This unparelleled reference synthesizes the methods used in microfacies analysis and details the potential of microfacies in evaluating depositional environments and diagenetic history, and, in particular, the application of microfacies data in the study of carbonate hydrocarbon reservoirs and the provenance of archaeological materials. Nearly 230 instructive plates (30 in color) showing thin-section photographs with detailed explanations form a central part of the content. Helpful teaching-learning aids include detailed captions for hundreds of microphotographs, boxed summaries of technical terms, many case studies, guidelines for the determination and evaluation of microfacies criteria, for enclosed CD with 14000 references, self-testing exercises for recognition and characterization skills, and more

This is a book for beginners. Not geological beginners, because an introductory course in paleontology and some knowledge of the petrographic microscope is assumed, but for beginners in the study of the petrography of fossil constituents in sedimentary rocks. Fossils are studied for various reasons: 1) to provide chron ologic (time) frameworks, 2) to delineate rock units and ancient environments, or 3) to understand the past development (evolu tion) of living plants and animals. All of these uses may be at tained through petrographic studies of thin sections of fossils embedded in sedimentary rocks. Some knowledge of the appear ance of fossils in thin section is also fundamental for general stratigraphic studies, biofacies analyses, and is even useful in studying some metamorphic rocks. Commonly, fossils are essen tial for the delineation of carbonate rock types (facies or bio facies). We have written this book for sedimentary petrologists and stratigraphers, who routinely encounter fossils as part of their studies but who are not specialists in paleontology, and for students who are seeking a brief review and an introduction to the literature of the petrography of fossiliferous sedimentary rocks. Although experienced paleontologists may be appalled by the many generalized statements on size, shape, and principal fossil characters recited herein, we counter that we have had some success in introducing non-paleontologically oriented geologists to the use and identification of fossil constituents without using excessive paleontological terminology and detailed systematics.

Classically orbital cycles have been recognized in pelagic and lacustrine sequences characterized by quiet sedimentation, not disturbed by tectonics. Hoiwever, there is now increasing recognition that orbital cycles do influence climate and oceanography in general terms. There is also increasing acceptance of the possibility at least that the effect should be felt over large parts of the Earth's surface and that orbital cycles may well leave signs in other sedimentary environments that are commonly considered to be dominated by tectonics and eustasy. Containing thirty-one papers from a symposium held at the International Sedimentological Congress in Nottingham in 1990, this volume spans a range of topics from the astronomical theory behind orbital forcing, to field studies dealing with a broad range of sedimentary environments, and to modelling and simulation. State-of-the-art research papers. International expert authorship. The latest research in the highly topical subject of orbital forcing.

Found a few kilometres from Stonehenge, the graves of the Amesbury Archer and the Boscombe Bowmen date to the 24th century BC and are two of the earliest Bell Beaker graves in Britain. The Boscombe Bowmen is a collective burial and the Amesbury Archer is a single burial but isotope analyses suggest that both were the graves of incomers to Wessex. The objects placed in both graves have strong continental connections and the metalworking tool found in the grave of the Amesbury Archer may explain why his mourners afforded him one of the most well-furnished burials yet found in Europe. This excavation report contains a series of wide-ranging studies and scientific analyses by an array of experts and a discussion of the graves within their British and continental European contexts.