cycle and evolution of the mantle lithosphere. Specific times of formation of highly anomalous giant mineral systems, such as the so-called Boring Billion, are discussed together with specific tectonic environments, such as craton edges and thick lithosphere margins. Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny provides an overview of how the evolution of Earth has dictated the nature and distribution of its mineral resources that are the foundation of our modern industries and provides insights into critical parameters for conceptual exploration targeting. Researchers, academicians, undergraduate and graduate students, and geologists in the fields of economic geology, geologic exploration, mineral systems, and earth evolution will find this to be a helpful textbook in understanding the timing and distribution of the world's major mineral deposits are related to critical parameters controlling earth evolution.Draws together aspects of each book section through summary tablesSynthesizes data in each book section using summary diagrams/figuresProvides continuity between related sections of the book by providing end-of-chapter bullet-point conclusions

This book captures the essence of one of the most remarkable journeys of a professional who prevailed over numerous challenges and adverse situations that appeared before him from nowhere and how he emerged victorious to be hailed at a global forum of the American Geophysical Union in 2008. The author reflects upon the circumstances and times in post-independent India that threw him out of the comforts of a well-to-do family into the real world. He traces back his entry into the field of earthquake science and dwells at length upon the scope and freedom it offered for innovative thinking in the field with limitless opportunities. Mishaps and accidents paved the way to remarkable discoveries and achievements including the creation of the world record for establishing and populating India's first permanent base station in Antarctica in a record time of one Antarctic summer despite having a near-fatal helicopter crash on 4th day after reaching Antarctica. Stressing the need to live safely with earthquakes as their short-term prediction is not a possibility yet, the author advocates a two-prong strategy of directly looking into the earthquake source region deep inside the earth and developing an earthquake-resilient society, simultaneously. He cites the success story of the Indian Tsunami Early Warning System that is operational in the Indian Ocean, today. The book inspires young professionals with a flair for challenges and a burning desire to achieve results at any cost. This book provides important information in a nutshell about artificial water reservoir triggered earthquakes, India's building of the Dakshin Gangotri all-weather station in Antarctica, Indian Ocean Tsunami warning set-up, Low-Temperature Thermal Desalination, etc. The main objective of the book is to inspire a generation of young minds through a narration of scientific achievements that did not come easily to him. The aim is to tell them the difference between a reaction and a response to a given situation, the former being impulsive and irrational and the latter responsible and rational.

This textbook on geophysics is a translated and revised editon from its third German edition Einführung in die Geophysik - Globale physikalische Felder und Prozesse in der Erde. Explaining the technical terminology, it introduces students and the interested scientific public to the physics of the Earth at an intermediate level. In doing so, it goes far beyond a purely phenomenological description, but systematically explains the physical principles of the processes and fields which affect the entire Earth: Its position in space; its internal structure; its age and that of its rocks; earthquakes and how they are used in exploring Earth's structure; its shape, tides, and isostatic equilibrium; Earth's magnetic field, the geodynamo that generates it, and the interaction between the Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind's plasma flow; the Earth's temperature field and heat transport processes in the core, mantle, and crust of the Earth and their role indriving the geodynamo and plate tectonics.All chapters begin with a brief historical outline describing the development of each branch of geophysics up to the recent past. Selected biographies illustrate the personal and social conditions under which groundbreaking results were achieved. Detailed mathematical derivations facilitate understanding. Exercises with worked-out results allow readers to test the gained understanding. A detailed appendix contains a wealth of useful additional information such as a geological time table, general reference data, conversion factors, the latest values of the natural constants, vector and tensor calculus, and two chapters on the basic equations of hydrodynamics and hydrothermics. The book addresses bachelor and master students of geophysics and general earth science, as well as students of physics, engineering, and environmental sciences with geophysics as a minor subject.

The book presents the most relevant research of the participants of the VII International Conference of Young Scientists'Complex Investigation of the World Ocean'(CIWO-2023). This conference was held at Saint Petersburg State University in May 15-19, 2023 (Saint Petersburg, Russia). It covers a wide range of fundamental and applied marine and limnology studies combined in eight sections: Ocean Physics, Ocean Biology, Ocean Chemistry, Marine Geology, Marine Geophysics, Marine Ecology and Environmental Management, Physical and Biological interactions (interdisciplinary section), Oceanological Technology and Instrumentation. The aim of this book is to show the relevance of the marine research due to the crucial role of the World Ocean in determining climate change on Earth, huge resources (fish resources, oil, gas and ore deposits, etc.) and intensive development of infrastructure in coastal and offshore zones. All these topics were marked within the framework of realization of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). The studies presented in the book covers the wide spectrum of different the most important marine and limnology issues: thermohaline structure of water body and interactions between ocean and atmosphere, dynamic of the ocean, marine ice in polar regions, biodiversity of the marine ecosystems, adaptation of marine life to climate changes, geological and geophysical investigations in oil and gas regions, sedimentation, paleooceanology and biostratigraphy, hydrochemistry of estuary regions and carbon fluxes, microplastic pollution of the ocean, eutrophication and etc.

This second edition of Mathematical Geosciences book adds five new topics: Solution equations with uncertainty, which proposes two novel methods for solving nonlinear geodetic equations as stochastic variables when the parameters of these equations have uncertainty characterized by probability distribution. The first method, an algebraic technique, partly employs symbolic computations and is applicable to polynomial systems having different uncertainty distributions of the parameters. The second method, a numerical technique, uses stochastic differential equation in Ito form; Nature Inspired Global Optimization where Meta-heuristic algorithms are based on natural phenomenon such as Particle Swarm Optimization. This approach simulates, e.g., schools of fish or flocks of birds, and is extended through discussion of geodetic applications. Black Hole Algorithm, which is based on the black hole phenomena is added and a new variant of the algorithm code is introduced and illustrated based on examples; The application of the Gröbner Basis to integer programming based on numeric symbolic computation is introduced and illustrated by solving some standard problems; An extension of the applications of integer programming solving phase ambiguity in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) is considered as a global quadratic mixed integer programming task, which can be transformed into a pure integer problem with a given digit of accuracy. Three alternative algorithms are suggested, two of which are based on local and global linearization via McCormic Envelopes; and Machine learning techniques (MLT) that offer effective tools for stochastic process modelling. The Stochastic Modelling section is extended by the stochastic modelling via MLT and their effectiveness is compared with that of the modelling via stochastic differential equations (SDE). Mixing MLT with SDE also known as frequently Neural Differential Equations is also introduced and illustratedby an image classification via a regression problem.

This perspective of this book views Earth's various layers as a whole system, and tries to understand how to achieve harmony and sustainable development between human society and nature, with the theme of'habitability of the Earth.'This book is one effort at providing an overview of some of the recent exciting advances Chinese geoscientists have made. It is the concerted team effort of a group of researchers from diverse backgrounds to generalize their vision for Earth science in the next 10 years. The book is intended for scholars, administrators of the Science and Technology policy department, and science research funding agencies. This is an open access book.

Eine geologische Berg- und TalfahrtDie Bergwelt, wie wir sie kennen, geht auf eine Vielzahl von Prozessen zurück. Florian Neukirchen erklärt diese auf leicht verständliche Weise. Er führt in einer geologischen Berg- und Talfahrt durch alle Welt und fördert so manche Überraschung zutage. Ausgezeichnete Fotos begleiten den Text und wecken Reiselust. Da viele beliebte Reiseziele detailliert erklärt werden, ist das Buch zugleich eine Art Reiseführer für Naturfreunde. Warum sind die Berge so hoch, wie sie sind? Wie kommen Hochdruckgesteine an die Oberfläche? Wie entstehen Falten und Überschiebungen? Was passiert bei einem Vulkanausbruch? Warum gibt es in den Anden große Lücken im „Feuergürtel“? Warum gibt es Berge in Norwegen, in Neuseeland oder die Tepui in Venezuela? Wie beeinflussen sich Tektonik und Klima? Und woher wissen wir das alles? Diese und viele andere spannende Fragen werden beantwortet. Das Buch stützt sich dabei auf aktuelle Erkenntnisse aus so unterschiedlichen Fachgebieten wie Plattentektonik, Tektonik, Geomorphologie, Geophysik und Petrologie. Ein Buch, das Sie mitnimmt auf eine faszinierende Reise in Welten, die alles andere sind als fest und starr – eine sich bewegende Geschichte unserer Bergwelten mit vielen Höhen und Tiefen, die sich liest wie ein spannender Krimi.

Das vorliegende Buch nimmt Sie mit auf eine dokumentarische Reise in die Welt des Granits. So bekannt das Gestein sein mag, ist es doch auch voller Rätsel. Die Frage nach seiner Entstehung und Bedeutung hat die Geologie nahezu 200 Jahre beschäftigt und dabei zeitweilig zu harten, wenn nicht gar unversöhnlichen Kontroversen geführt. Der Autor schildert diese bemerkenswerten wissenschaftsgeschichtlichen Verwicklungen und vergisst dabei nicht, ebenso die kulturellen Hintergründe zu beleuchten. Zugleich wird der Leser gut verständlich und fundiert in die Welt dieses faszinierenden Gesteins eingeführt. Granit: Geschichte und Bedeutung ist eine spannende Zusammenfassung der Forschungsgeschichte, eine fotografische Dokumentation und ein mitreißender Exkurs, in dem der Leser anschaulich alles Wichtige über den Granit, von seiner Entstehung bis zu seinem Zerfall und seiner Bedeutung im Wirkungsgefüge der Erde erfährt. Das anschauliche Sachbuch richtetsich an alle, die sich mit geologischen Phänomenen befassen – Naturfreunde, Geo-Ranger und Geologen sowie an alle, die den verschlungenen Wegen des menschlichen Geistes bei seiner Auseinandersetzung mit den großen Fragen unserer Welt folgen möchten.

This book presents the findings of recent theoretical and experimental studies of processes in the atmosphere, oceans and lithosphere, discussing their interactions, environmental issues, geology, problems related to human impacts on the environment, and methods of geophysical research. It particularly focuses on the geomechanical aspects of the production of hydrocarbons, including the laborious extraction of oils. Furthermore, it includes contributions on ecological problems of the biosphere. This book corresponds to the English edition of the'Processes in GeoMedia,'a Russian academic journal focused on new theoretical and experimental studies of the Earth's processes.

Geomagnetic field penetrates through all shells of the solid Earth, hydrosphere and atmosphere, spreading into space. The Earth Magnetic Field plays a key-role in major natural processes. Geomagnetic field variations in time and space provide important information about the state of the solid Earth, as well as the solar-terrestrial relationships and space weather conditions. The monograph presents a set of fundamental and, at the same time, urgent scientific problems of modern geomagnetic studies, as well as describes the results of the authors'developments. The new technique introduced in the book can be applied far beyond the limits of Earth sciences. Requirements to corresponding data models are formulated. The conducted experimental investigations are combined with development and implementation of new methods of mathematical modeling, artificial intelligence, systems analysis and data science to solve the fundamental problems of geomagnetism. At that, formalism of Big Dataand its application to Earth Sciences is presented as essential part of systems analysis. The book is intended for research scientists, tutors, students, postgraduate students and engineers working in geomagnetism and Earth sciences in general, as well as in other relevant scientific disciplines.

This book consolidates the latest research on the Hadean Eon - the first 500 million years of Earth history - which has permitted hypotheses of early Earth evolution to be tested, including geophysical models that include the possibility of plate tectonic-like behavior. These new observations challenge the longstanding Hadean paradigm – based on no observational evidence - of a desiccated, lifeless, continent-free wasteland in which surface petrogenesis was largely due to extraterrestrial impacts. The eon was termed “Hadean” to reflect such a hellish environment. That view began to be challenged in 2001 as results of geochemical analyses of greater than 4 billion year old zircons from Australia emerged. These data were consistent with the zircons forming in a world much more similar to today than long thought and interpreted to indicate that sediment cycling was occurring in the presence of liquid water. This new view leaves open the possibility that life could have emerged shortlyafter Earth accretion. The epistemic limitations under which the old paradigm persisted are closely examined. The book is principally designed as a monograph but has the potential to be used as a text for advanced graduate courses on early Earth evolution.

Data on gravity reveal a fascinating world of otherwise hidden phenomena, allowing us to “see” under the glaciers or beneath the sands. This book deals with subglacial areas like Antarctica and Greenland, as well as providing insights into features present under the sands of the Sahara (such as paleolakes) or at the ocean bottom (including a putative impact crater possibly related to the biblical flood). It analyses both static and variable gravity fields, and will help to distinguish the areas in which oil and gas can be found with higher probability. The book will be of interest to geoscientists, university students and teachers and others interested in natural sciences, as well as prospectors and decision makers across the globe.

Earth science is becoming increasingly quantitative in the digital age. Quantification of geoscience and engineering problems underpins many of the applications of big data and artificial intelligence. This book presents quantitative geosciences in three parts. Part 1 presents data analytics using probability, statistical and machine-learning methods. Part 2 covers reservoir characterization using several geoscience disciplines: including geology, geophysics, petrophysics and geostatistics. Part 3 treats reservoir modeling, resource evaluation and uncertainty analysis using integrated geoscience, engineering and geostatistical methods. As the petroleum industry is heading towards operating oil fields digitally, a multidisciplinary skillset is a must for geoscientists who need to use data analytics to resolve inconsistencies in various sources of data, model reservoir properties, evaluate uncertainties, and quantify risk for decision making. This book intends to serve as a bridge for advancing the multidisciplinary integration for digital fields. The goal is to move beyond using quantitative methods individually to an integrated descriptive-quantitative analysis. In big data, everything tells us something, but nothing tells us everything. This book emphasizes the integrated, multidisciplinary solutions for practical problems in resource evaluation and field development.

Petrophysical Characterization and Fluids Transport in Unconventional Reservoirs presents a comprehensive look at these new methods and technologies for the petrophysical characterization of unconventional reservoirs, including recent theoretical advances and modeling on fluids transport in unconventional reservoirs. The book is a valuable tool for geoscientists and engineers working in academia and industry. Many novel technologies and approaches, including petrophysics, multi-scale modelling, rock reconstruction and upscaling approaches are discussed, along with the challenge of the development of unconventional reservoirs and the mechanism of multi-phase/multi-scale flow and transport in these structures. Includes both practical and theoretical research for the characterization of unconventional reservoirsCovers the basic approaches and mechanisms for enhanced recovery techniques in unconventional reservoirsPresents the latest research in the fluid transport processes in unconventional reservoirs

The book provides an elaborate treatment of groundwater prospecting and management covering remote sensing, geological–geophysical cum hydrogeological studies, exploration (geological and geophysical), development (well logging techniques, pump test, its analysis and applications in well design), contamination (pollution of groundwater) and regulatory legislations regarding groundwater utilization under one cover. The book presents an elucidation of fundamental and theoretical background of each technique supported by necessary illustrative examples and exclusive case studies. It is a text-cum-reference book not only for students, research scholars and practicing earth scientists but also for practicing civil and agricultural engineers working in the application of groundwater resources, engaged in its exploration, development, contamination, legislation and management. The general readers can also refer the book for understanding the groundwater domain for adequate knowledge, as groundwater resources are essential life support commodity which is replenishable but not inexhaustible.

This book provides an up-to-date presentation of a broad range of contemporary problems in inverse scattering involving acoustic, elastic and electromagnetic waves. Descriptions will be given of traditional (but still in use and subject to on-going improvements) and more recent methods for identifying either: a) the homogenized material parameters of (spatially) unbounded or bounded heterogeneous media, or b) the detailed composition (spatial distribution of the material parameters) of unbounded or bounded heterogeneous media, or c) the location, shape, orientation and material characteristics of an object embedded in a wellcharacterized homogeneous, homogenized or heterogeneous unbounded or bounded medium, by inversion of reflected, transmitted or scattered spatiotemporal recorded waveforms resulting from the propagation of probe radiation within the medium.

This book presents and discusses research in the field of earth science, with a focus on the stratigraphic setting of continental shelves of Southern Italy investigated through seismic stratigraphy: crust and upper mantle structure of Northern Eurasia from long-range seismic profiling with chemical and nuclear explosions; multi-storyed planation surfaces, base-level control, and the morphotectonic interpretation of crustal movements in the basement regions of a case study from Zimbabwe; hydrochemical aspects of groundwaters occurring at Basaltic rocks, Parana Basin, Brazil; localization of geochemical aureoles of rare earths in the Northern Region of the Republic of Moldova; groundwater sources, geological formation and their environment in the Sudan; remote sensing techniques as an effective tool for systematic survey and better management of natural resources; and the use of climbing plants in heritage bioconservation.

The past fifteen years has witnessed an explosive growth in the fundamental research and applications of artificial neural networks (ANNs) and fuzzy logic (FL). The main impetus behind this growth has been the ability of such methods to offer solutions not amenable to conventional techniques, particularly in application domains involving pattern recognition, prediction and control. Although the origins of ANNs and FL may be traced back to the 1940s and 1960s, respectively, the most rapid progress has only been achieved in the last fifteen years. This has been due to significant theoretical advances in our understanding of ANNs and FL, complemented by major technological developments in high-speed computing. In geophysics, ANNs and FL have enjoyed significant success and are now employed routinely in the following areas (amongst others): 1. Exploration Seismology. (a) Seismic data processing (trace editing; first break picking; deconvolution and multiple suppression; wavelet estimation; velocity analysis; noise identification/reduction; statics analysis; dataset matching/prediction, attenuation), (b) AVO analysis, (c) Chimneys, (d) Compression I dimensionality reduction, (e) Shear-wave analysis, (f) Interpretation (event tracking; lithology prediction and well-log analysis; prospect appraisal; hydrocarbon prediction; inversion; reservoir characterisation; quality assessment; tomography). 2. Earthquake Seismology and Subterranean Nuclear Explosions. 3. Mineral Exploration. 4. Electromagnetic I Potential Field Exploration. (a) Electromagnetic methods, (b) Potential field methods, (c) Ground penetrating radar, (d) Remote sensing, (e) inversion.

In this book the authors consider the natural environment as an integrated system and describe a cohesive approach to its modelling and prediction. The book emphasises the mathematical representation and numerical simulation of the interactions between the various environmental components and those of the environmental processes, including physical, chemical and biological. Furthermore, it summarises some of the recent progress and new developments in the modelling and prediction of the atmosphere, ocean, land surface, continental hydrosphere, cryosphere, etc. The authors also explore new theoretical frameworks in environmental prediction, such as systems analysis and statistical-dynamic modelling. The applications of remote sensing and geographic information systems in environmental modelling and prediction are discussed. Examples of integrated environmental modelling are given

Volume resulting from an ISSI Workshop, 11-15 March 2002, Bern, Switzerland

The study of sea waves has always been in the focus of mankind's atten­ tion. This is attributed not only to a desire to understand the behaviour in seas and oceans, but also, it has some practical necessity. Developing up-to­ date wind wave numerical methods requires detailed mathematical modelling, starting with wave generation, development, propagation and transformation on the surface in different water areas under quasi-stationary conditions, up to a synthesis of climatic features observed under different wave generation conditions in oceans, sea or coastal areas. The present monograph considers wind waves in terms of the most general formulation of the problem as a probable hydrodynamic process with wide spatial variability. It ranges between the global scale of the oceans, whose typical size is comparable with the Earth's radius, to the regional and local scales of the seas, including water areas limited in space with significant current or depth gradients in coastal zones, where waves cease their existence having propagated tens of thousand miles.

This book presents and discusses research in the field of earth science, with a focus on the role of hydrology in salt marsh ecology; modeling tool applications in freshwater ecosystems and resource management; the flood cycle model; mechanisms of global change in the biosphere; the impact of tropical forest canopies in the planning of rural settlements and sustainable environments; long-term consistency of main taxonomic groups of Lake Kinneret phytoplankton; modeling landslide susceptibility analysis; and the Earth's gravitational dipole.

This book is a considerable outgrowth of lecture notes on Mechanics of en­ vironmentally related systems I, which I hold since more than ten years in the Department of Mechanics at the Darmstadt University of Technology for upper level students majoring in mechanics, mathematics, physics and the classical engineering sciences. These lectures form a canon of courses over three semesters in which I present the foundations of continuum physics (first semester), those of physical oceanography and limnology (second semester) and those of soil, snow and ice physics in the geophysical context (third semester). The intention is to build an understanding of the mathemati­ cal foundations of the mentioned geophysical research fields combined with a corresponding understanding of the regional, but equally also the global, processes that govern the climate dynamics of our globe. The present book contains the material (and extensions of it) of the first semester; it gives an introduction into continuum thermomechanics, the methods of dimensional analysis and turbulence modeling. All these themes belong today to the every­ day working methods of not only environmental physicists but equally also those engineers, who are confronted with continuous systems of solid and fluid mechanics, soil mechanics and generally the mechanics and thermody­ namics of heterogeneous systems. The book addresses a broad spectrum of researchers, both at Universities and Research Laboratories who wish to fa­ miliarize themselves with the methods of'rational'continuum physics, and students from engineering and classical continuum physics.

Remote Sensing Digital Image Analysis provides the non-specialist with an introduction to quantitative evaluation of satellite and aircraft derived remotely retrieved data. Each chapter covers the pros and cons of digital remotely sensed data, without detailed mathematical treatment of computer based algorithms, but in a manner conductive to an understanding of their capabilities and limitations. Problems conclude each chapter. This fourth edition has been developed to reflect the changes that have occurred in this area over the past several years. Its focus is on those procedures that seem now to have become part of the set of tools regularly used to perform thematic mapping. As with previous revisions, the fundamental material has been preserved in its original form because of its tutorial value; its style has been revised in places and it has been supplemented if newer aspects have emerged in the time since the third edition appeared. It still meets, however, the needs of the senior student and practitioner.

In the middle of the 20th century, Genrich Altshuller, a Russian engineer, analysed hundreds of thousands of patents and scientific publications. From this analysis, he developed TRIZ (G. Altshuller,'40 Principles: TRIZ Keys to Technical Innovation. TRIZ Tools,'Volume 1, First Edition, Technical Innovation Center, Inc., Worcester, MA, January 1998; Y. Salamatov,'TRIZ: The Right Solution at the Right Time. A Guide to Innovative Problem Solving.'Insytec B. V., 1999), the theory of inventive problem solving, together with a series of practical tools for helping engineers solving technical problems. Among these tools and theories, the substance-field theory gives a structured way of representing problems, the patterns of evolution show the lifecycle of technical systems, the contradiction matrix tells you how to resolve technical contradictions, using the forty principles that describe common ways of improving technical systems. For example, if you want to increase the strength of a device, without adding too much extra weight to it, the contradiction matrix tells you that you can use'Principle 1: Segmentation,'or'Principle 8: Counterweight,'or'Principle 15: Dynamicity,'or'Principle 40: Composite Materials.'I really like two particular ones:'Principle 1: Segmentation,'and Principle 15: Dynamicity.''Segmentation'shows how systems evolve from an initial monolithic form into a set of independent parts, then eventually increasing the number of parts until each part becomes small enough that it cannot be identified anymore.

In seismology an earthquake source is described in terms of a fault with a particular rupture size. The faulting process of large earthquakes has been investigated in the last two decades through analyses of long-period seismo­ grams produced by advanced digital seismometry. By long-period far-field approximation, the earthquake source has been represented by physical parameters such as s~ismic moment, fault dimension and earthquake mag­ nitude. Meanwhile, destruction often results from strong ground motion due to large earthquakes at short distances. Since periods of strong ground motion are far shorter than those of seismic waves at teleseismic distances, the theory of long-period source process of earthquakes cannot be applied directly to strong ground motion at short distances. The excitation and propagation of high-frequency seismic waves are of special interest in recent earthquake seismology. In particular, the descrip­ tion and simulation of strong ground motion are very important not only for problems directly relevant to earthquake engineering, but also to the frac­ ture mechanics of earthquake faulting. Understanding of earthquake sources has been developed by investigating the complexity of faulting processes for the case of large earthquakes. Laboratory results on rock failures have also advanced the understanding of faulting mechanisms. Various attempts have been made to simulate, theoretically and empirically, the propagation of short-period seismic waves in the heterogeneous real earth.

The Mie theory is known to be the first approach to the electromagnetic scattering from homogeneous spheres endowed with all the accuracy of the Maxwell electromagnetic theory. It applies to spheres of arbitrary radius and refractive index and marks, therefore, noticeable progress over the approx­ imate approach of Rayleigh, which applies to particles much smaller than the wavelength. As a consequence, after the publication of the Mie theory in 1908, several scattering objects, even when their shape was known to be nonspherical, were described in terms of equivalent spherical scatterers. It soon became evident, however, that the morphological details of the actual particles were often too important to be neglected, especially in some wave­ length ranges. On the other hand, setting aside some particular cases in which the predictions of the Mie theory were acceptable, no viable alternative for the description of scattering from particles of arbitrary shape was at hand. This situation lasted, with no substantial changes, until about 25 years ago, when the exact solution to the problem of dependent scattering from aggregates of spheres was devised. This solution is a real improvement over the Mie theory because several processes that occur, e. g., in the atmospheric aerosols and in the interstellar medium, can be interpreted in terms of clustering of otherwise spherical scatterers. Moreover, nonspherical particles may be so distributed (both in size and orientation) as to smooth out the individual scattering properties.

This book is dedicated to Professor Kolumban Hutter of the Darmstadt Univer­ sity of Technology on the occasion of his 60th birthday on 22 January 200l. Professor Hutter graduated in Civil Engineering from the ETH Zurich, and then worked in industry-related consulting at the Institute of Mechanics and the Laboratory of Hydraulics and Soil Mechanics at the ETH, before embark­ ing on a PhD in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in Cornell University. He duly completed his PhD under the supervision of Professor Y. H. Pao, working in the field of the electrodynamics of continuous media. After his PhD, Professor Hutter returned to Europe where he worked as a senior scientist at the Labor­ atory for Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology, ETH Zurich, being involved in glacier flow, physical limnology, avalanche research and granular media. At the same time he maintained scientific contact with the Mechanics Institute of the Vienna University of Technology. In both European cities he received a habil­ itation degree: In Vienna for Mechanics, in Zurich for Theoretical Glaciology and Limnology. Since 1987 Professor Hutter has been the successor to Professor Becker at the Department of Mechanics, Darmstadt University of Technology. Professor Hutter's work has always been relevant to reallife, and a feature of the man is his attention to experiments and matching theory. He has built up an internationally respected laboratory in Darmstadt which concentrates on both experimental and theoretical aspects.

One of the fundamental goals of earth system science research is to adopt a more holistic view of the earth as a ‘system'comprising different domains. The Society of Earth Scientists has brought out this multidisciplinary publication to emphasize the need of an integrated approach to understand the Earth system. It focuses on natural disasters and, in particular, on climate change and its effects in Asia and understanding the significance of these developments within the context of the paleo-climatic record. The later sections of the book then focus on other types of natural disasters as well as those induced by human interaction with our environment.

The first part of this book examines the genesis, occurrence, exploitation and management of mineral and thermal water resources, approaching the subject from the hydrogeologist's point of view, but also dealing with engineering and therapeutic applications of water resources.The second part of the book contains case studies of specific geothermal and spa sites in several countries, including Romania, Iceland and the UK, written by hydrogeologists with a specialist knowledge of these areas. This section illustrates the diversity of mineral and thermal water resources worldwide, and highlights different international management philosophies of these resources.Mineral and Thermal Groundwater Resources combines a scientific treatment of hydrogeochemistry, heat migration and geothermics with reader-friendly sections on the historical context and exploitation of spa and mineral resources. It is the first book to discuss in detail the two related phenomena of mineral and geothermal water resources.This book will be of interest to professional hydrogeologists and resource managers, researchers in environmental science and engineering, as well as to amateur geologists and historians.

During the last few decades, the subject of potential theory has not been overly popular in the mathematics community. Neglected in favor of more abstract theories, it has been taught primarily where instructors have ac­ tively engaged in research in this field. This situation has resulted in a scarcity of English language books of standard shape, size, and quality covering potential theory. The current book attempts to fill that gap in the literature. Since the rapid development of high-speed computers, the remarkable progress in highly advanced electronic measurement concepts, and, most of all, the significant impact of satellite technology, the flame of interest in potential theory has burned much brighter. The realization that more and more details of potential functions are adequately visualized by'zooming­ in'procedures of modern approximation theory has added powerful fuel to the flame. It seems as if, all of a sudden, harmonic kernel functions such as splines and/or wavelets provide the impetus to offer appropriate means of assimilating and assessing the readily increasing flow of potential data, reducing it to comprehensible form, and providing an objective basis for scientific interpretation, classification, testing of concepts, and solutions of problems involving the Laplace operator.

Chapter 1 - Introduction to Earth Science Chapter 2 - Branches & Related Fields of Earth Science Chapter 3 - Paleoclimatology Chapter 4 - Biosphere & its Components Chapter 5 - Earth Systems & Sciences Chapter 6 - Earth's Interior & Related Theories

New developments for hydrodynamical dynamo theory have been spurred by recent evidence of self-sustained dynamo activity in laboratory experiments with liquid metals.The emphasis in the present volume is on the introduction of powerful mathematical techniques required to tackle modern multiscale analysis of continous systems and there application to a number of realistic model geometries of increasing complexity. This introductory and self-contained research monograph summarizes the theoretical state-of-the-art to which the author has made pioneering contributions.

Predicting natural catastrophes is one of the major challenges of the scientific community. Natural disasters appear in two general fashions: sudden liberations of energy or cyclical events. Climate change could influence cyclic dynamics, which challenges the prediction of natural catastrophes even more so. This book discusses causes, predictions and the impact of monsoons, and other natural cycles, from the normal or even slight deviations in light of country economics, agricultural production and water availability. Also discussed are the hazards from volcanic avalanches, avalanche control and limitations, and scale invariant avalanches; and the condition of the arctic environment and sea ice by the middle of the 21st century.

The overwhelming focus of this 2nd volume of “Physics of Lakes” is adequately expressed by its subtitle “Lakes as Oscillators”. It deals with barotropic and baroclinic waves in homogeneous and stratified lakes on the rotating Earth and comprises 12 chapters, starting with rotating shallow-water waves, demonstrating their classification into gravity and Rossby waves for homogeneous and stratified water bodies. This leads to gravity waves in bounded domains of constant depth, Kelvin, Poincaré and Sverdrup waves, reflection of such waves in gulfs and rectangles and their description in sealed basins as barotropic ‘inertial waves proper'. The particular application to gravity waves in circular and elliptical basins of constant depth leads to the description of Kelvin-type and Poincaré-type waves and their balanced description in basins of arbitrary geometry on the rotating Earth. Consideration of two-, three- and n-layer fluids with sharp interfaces give rise to the description of gravitywaves of higher order baroclinicity with experimental corroboration in a laboratory flume and e.g. in Lake of Lugano, Lake Banyoles and Lake Biwa. Barotropic wave modes in Lake Onega with complex geometry show that data and computational output require careful interpretation. Moreover, a summer field campaign in Lake of Lugano and its two-layer modal analysis show that careful statistical analyses of the data are requested to match data with computational results. Three chapters are devoted to topographic Rossby waves. Conditions are outlined for which these waves are negligibly affected by baroclinicity. Three classes of these large period modes are identified: channel modes, so-called Ball modes and bay modes, often with periods which lie very close together. The last chapter deals with an entire class of Chrystal-type equations for barotropic waves in elongated basins which incorporate the effects of the rotation of the Earth.