Volcanic plumes, made up of material that has explosively erupted from a volcano, are of fundamental importance to volcanology because their deposits record the past activity of a volcano. They also pose a wide range of hazards to humans and can have significant environmental effects. This book integrates observation, theory, and experimental studies and contains recent research ideas and results.

How can we understand and rise to the environmental challenges of global change? One clear answer is to understand the science of global change, not solely in terms of the processes that control changes in climate and the composition of the atmosphere, but in how ecosystems and human society interact with these changes. In the last two decades of the twentieth century, a number of such research effortsâ€"supported by computer and satellite technologyâ€"have been launched. Yet many opportunities for integration remain unexploited, and many fundamental questions remain about the earth's capacity to support a growing human population. This volume encourages a renewed commitment to understanding global change and sets a direction for research in the decade ahead. Through case studies the book explores what can be learned from the lessons of the past 20 years and what are the outstanding scientific questions. Highlights include: Research imperatives and strategies for investigators in the areas of atmospheric chemistry, climate, ecosystem studies, and human dimensions of global change. The context of climate change, including lessons to be gleaned from paleoclimatology. Human responses toâ€"and forcing ofâ€"projected global change. This book offers a comprehensive overview of global change research to date and provides a framework for answering urgent questions.

Russia is a huge storehouse of natural resources, including oil, gas, and other energy sources, which she can trade with the rest of the world for advanced technology and wheat. In this book, leading experts evaluate the Soviet potential in major energy and industrial raw materials, giving special attention to implications for the world economy to the end of the twentieth century. The authors examine the mineral and forest resources that the Soviet Union has developed and may yet develop to provide exports during the 1980s. They discuss the regional dimension of these resources, especially in Siberia and the Soviet Far East; individual mineral raw materials, such as petroleum, natural gas, timber, iron ore, manganese, and gold; and finally the role of raw materials in Soviet foreign trade. The authors, representing the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, are primarily geographers, but they include economists, political scientists, and a geologist. Their work is based on primary sources (for most of these reports, current information is no longer being released to researchers) and on interviews with Soviet officials.

"Gallagher, Timothy O'Grady, Glenn Patterson, Patrick McCabe, and many others - offer creative reflections on Healy's work, while literary critics provide a wide-ranging foundation for future Healy scholarship. In total, over forty contributors. Writing the Sky: Observations and Essays on Dermot Healy is a comprehensive collection of critical essays, memoirs, poetry, and other writerly responses devoted to the life and work of the late Dermot Healy (1947-2014). Healy was an accomplished poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and editor, and so these essays and observations address the entire range of his eclectic and exciting oeuvre. While paying due tribute to the memory of the man himself, the collection primarily seeks to establish a series of important critical perspectives through which Healy's writings can be properly viewed and assessed. Contemporary writers and poets - including Colm Tóibín, Neil Jordan, Aidan Higgins, Alannah Hopkin, Kevin Barry, Annie Proulx, Michael Longley, Roddy Doyle, Tessors from more than a dozen countries provide insight into one of Ireland's most powerful and unique literary voices. This collection is absolutely crucial for everyone interested in the work of Dermot Healy and for all devotees of Irish literature" --

An exciting account of revolutionary new discoveries for understanding the earth's climate, and their implications for future scientific research and global environmental policy.

This book is one out of 8 IAEG XII Congress volumes, and deals with the theme of urban geology. Along with a rapidly growing world population, the wave of urban growth continues, causing cities to swell and new metropolitan centers to emerge. These global trends also open new ventures for underground city development. Engineering geology plays a major role in facing the increasing issues of the urban environment, such as: finding aggregates for construction works; providing adequate water supply and waste management; solving building problems associated to geological and geomorphological conditions; evaluating host rock conditions for underground constructions; preventing or mitigating geological and seismic hazards. Furthermore, this book illustrates recent advancements in sustainable land use planning, which includes conservation, protection, reclamation and landscape impact of open pit mining and alternative power generation. The Engineering Geology for Society and Territory volumes of the IAEG XII Congress held in Torino from September 15-19, 2014, analyze the dynamic role of engineering geology in our changing world and build on the four main themes of the congress: environment, processes, issues and approaches. The congress topics and subject areas of the 8 IAEG XII Congress volumes are: 1. Climate Change and Engineering Geology 2. Landslide Processes River Basins 3. Reservoir Sedimentation and Water Resources 4. Marine and Coastal Processes Urban Geology 5. Sustainable Planning and Landscape Exploitation 6. Applied Geology for Major Engineering Projects 7. Education, Professional Ethics and Public Recognition of Engineering Geology 8. Preservation of Cultural Heritage