This book is a practical, hands-on introduction to numerical geodynamic modelling for inexperienced people, i.e. for young students and newcomers from other fields. It does not require much background in mathematics or physics and is therefore written with a maximum amount of simple technical details. If you are inexperienced – this book is for you! <...>

This book is a practical, hands-on introduction to numerical geodynamic modelling for inexperienced people, i.e. for young students and newcomers from other fields. It does not require much background in mathematics or physics and is therefore written with a maximum amount of simple technical details. If you are inexperienced – this book is yours! <...>

Tectonics enters into every aspect of the earth sciences. Although it is possible to study erosional and depositional processes without concern for tectonics, the relief that permits these processes to continue is always in some way related to uplift or subsidence. For example, the erosional evolution of a landscape, as proposed by W. M. Davis, requires a tectonic boost to start the process (Davis, 1899; King and Schumm, 1980), and in an attempt to link tectonics to landforms, Walter Penck (1953) estimated relative rates of uplift and denudation from the shape of valley-side profiles.

Cosmochemistry provides critical insights into the workings of our local star and its companions throughout the galaxy, the origin and timing of our solar system’s birth, and the complex reactions inside planetesimals and planets (including our own) as they evolve. Much of the database of cosmochemistry comes from laboratory analyses of elements and isotopes in our modest collections of extraterrestrial samples. A growing part of the cosmochemistry database is gleaned from remote sensing and in situ measurements by spacecraft instruments, which provide chemical analyses and geologic context for other planets, their moons, asteroids, and comets. Because the samples analyzed by cosmochemists are typically so small  and valuable, or must be analyzed on bodies many millions of miles distant, this discipline leads in the development of new analytical technologies for use in the laboratory or flown on spacecraft missions. These technologies then spread to geochemistry and other fields where precise analyses of small samples are important <...>

The scale invariance of geological phenomena is one of the first concepts taught to a student of geology. It is pointed out that an object that defines the scale, i.e., a coin, a rock hammer, a person, must be included whenever a photograph of a geological feature is taken. Without the scale it is often impossible to determine whether the photograph covers 10 cm or 10 km. For example, self-similar folds occur over this range of scales.

This book concerns the common atoms of our natural world. How many of each element exist, and why? What variations are found in the relative numbers of the isotopes of each element, and how are those variations interpreted? If I could write an epic poem, I would lyricize over the history of the universe writ small by their natural abundances. I would rhapsodize over the puzzling arrangements at different times and places of the thousand or so different isotopes of some ninety chemical elements. These different arrangements speak of distant past events. <...>

The last 15 years have been of vital importance in the history of the use of planktic microfossils for the dating of Cretaceous and Cenozoic deep sea sediments. During this time, the Glomar Chall eng er of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) has drilled at a total of 624 sites in almost every ocean basin in the world and brought up Cenozoic and Mesozoic sediment cores from the great majority of them. As the oceans occupy 72% of the surface of the Globe, the results were bound to have a profound effect on geologic thinking. A review of some of the important findings of the first ten years of the project is given in Warme et a!. (1981).

Dynamic Earth presents the principles of convection in the earth's mantle in an accessible style. Mantle convection is the process underlying plate tectonics, volcanic hotspots and, hence, most geological processes. This book is one of the first to synthesise the exciting insights into the earth's basic internal mechanisms that have flowed from the plate tectonics revolution of the 1960s.

Applied Mineral Inventory Estimation presents a comprehensive applied approach to the estimation of mineral resources/reserves with particular emphasis on

The geological basis of such estimations

The need for and maintenance of a high-quality assay data base

The practical use of a comprehensive exploratory data evaluation

The importance of a comprehensive geostatistical approach to the estimation methodology.

Rocks in natural outcrops, in samples knocked off these outcrops and in drill cores, are beautiful and instructive. We can see different minerals, and identify many of them with the aid of a hand lens. We can also see some of the more obvious structures in the rocks. However, cutting a slice (section) through a rock with a diamond-impregnated circular saw and polishing the sawn surface shows us the various minerals alongside each other, rather than piled confusingly all around each other. This reveals the structure even more clearly, as can be seen in the polished facing slabs on many buildings and bench tops.