This book documents and interprets the onshore Cenozoic temperate carbonate depositional system along the southern margin of Australia. These strata, deposited in four separate basins, together with the extensive modern marine system offshore, comprise the largest such cool-water carbonate system on the globe. The approach is classic and comparative but the information is a synthesis of recent research and new information. A brief section of introduction outlines the setting, modern comparative sedimentology offshore, and structure of the Cenozoic onshore. The core of the book is a detailed analysis and illustration of the four Eocene to Pleistocene successions. Deposits range from temperate carbonates, to biosiliceous spiculites, to marginal marine siliciclastics. Each unit is interpreted, as much as possible, based on our understanding of the modern offshore depositional system. A subsequent part concentrates on diagenesis both before and after the late Miocene uplift. It turns out that alteration in the two packages is entirely different. The preceding attributes of each succession are then interpreted on the basis of controlling factors such as tectonics, oceanography, climate, and glaciation of nearby Antarctica. This research has revealed new implications for the interpretation of specific attributes of cool-water carbonate sedimentology that could only be discovered from the rock record. Insights concerning cyclicity, reef mounds, biosiliceous deposition, and trophic resources are detailed in the next section. The concluding part focuses on global comparisons, especially the Mediterranean and New Zealand.

Science, the growth of reliable knowledge, became a major triumph of the European Enlightenment in the seventeenth century, under the guise of ‘natural philosophy’: investigating what the earth and universe are made of and how things work. It took another century for the parallel subject ‘natural history’ to glimpse how the earth, its geography and its richly diverse life came to be. Later, geology and biology became intertwined as biogeohistory—an ever-changing environmental theatre hosting an ever-changing evolutionary play. This environmental theatre has shifted with the making and breaking of supercontinents, the birth and death of global oceans, and the rise and fall of global hothouses and ice ages. The evolutionary play begins with biostratigraphy, wherein fossils revealed deep time and ancient environments and built the first meaningful geological timescale, and ends with the still young science of palaeoceanography—central to which are microfossils, rich in information about the oceans and climates of the past. In Southern Limestones under Western Eyes, Brian McGowran recounts the history of biogeohistory itself: the ever-changing perceptions of rocks, fossils and landscapes, from the late 1600s to the present. McGowran’s focus is southern Australia, the north shore of the dying Australo-Antarctic Gulf, in an era bracketed by two catastrophes: the extinction of dinosaurs and the emergence of humans.

'Deep-Sea Sediments' focuses on the sedimentary processes operating within the various modern and ancient deep-sea environments. The chapters track the way of sedimentary particles from continental erosion or production in the marine realm, to transport into the deep sea, to final deposition on the sea floor.

This is a discount Black and white version. Some images may be unclear, please see BCCampus website for the digital version.This book was born out of a 2014 meeting of earth science educators representing most of the universities and colleges in British Columbia, and nurtured by a widely shared frustration that many students are not thriving in courses because textbooks have become too expensive for them to buy. But the real inspiration comes from a fascination for the spectacular geology of western Canada and the many decades that the author spent exploring this region along with colleagues, students, family, and friends. My goal has been to provide an accessible and comprehensive guide to the important topics of geology, richly illustrated with examples from western Canada. Although this text is intended to complement a typical first-year course in physical geology, its contents could be applied to numerous other related courses.

Clays and soils are of great importance in various scientific fields, such as agriculture and environmental science, and in mineral deposits. Students and close collaborators of Georges Millot, the eminent French clay sedimentologist, have put together a book with topics ranging from weathering processes and diagenetic evalution of sediments to sedimentary mineral deposits. The book is of interest to practitioners, advanced students as well as teachers in the above fields.

This book introduces a 'Big History' perspective to understand the acceleration of social, technological and economic trends towards a near-term singularity, marking a radical turning point in the evolution of our planet. It traces the emergence of accelerating innovation rates through global history and highlights major historical transformations throughout the evolution of life, humans, and civilization. The authors pursue an interdisciplinary approach, also drawing on concepts from physics and evolutionary biology, to offer potential models of the underlying mechanisms driving this acceleration, along with potential clues on how it might progress. The contributions gathered here are divided into five parts, the first of which studies historical mega-trends in relation to a variety of aspects including technology, population, energy, and information. The second part is dedicated to a variety of models that can help understand the potential mechanisms, and support extrapolation. In turn, the third part explores various potential future scenarios, along with the paths and decisions that are required. The fourth part presents philosophical perspectives on the potential deeper meaning and implications of the trend towards singularity, while the fifth and last part discusses the implications of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars from various disciplines interested in historical trends, technological change and evolutionary processes.

This textbook provides an overview of the origin and preservation of carbonate sedimentary rocks. The focus is on limestones and dolostones and the sediments from which they are derived. The approach is general and universal and draws heavily on fundamental discoveries, arresting interpretations, and keystone syntheses that have been developed over the last five decades. The book is designed as a teaching tool for upper level undergraduate classes, a fundamental reference for graduate and research students, and a scholarly source of information for practicing professionals whose expertise lies outside this specialty. The approach is rigorous, with every chapter being designed as a separate lecture on a specific topic that is encased within a larger scheme. The text is profusely illustrated with all colour diagrams and images of rocks, subsurface cores, thin sections, modern sediments, and underwater seascapes. Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/james/carbonaterocks

This is an accessible introductory text which encompasses both sedimentary rocks and stratigraphy. The book utilizes current research in tectonics and sedimentation and focuses on crucial geological principles. It covers a wide range of topics, including trace fossils, mudrocks and diagentetic structures.