Peter W. Skelton – författare

The rich geological record of the Cretaceous Period reveals a world that experienced extreme climatic warmth and significantly higher global sea levels than today. It therefore provides a natural case study of the Earth in 'greenhouse' climatic mode, which this interdisciplinary textbook analyses from the perspective of Earth System Science. After surveying the evidence for conditions on the Cretaceous Earth, this book explores the interactions between the physical, chemical and biological processes, within the Earth and at its surface. These processes control the prevailing environmental conditions on Earth and the book highlights the major differences between the Cretaceous and the present world. Finally, the mass extinction that terminated the period, and its possible causes, are investigated. Designed for undergraduate and graduate courses, this textbook features chapter summaries, focus boxes, and questions and answers throughout the text. The book is supported by a website hosting sample pages, selected illustrations, and worked exercises.

Carbonate platforms are attracting growing interest as significant components in the history of global climatic and oceanic change, especially those of the Cretaceous "greenhouse" world. The current primary literature in the early-21st century is scattered and relatively inaccessible, so this volume provides the first general survey of the South Tethyan region of integrated carbonate, evaporite and siliciclastic facies, together with up-to-date reviews of topics that are especially relevant to their investigation. The regional surveys cover Egypt (including Sinai), Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. They emphasize the stratigraphy and character of rudist and coral formations, which form the most distinctive platform component, as well as touching on such aspects as eustatic and tectonic context, palaeoecology, diagenesis and resource implications. The general topics covered include modern methods of chemo- and biostratigraphical correlation of platform successions, variation in the nature of platform facies with respect to climatic, oceanic and palaeographic settings, and the palaeoecology and evolution of rudist bivalves.A key source for those working on Cretaceous stratigraphy, palaeogeography and palaeoclimatology, and Tethyan biotas, as well as petroleum geologists concerned with the region.