There are few places in the developed world where the coal industry does not feel that it faces major challenges. Climate change, safety, and a variety of other environmental issues are just some of the concerns. In many cases, such concerns are justifi ed, and certainly in the developing world much more needs to be done to address them. Equally, the industry is working hard to respond. I know this to be true, after 25 years in the industry working with international organizations such as the World Coal Association and
Coal Industry Advisory Board of the International Energy Agency. These organisations, assisted by regional and other specialist industry bodies, as well as far-sighted coal companies, are all working constructively to improve the performance of the coal industry across a wide front. <...>

The ever increasing number of publications about minerals reflects a growing interest in nature. Most of those publications though only deal with a few dozen of the most common minerals or gemstones. This book fills the gap by also featuring less common and rare minerals. The authors describe over 600 mineral species and varieties, illustrated with about 750 color photographs. In choosing illustrations of particular minerals, aesthetic criteria such as size of crystal and color played a role in addition to their importance and distribution in nature. This book includes some rare minerals, known only from one locality, because they form very attractive crystals or aggregates. There are minerals known to humankind since prehistoric times such as quartz and gold, but also minerals first described quite recently like rossmanite. The photographs show well-formed and colorful crystals but many-aggregates, which are more common in nature, are also included. The minerals in the book are listed according to the mincralogical system of Hugo Strunz, in his book Mineralogische Tabellen in 1978. The chemical formulae of individual minerals follow the form of Glossary of Mineral Species 1995 by M. Fleischer and J.A. Mandarine The information is complemented in both cases with the latest knowledge from scientific literature, such as new nomenclature of amphiboles, micas and zeolites. The mineral descriptions cover the basic physical and chemical data, including chemical formula and crystal system. The data provided correspond mainly to the end-members. The less common valence of the chemical elements is marked in the chemical formula (FeJ, Mn", As", Mn4", Pb'). Where an element features in both valences in the mineral, they are both marked (e.g. ilvaite, braunite).

Compositional models of the Earth are critically dependent on three main sources of information: the seismic profile of the Earth and its interpretation, comparisons between primitive meteorites and the solar nebula composition, and chemical and petrological models of peridotite-basalt melting relationships. Whereas a family of compositional models for the Earth are permissible based on these methods, the model that is most consistent with the seismological and geodynamic structure of the Earth comprises an upper and lower mantle of similar composition, an Fe-Ni core having between 5% and 15% of a low-atomic-weight element, and a mantle which, when compared to Cl carbonaceous chondrites, is depleted in Mg and Si relative to the refractory lithophile elements.

The rich geological record of the Cretaceous Period reveals a world that experienced extreme climatic warmth and significantly higher global sea-levels than today. Elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have been implicated in these conditions. It thus provides a natural case study of the Earth in 'greenhouse' climatic mode, which this interdisciplinary textbook analyses from the perspective of Earth System Science. With mounting concerns over global warming today, an understanding of how the Earth system operates when in greenhouse mode is very relevant to studies of future climatic change.