This book highlights recent advances in the discipline of biogeochemistry that have directly resulted from the development of critical zone (CZ) science. The earth's critical zone (CZ) is defined from the weathering front and lowest extent of freely circulating groundwater up through the regolith and to the top of the vegetative canopy. The structure and function of the CZ is shaped through tectonic, lithologic, hydrologic, climatic, and biological processes and is the result of processes occurring at multiple time scales from eons to seconds. The CZ is an open system in which energy and matter are both transported and transformed. Critical zone science provides a novel and unifying framework to consider those coupled interactions that control biogeochemical cycles and fluxes of energy and matter that are critical to sustaining a habitable planet. Biogeochemical processes are at the heart of energy and matter fluxes through ecosystems and watersheds. They control the quantity and quality of carbon and nutrients available for living organisms, control the retention and export of nutrients affecting water quality and soil fertility, and influence the ability for ecosystems to sequester carbon. As the term implies, biogeochemical cycles, and the rates at which they occur, result from the interaction of biological, chemical, and physical processes. However, finding a unifying framework by which to study these interactions is challenging, and the different components of bio-geo-chemistry are often studied in isolation. The authors provide both reviews and original research contributions with the requirement that the chapters incorporate a CZ framework to test biogeochemical theory and/or develop new and robust predictive models regarding elemental cycles. The book demonstrates how the CZ framework provides novel insights into biogeochemistry.

"This volume includes compelling science and field trips in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio. Take a journey through the Heartland to sand dunes, outcrops, quarries, rivers, caves, and springs that connect Paleozoic stratigraphy with the assembly of Gondwana, continental glaciation with Quaternary geomorphology and hydrology, and landscape with the human environment"--

This volume brings together a number of papers from two workshops with the theme, ‘Rain, Rivers, Reservoirs’, which considered the dynamic changes to river systems as part of natural processes, particularly changing climatic conditions. Bringing researchers from two different locations to Brazil and the UK allowed scientists to contribute to and promote, ‘debate on current research…on how the planet works and how we can live sustainably on it’. This volume features a series of papers on the geoscience of modern and ancient rivers from across the world (Brazil, United States, Spain, Argentina, Canada, India and the UK), their evolution through time, their management, their deposits and their engineering, with both subsurface aquifers/hydrocarbon reservoirs (of Carboniferous, Triassic and Cretaceous age) and surface reservoirs considered.

Through a remarkable combination of intellect, self-confidence, engaging humility, and prodigious output of published work, William R. Dickinson influenced and challenged three generations of sedimentary geologists, igneous petrologists, tectonicists, sandstone petrologists, archaeologists, and other geoscientists. A key figure in the plate-tectonic revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, he explained how the distribution of sediments on Earth's surface could be traced to tectonic processes, and is widely recognized as a founder of modern sedimentary basin analysis. This volume consists of 31 chapters related to Dickinson's research interests; many of the authors are his former students, their students, and their students' students, demonstrating his continuing profound influence. The papers in this volume are an impressive tribute to the depth and breadth of Bill Dickinson's contributions to the geosciences.

Fifty years ago, no one could explain mountains. Arguments about their origin were spirited, to say the least. Progressive scientists were ridiculed for their ideas. Most geologists thought the Earth was shrinking. Contracting like a hot ball of iron, shrinking and exposing ridges that became mountains. Others were quite sure the planet was expanding. Growth widened sea basins and raised mountains. There was yet another idea, the theory that the world's crust was broken into big plates that jostled around, drifting until they collided and jarred mountains into existence. That idea was invariably dismissed as pseudo-science. Or "utter damned rot" as one prominent scientist said. But the doubtful theory of plate tectonics prevailed. Mountains, earthquakes, ancient ice ages, even veins of gold and fields of oil are now seen as the offspring of moving tectonic plates. Just half a century ago, most geologists sternly rejected the idea of drifting continents. But a few intrepid champions of plate tectonics dared to differ. The Mountain Mystery tells their story.

The study of the Earth’s origin, its composition, the processes that changed and shaped it over time and the fossils preserved in rocks, have occupied enquiring minds from ancient times. The contributions in this volume trace the history of ideas and the research of scholars in a wide range of geological disciplines that have paved the way to our present-day understanding and knowledge of the physical nature of our planet and the diversity of life that inhabited it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Commission on the History of Geology (INHIGEO), the book features contributions that give insights into its establishment and progress. In other sections authors reflect on the value of studying the history of the geosciences and provide accounts of early investigations in fields as diverse as tectonics, volcanology, geomorphology, vertebrate palaeontology and petroleum geology. Other papers discuss the establishment of geological surveys, the contribution of women to geology and biographical sketches of noted scholars in various fields of geoscience.

"You can't really know the place where you live until you know the shapes and origins of the land around you. To feel truly at home in the Bay Area, read Doris Sloan's intriguing stories of this region's spectacular, quirky landscapes."—Hal Gilliam, author of Weather of the San Francisco Bay Region "This is a fascinating look at some of the world's most complex and engaging geology. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in an understanding of the beautiful landscape and dynamic geology of the Bay Area."—Mel Erskine, geological consultant "This accessible summary of San Francisco Bay Area geology is particularly timely. We are living in an age where we must deal with our impact on our environment and the impact of the environment on us. Earthquake hazards, and to a lesser extent landslide hazards, are well known, but the public also needs to be aware of other important engineering and environmental impacts and geologic resources. This book will allow Bay Area residents to make more intelligent decisions about the geological issues affecting their lives."—John Wakabayashi, geological consultant

"The Umbria-Marche Apennines are entirely made of marine sedimentary rocks, representing a continuous record of the geotectonic evolution of an epeiric sea from the Early Triassic to the Pleistocene. The book includes reviews and original research works accomplished with the support of the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco"--