Stratigraphy allows us to establish and communicate the timings for the course of Earth history and provides the means to determine the duration and rates of Earth processes. Deciphering Earth’s History: the Practice of Stratigraphy focuses on how to apply the wide spectrum of stratigraphical techniques. It also explains how these techniques can be integrated and details their individual strengths and limitations. Chapters are laid out in a step-by-step style, guiding the reader through a recommended approach and explaining the factors to be considered. The methods are illustrated with flow charts, marginal top tips, checklists, worked examples and over 200 figures. Authors from academia, research centres and industry have contributed to ensure a wide range of perspectives are included. In addition to chapters on each of the stratigraphical techniques there is also material on accounting for stratigraphical incompleteness, constructing geological timescales, handling and archiving stratigraphical data and the application of stratigraphy to space exploration and other disciplines. This book is designed for a wide audience ranging from advanced level undergraduates to professional practitioners wishing to use other stratigraphical techniques or understand the advantages and weaknesses of particular techniques.

Authoritative, accessible, and updated introduction to sedimentary rocks for undergraduate students Sedimentary Petrology provides readers with a concise account of sedimentary rock composition, mineralogy, texture, structure, diagenesis, and depositional environments. The new edition of this classic text incorporates the many technological and analytical advances of the last decade, revealing exciting details of processes such as microbial precipitation, how microporosity is created within mudrocks, and the chemical composition of foraminifera deposits, which can be a key indicator for changing seawater temperature. This fourth edition offers a comprehensive update and expansion of the previous editions with a new set of illustrations, new references, and further reading. The new co-author Stuart Jones has brought his considerable expertise in clastic sedimentology to the rewritten chapters on sandstones and mudrocks. The addition of color images throughout the text will aid students immensely in their studies and petrographic fieldwork. Sample topics covered in Sedimentary Petrology include: Advances in modeling and programming to simulate depositional-diagenetic conditions and controls which support field-lab descriptions and interpretations Ocean acidification and the demise of coral reefs, and the role of the oceans in carbon capture and storage Sedimentary ironstones and iron-formations, sedimentary phosphate deposits, coal, oil shale and petroleum, and cherts and siliceous sediments Limestones, evaporites, volcaniclastic sediments, sandstones, conglomerates, breccias, and the effects of microplastics on marine organisms Aimed at undergraduates in geology and earth science, Sedimentary Petrology is an excellent teaching and learning resource for introductory courses in sedimentary rocks.

The Ordovician was one of the longest of the geological periods, characterized by major magmatic and tectonic activity, an immense biodiversification, swings in climate and sea levels and the first Phanerozoic mass extinction. ‘A Global Synthesis of the Ordovician System’ is presented in two volumes in The Geological Society, Special Publications. This first volume (SP532) charts the history of the Ordovician System and explores significant advances in our understanding of its biostratigraphy, including more precise calibration of its timescale with tephra chronology and regional alignments using astrochronology and cyclostratigraphy. Changes in the world’s oceans, their shifting currents and sea levels, the biogeography of their biotas and the ambient climate are described and discussed against a background of changing palaeogeography. This first volume also includes syntheses of the Ordovician geology for most European countries, including historical key areas, such as Great Britain, Baltoscandia and Bohemia. The second volume (SP533) provides synthetic aspects of the Ordovician geology of most other parts of the world.

PALEONTOLOGICAL DATA ANALYSIS An up-to-date edition of the indispensable guide to analysing paleontological data Paleontology has developed in recent decades into an increasingly data-driven discipline, which brings to bear a huge variety of statistical tools. Applying statistical methods to paleontological data requires a discipline-specific understanding of which methods and parameters are the most appropriate ones, and how to account for statistical bias inherent in the fossil record. By guiding the reader to these and other fundamental questions in the statistical analysis of fossilized specimens, Paleontological Data Analysis has become the standard text for anyone with an interest in quantitative analysis of the fossil record. Now fully updated to reflect the latest statistical methods and disciplinary advances, it is an essential tool for practitioners and students alike. Readers of the second edition of Paleontological Data Analysis readers will also find: New sections on machine learning, Bayesian inference, phylogenetic comparative methods, analysis of CT data, and much more New use cases and examples using PAST, R, and Python software packages Full color illustrations throughout Paleontological Data Analysis is ideal for paleontologists, evolutionary biologists, taxonomists, and students in any of these fields.

This book, written by 33 stratigraphic experts, presents various processes available which will enable the location in time of all rock types: sedimentary, metamorphic, plutonic, and eruptive, whether they are in outcrop or at subsurface. The terminology and the appropriate practices for each method are presented in separate chapters and illustrated with concrete examples. The order of the chapters is modeled on the progression of the stratigraphic process, from the descriptive to the interpretative, from the methods of the geometric stratigraphy (lithostratigraphy and genetic stratigraphy, chemostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy) to the chronological stratigraphy (biostratigraphy), followed by the chronometric stratigraphy (isotopic geochronology). The final two chapters are dedicated to chronostratigraphic units and correlations which combine the contributions of various methods and to the presentation of the 2007 version of the Geological Time Scale. The definitions of stratigraphic terms can be found in a glossary at the end of the work. The book is addressed to all professional geologists, from the industrial sector as well as those in universities, including teachers and researchers who would like to deepen their knowledge of the vocabulary, the concepts, the methods and the practical applications of different approaches of stratigraphy, a reference discipline for the entirety of the geological sciences.

Practices of Archaeological Stratigraphy brings together a number of examples which illustrate the development and use of the Harris Matrix in describing and interpreting archaeological sites. This matrix, the theory of which is described in two editions of the previous book by Harris, Principles of Archaeological Stratigaphy, made possible for the first time a simple diagramatic representation of the strategraphic sequence of a site, no matter how complex. The Harris Matrix, by showing in one diagram all three linear dimensions, plus time, represents a quantum leap over the older methods which relied on sample sections only.In this book 17 essays present a sample of new work demonstrating the strengths and uses of the Harris Matrix, the first ever published collection of papers devoted solely to stratigraphy in archaeology. The crucial relationships between the Harris methods, open-area excavation techniques, the interpretation of interfaces, and the use of single-context plans and recording sheets, is clarified by reference to specific sites. These sites range from medieval Europe, through Mayan civilizations to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. This book will be of great value to all those involved in excavating and recording archaeological sites and should help to ensure that the maximum amount of stratigraphic information can be gathered from future investigations.* Presents case studies which illuminate the Harris matrix method, invented by Edward C. Harris* Senior editor is the inventor of this method and principle in the field* Serves as a companion volume to Harris's Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy

Knowledge surrounding the behavior of earth materials is important to a number of industries, including the mining and construction industries. Further research into the field of geotechnical engineering can assist in providing the tools necessary to analyze the condition and properties of the earth. Technology and Practice in Geotechnical Engineering brings together theory and practical application, thus offering a unified and thorough understanding of soil mechanics. Highlighting illustrative examples, technological applications, and theoretical and foundational concepts, this book is a crucial reference source for students, practitioners, contractors, architects, and builders interested in the functions and mechanics of sedimentary materials.

Humans have become so powerful that we have disrupted the functioning of the Earth System as a whole, bringing on a new geological epoch – the Anthropocene – one in which the serene and clement conditions that allowed civilisation to flourish are disappearing and we quail before 'the wakened giant'. The emergence of a conscious creature capable of using technology to bring about a rupture in the Earth's geochronology is an event of monumental significance, on a par with the arrival of civilisation itself. What does it mean to have arrived at this point, where human history and Earth history collide? Some interpret the Anthropocene as no more than a development of what they already know, obscuring and deflating its profound significance. But the Anthropocene demands that we rethink everything. The modern belief in the free, reflexive being making its own future by taking control of its environment – even to the point of geoengineering – is now impossible because we have rendered the Earth more unpredictable and less controllable, a disobedient planet. At the same time, all attempts by progressives to cut humans down to size by attacking anthropocentrism come up against the insurmountable fact that human beings now possess enough power to change the Earth's course. It's too late to turn back the geological clock, and there is no going back to premodern ways of thinking. We must face the fact that humans are at the centre of the world, even if we must give the idea that we can control the planet. These truths call for a new kind of anthropocentrism, a philosophy by which we might use our power responsibly and find a way to live on a defiant Earth.

Earth System: History and Natural Variability theme is a component of Encyclopedia of Natural Resources Policy and Management, in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on Earth System: History and Natural Variability with contributions from distinguished experts in the field, presents a description of the cosmic environment around our planet influencing the Earth in a number of ways through variation of solar energy or meteorite impacts. The structure of the Earth and its rocks, waters and atmosphere is described. The Theme focuses on geological and evolutionary processes through the history of Earth's epochs and biomes since the Early Earth to the Quaternary. The unifying processes between the Earth's life and its rocks, waters and atmosphere are global natural cycles of carbon, sulfur and other elements that connect and influence the rate of geological processes, climate change, biological evolution and human economy. These five volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

Describes the expansion of the land-based paleomagnetic case for drifting continents and recounts the golden age of marine geoscience.