SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences – serie

Modern researchers in plate tectonics may be concerned with the analysis of distributed deformation across diffuse plate boundaries and triple junction zones. This book extends classic methods of kinematic analysis first developed in the 1960s to the more general scenarios of diffuse deformation zones between plates. The analytic methods presented specifically target the non-rigid deformation implied by unstable triple junction configurations. These methods are then applied to the tectonic evolution of western Caribbean region which provides new ways to test and challenge the established Pacific model of Caribbean tectonics. Possible advantages of the new Pirate model of Caribbean tectonics are discussed in terms of paleo-geography and paleo-ocean connections, as well as mineral and hydrocarbon potential and seismic risks across the region.

With respect to the vital work of maintaining and increasing much needed petroleum reserves within the continental United States, the Southeast is intriguing because it has been under-explored for many years at the expense of far more promising areas such as the Gulf Coast. While critics may contend that the overall geology of the Southeastern United States is unfavorable for commercial accumulations of hydrocarbons, the occurrence of the oil seeps in Georgia and the oil and gas shows reported in wells drilled in North Carolina, suggests otherwise. This volume introduces new evidence and compiles and re-examines data which argues for increased oil and gas exploration in the region.

This book demystifies that art and science of seismic interpretation for those with and without formal geophysical training. From geologists to managers and investors, The Art and Science of Seismic Interpretation is a guide to what seismic data is, how it is interpreted, and what it can deliver.

This book offers an up-to-date overview of the coal deposits of South Limburg (Netherlands), the Aachen area (Germany), and the Campine area (Belgium). Although the amount of available literature on these coal deposits is quite vast, the majority of the texts date back to the mid-twentieth century, and most publications focus more on the stratigraphy of the coal layers and the rank of the coal. Moreover, the concept of continental drift is largely ignored in these publications.   In addition to providing updated information, this book also discusses coal mining in these regions; the formation and petrography of coal; and the geological evolution of Western Europe/the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. In order to explain the tropical nature of the flora in the Carboniferous period, paleogeographic aspects are also taken into account.

This book proposes a methodology for the identification of flooding in urban areas, by the denomination of 1) urban hydrographic basin; and 2) polygon of flood risk. This work will enable readers to elaborate a preventive program in Latin America and analogous regions. The authorities could use it as a basis to create urban planning strategies or preventive programs to reduce or eliminate the flooding hazard. The growth of an urban area implies that the natural terrain is covered by an asphalt folder, which results in an Urban Hydrographic Basin where rainwater drains down its streets filtering through sewers towards rainwater drains or wastewater. Initially, the drainages are calculated according to the population in a specific urban area, however, the population growth causes the growth of the urban area, where the old drainages and new roads are linked, causing their saturation and chaos. More water runs down the streets and is accumulated in the lower areas, causing flooding.

This book examines picroilmenites and their ferromagnetic behavior in the kimberlites from the Yakut diamondiferous province. Picroilmenites are minerals used to identify the location of diamonds. The author shows a solid interpretation of the magnetic-mineralogical analysis of ferromagnetic minerals based on a large number of experimental data and modeling of the magnetic state. He also presents the problems of the variability of the composition of picroilmenites from various kimberlite pipes. Furthermore, this book proposes a method to estimate the distribution of the decay structures dimensions, according to the thermomagnetic analysis and coercive spectra of titanomagnetites with the magnetite-ulvospinel decomposition structures.This book will be useful for students and researchers working in the field of rock magnetism, as well as geologists and geophysicists.

This book introduces the scientific basis and engineering practice for CO2 storage, covering topics such as storage capacity, trapping mechanisms, CO2 phase behaviour and flow dynamics, engineering and geomechanics of geological storage, injection well design, and geophysical and geochemical monitoring. It also provides numerous examples from the early mover CCS projects, notably Sleipner and Snøhvit offshore Norway, as well as other pioneering CO2 storage projects.

This book focuses on the mineral deposits from the mining complex of Kazakhstan, including copper ores from the Nikolayevsky and Shemonaikhinsky open-pit quarries, and from the Kazchrome and Konyrat mines in Balkhash. This study assesses the geomechanical conditions of the rock massive, as well as strengthening and reinforcing processes. It develops methods for their assessment and provides detailed instructions on applying the methods. The book also summarizes the latest research and developments in formulating cement solutions to reinforce slopes and suppress dust on the roads of the quarry. The book’s overarching goal is to promote geological and mining engineering conditions that ensure the ecologically safe development of the mineral resource fields. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to mining engineers, researchers, and students in a broad range of geomechanical, geodesic, mining and environmental fields.

This book summarizes the exploration history and provides a framework for assessing the economic potential of the country’s minerals by defining minimal deposit parameters for the various commodities present. Suriname was explored extensively for mineral occurrences in the course of the previous century, indicating the presence of a range of commodities. The country mined and processed bauxite for a century (until 2016), and has an even longer history of small-scale alluvial gold mining; it is currently home to two major gold producers. However, exploration activities have been limited during the past 4 decades as most parts of Suriname’s interior are difficult to access, making geological fieldwork both difficult and expensive. Further, the markets and prices have changed in the interim, which calls for a fresh look at the historic data.

This book discusses methods for measuring the water surface backscattering signature and estimating the near-surface wind vector over water using airborne radars, in addition to their standard application. Airborne FMCW demonstrator system, Doppler navigation system, airborne weather radar, airborne radar altimeter, and airborne precipitation radar are analyzed in order to be used for that purpose. The radars functionality is enhanced for their operation in a scatterometer mode. A circle flight and/or a rectilinear flight of an aircraft over the water surface is considered depending on the radar design features to perform measurements of the azimuth normalized radar cross section curve of the water surface and/or the near-surface wind speed and direction. Flight recommendations to perform measurements along with algorithms for measuring the water surface backscattering signature and for retrieval of the wind speed and direction over water are presented.

This book broadens the reader's knowledge base on lithofacies distribution, facies succession and association, and interpretation of paleo-depositional environments using outcrop-based and measured se¬dimentologic section data integrated with facies and petrographic analyses. Besides, the author also provides step-by¬step workflow that could guide detailed geological field mapping and improve outcrop studies across Middle-Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian–Campanian) successions of Southern Benue Trough and the lower stratigraphic interval of Anambra Basin, outcropping in Afikpo area of Southeastern Nigeria.

This book provides an in-depth review of heavy metals in corals, describing the sources of heavy metals in the marine environment and their effect on corals. It is designed to serve as a unique reference for upcoming marine researchers and chemists, advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as those interested in marine pollution with respect to heavy metals. The book explains the basics as well as the state-of-the-art regarding heavy metals and corals and is engaging and clearly written and narrated, providing readers with the fundamental tools about the subject matter that they need in their specific fields. It allows readers to understand and appreciate the interactions between the atmosphere, ocean, and the geosphere. Detailed reference is included for the benefit of the reader. The specific objectives of this book are (i) to inform/educate the reader about persistent pollutants such as heavy metals, (ii) to identify sources of heavy metals in the marine environment,(iii) to inform about route of exposure and uptake of the heavy metal pollutants by corals, (iv) to elaborate about the effect of heavy metal pollutants on the coral reef ecosystems, (v) to discuss the ways in which heavy metal regulation occurs in corals, (vi) to impact current knowledge regarding heavy metals in the marine environment, and (vii) to briefly show chemical analysis and instrumentation for analyzing heavy metals.

This book aims then to describe in a comprehensible way efforts made over centuries of measuring and understanding the magnetic declination. The book also highlights some important characteristics of the Earth’s magnetic field thanks to the declination measurements. Some applications and societal implications are also underlined.Anyone living in the 21st century knows the best way to navigate is by using a smartphone App.  Decades and centuries ago, in order to find the same way a magnificent instrument was used: the compass.  Despite many being aware of the compass, not everyone appreciates that throughout the ages of exploration, sailors and explorers linked their lives and great discoveries to the  magnetic needle.  Furthermore, is there an awareness of  the Earth’s physical mechanism behind the changes in time and space of the direction indicated by the compass? The magnetic declination is at the center of this book and it helps the reader to understand how to navigate in time and space. The book provides the history of the compass and magnetic declination leading the reader to the understanding of our magnetic planet.This book is designed for those who are fascinated by the long history of geomagnetism. This book relies on reader’s knowledge of elementary scientific concepts, and introduces the geomagnetism concepts as they evaluated in time. The focus is on some basic concepts and physical processes in order to understand the evolution of a specific element of the geomagnetic field, the declination. The primary audience may have just started an interest in the geomagnetism and history of science, as students and researchers. Some readers may have an interest that only touches the geomagnetism, as navigators, geophysicists, historians.

The main focus of this book is to show the challenges specific to shale hydrocarbon recovery and the practices to overcome these challenges. This book starts with an overview to the technological evolution that led to successful production of shale plays, and the implications of the shale being a source rock for its hydrocarbon recovery. The second chapter presents the operations of well drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and monitoring activities. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the available methods for reserve estimation of shale resources followed by comprehensive coverage of decline curve analysis (DCA). In a departure from the mostly empirical rate-time DCA methods covered in Chapter 3, advanced rate-time-pressure analysis – often referred to as rate transient analysis (RTA) - methods are presented in Chapter 4. Chapter 4 ends with discussing the complications of fluid flow in shale reservoirs and the required modeling improvements.

In this book, readers will gain a deep understanding of the distinct characteristics and intricate formation mechanisms behind each type of diamond.A standout feature of this book is its in-depth exploration of nanodiamonds, shedding light on their unique formation processes. The narrative is thoughtfully organized, covering four main categories of natural diamonds and their related formation processes: 1)Interstellar nanodiamond particles; 2) Nano- and microcrustal diamonds associated with coals, sediments, and metamorphic rocks; 3) Nanodiamonds and microdiamonds associated with secondary alterations of mafic and ultramafic rocks mainly in the oceanic lithosphere; 4) Mantle-derived diamonds associated with kimberlites and their xenoliths, such as peridotites and eclogites.With clarity and precision, this book caters to both researchers and students in the fields of mineralogy and mineral formation. This book serves as an invaluable resource, offering an all-encompassing perspective on diamond formation, appealing to those curious minds eager to delve into the captivating realm of these precious gems.

This book presents the study on Ancient Geopolymers in South America and Easter Island regions, exploring the artificial nature of the volcanic rocks used in the construction of Easter Island's statues. Contrary to the belief that the statues were carved and transported, Davidovits suggests they were made on-site using geopolymer technology. He proposes that this knowledge came from Amerindians from the Andes, specifically the Tiahuanaco region near Lake Titicaca. The book is divided into two parts: the first examines geopolymeric artificial stone technologies in the Andes, and the second establishes a connection between these technologies and Easter Island, 3,700 km away. Davidovits' research includes geological expeditions, SEM analysis, petrography, and a comprehensive review of international literature. It is intriguing to observe that in both cases, Pumapunku /Tiwanaku in the Andes and Easter Island, volcanic rocks are involved which contain biological carbon. These discoveries undeniably support the theory of geopolymeric artificial manufacturing, challenging traditional archaeological views.

This book addresses the geohazard of ground subsidence by giving an overview of subsidence processes and their harmful consequences. It discusses newly developed methods of subsidence prediction, and describing techniques to monitor the subsidence and engineering measures in order to control and reduce subsidence impacts. Case studies from China are presented to explain the application of various methods and techniques to investigate, monitor, and mitigate this geohazard under different conditions. The book is intended to promote the concept of environmentally responsible mining with an objective to protect directly affected people and the environment. The target audience of book is students, researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers who are concerned about the environmental effects of underground mining.

This book highlights a detailed high-resolution palynofacies origin and depositional environment, source rock potential, hydrocarbon migration pathway and structural hydrocarbon entrapment mechanisms of the outcrop lithostratigraphic units of the inland Anambra basin. It broadens readers’ geoscientific conceptualization in the appraisal of the quantity and quality of outcrop scale, generated chemical macerated palynofacies elements and kerogen maturation synthesis, palynofacies hydrodynamics and sedimentary structures trapping orientation and configurations, structural mechanics and lateral facies changes. This boils down to perfect comprehension of the sedimentary, palaeontological data and natural plant evolution, growth and depositional processes in order to authenticate their origin and provenance, depositional environment and hydrocarbon production potential within the context of the basin. Presence of texturally mature coarse- to fine-grained sandstones, variable sedimentary structures, internal bed geometries and nature of bedding, age and palynofacies hydrodynamics are vital prognostic stratigraphic and paleoenvironment indices culminated in the kerogen types, organic thermal maturation, seals and reservoir rock quality along with kinematics-driven faults and joints in time and space. These geoscientific concepts were summarily authenticated in the specific objectives and chapter series of this book along with modelled prognosis for potential conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon prospects to contribute more information to oil exploration campaign in the inland basin.

Mining provides country with the necessary natural resources, on the basis of which industry creates means of labor and consumer products, and also provides population with work, builds various infrastructure facilities, and also improves standard of population living.Construction is one of main sectors of country’s economy. For buildings construction, engineering and industrial structures, roads construction, a large number of various building materials are required. Building materials industry faces serious tasks, which consist not only and not so much in increasing output of materials and products, but in improving their quality and expanding production of new efficient materials and products that reduce material and labor intensity of construction.In the last decade, due to industry development and growing demand for building materials, number of explored deposits of building materials and extraction of mineral raw materials for construction industry of region have increased.In 2021, following main types of building raw materials were mined: cement, molding sand, clay, gypsum, quartzite, limestone and dolomite, which will fully ensure the construction of planned facilities.Products of mining and processing enterprises of region (building sand, crushed stone, brick, facing stone, marble, microcalcite, granite, serpentinite, porphyrite, clays of various compositions and other types of raw materials) are supplied not only to local construction enterprises, but also to Chinese enterprises, Russia, the republics of Central Asia and other countries.In recent years, range of building materials has undergone significant changes, both due to use of imported materials, and due to development of production of new materials by domestic enterprises. Simultaneously with urban construction, low-rise construction, including individual, settlement and rural construction, is being developed. To ensure them, it is necessary to increase output of not only traditional building materials mentioned above - brick, cement, asbestos-cement products, timber, but also various local building materials. To ensure normal living conditions for population in settlements and cities, it is also necessary to create a well-developed network of roads. Monograph represents interest to mining engineers, researchers, master students of geomechanical, geodetic, mining and environmental specialties.

This book unravels the deep-time story of the Baltic Sea’s ancient shores—landscapes shaped by the retreat of the last Ice Age and still visible today in raised beaches across Fennoscandia. Relict coastal plant species, surviving for millennia in habitats that mirror long-vanished shorelines, reveal how climate, soil and sunlight once allowed pioneer vegetation to flourish on emerging land. Using luminescence and radiocarbon dating, the authors determine the ages of prehistoric shorelines and even provide a new age estimate for a remarkable rock painting.As land rose unevenly after the Ice Age, rivers shifted their courses; the dramatic outburst of the Kymi River through the First Salpausselkä ridge is traced and dated, along with the ensuing floods and ice-block events recorded in oral tradition and place names. Luminescence analyses also uncover evidence of ancient meltwater rivers flowing under the continental ice more than 60,000 years ago—during a milder interval that allowed mammoths to roam Fennoscandia before the ice returned. A vivid synthesis of geology, paleoecology and cultural history, this book brings to life the dynamic landscapes and climatic shifts that shaped Northern Europe’s past.

This book provides an all-encompassing summary of the geology of Ghana contextualized in relation to the West African Craton. Essential details of all the major belts and basins of the Birimian Supergroup are described. Furthermore, all the relevant aspects of the stratigraphy of the Voltaian Supergroup are discussed. The complexities of the Dahomeyide orogenic belts are also unraveled. Finally, Ghana's mineral and energy resources are showcased as well as geohazards emanating from seismic activities in the country. The aim of this book is to ensure a holistic understanding of the geology of the country.This book will be a great textbook for undergraduate students and a quick reference for geoscience researchers, professionals and investors.

Fossil species appear to persist morphologically unchanged for long intervals of geologic time, punctuated by short bursts of rapid change as explained by the Ecological Evolutionary Units (EEUs). Here, morphological variation in Paleozoic atrypide morphology at the subfamily level (Atrypinae and Variatrypinae) from the Silurian and Devonian time intervals in the third Paleozoic EEU (~444-359 my) were investigated using relatively new techniques of quantitative modeling. The study explains how a group of closely related taxa in atrypide subfamilies exhibit morphological conservation through time in P3 EEU within the Eastern North America region.

This text forms part of material taught during a course in advanced reservoir simulation at Delft University of Technology over the past 10 years. The contents have also been presented at various short courses for industrial and academic researchers interested in background knowledge needed to perform research in the area of closed-loop reservoir management, also known as smart fields, related to e.g. model-based production optimization, data assimilation (or history matching), model reduction, or upscaling techniques. Each of these topics has connections to system-theoretical concepts.The introductory part of the course, i.e. the systems description of flow through porous media, forms the topic of this brief monograph. The main objective is to present the classic reservoir simulation equations in a notation that facilitates the use of concepts from the systems-and-control literature. Although the theory is limited to the relatively simple situation of horizontal two-phase (oil-water) flow, it covers several typical aspects of porous-media flow.The first chapter gives a brief review of the basic equations to represent single-phase and two-phase flow. It discusses the governing partial-differential equations, their physical interpretation, spatial discretization with finite differences, and the treatment of wells. It contains well-known theory and is primarily meant to form a basis for the next chapter where the equations will be reformulated in terms of systems-and-control notation.The second chapter develops representations in state-space notation of the porous-media flow equations. The systematic use of matrix partitioning to describe the different types of inputs leads to a description in terms of nonlinear ordinary-differential and algebraic equations with (state-dependent) system, input, output and direct-throughput matrices. Other topics include generalized state-space representations, linearization, elimination of prescribed pressures,the tracing of stream lines, lift tables, computational aspects, and the derivation of an energy balance for porous-media flow.The third chapter first treats the analytical solution of linear systems of ordinary differential equations for single-phase flow. Next it moves on to the numerical solution of the two-phase flow equations, covering various aspects like implicit, explicit or mixed (IMPES) time discretizations and associated stability issues, Newton-Raphson iteration, streamline simulation, automatic time-stepping, and other computational aspects. The chapter concludes with simple numerical examples to illustrate these and other aspects such as mobility effects, well-constraint switching, time-stepping statistics, and system-energy accounting.The contents of this brief should be of value to students and researchers interested in the application of systems-and-control concepts to oil and gas reservoir simulation and other applications of subsurface flow simulation such as CO2 storage, geothermal energy, or groundwater remediation.

This book is a summary of the history of discovering the moon. The author has been involved in the Apollo program, working with its samples and this book covers these efforts. It describes the analysis methods of lunar samples and their interpretation to understand lunar paleomagnetism. The book has adopted an historical approach throughout, tracing the development of the ideas of the Earth-moon system, of the birth of the space age, of paleomagnetism and finally of lunar magnetism and its evidence for an early lunar dynamo.

The Qattara Depression is part of the Northwestern Desert in Egypt and is home to the second lowest point in Africa at -133 meters below sea level. Therefore, before any projects can be carried out in this area, we must first understand the geology of the land. The present study deals with the high-resolution sequence stratigraphic analysis of the Lower Miocene Moghra Formation outcrops in the Qattara Depression Region. The literature on the sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the Moghra Formation has been sparse to date, despite some excellent work over the years by academic and petroleum workers. Moreover, the area studied is within what was once a front-line of World War II, where mine fields and war relics are scattered and cover wide reaches. This has resulted in limited geologic mapping in the past. Thus, great attention is paid in this study to establishing a robust sedimentology and high-resolution sequence stratigraphic framework for the Lower Miocene Moghra Formation. Included are works based on outcrops and, most importantly, new sedimentological and chronostratigraphic information not previously available.

Discrete Fracture Network Modeling of Hydraulic Stimulation describes the development and testing of a model that couples fluid-flow, deformation, friction weakening, and permeability evolution in large, complex two-dimensional discrete fracture networks.  The model can be used to explore the behavior of hydraulic stimulation in settings where matrix permeability is low and preexisting fractures play an important role, such as Enhanced Geothermal Systems and gas shale.  Used also to describe pure shear stimulation, mixed-mechanism stimulation, or pure opening-mode stimulation. A variety of novel techniques to ensure efficiency and realistic model behavior are implemented, and tested.  The simulation methodology can also be used as an efficient method for directly solving quasistatic fracture contact problems.  Results show how stresses induced by fracture deformation during stimulation directly impact the mechanism of propagation and the resulting fracture network.

The northward migration of the African monsoon rains in summer, associated with the seasonal march of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) across the plains south of the Sahara, is the most critical asset for the livelihoods of indigenous peoples and local economies of the Sahel.  It is essential that climate science (and its publicly available database) play a key role in characterizing the variabilities of these rainfall patterns in space and time if sustainable life styles are to accommodate the expanding populations of the region.  This study turns to the East Sahel of Sudan by analyzing over 100 years of historical rainfall data from three of the few long term standard WMO rain gauge stations in substantially different rainfall settings.  From north to south, transecting the Sahel, the stations with their annual rainfall are Khartoum (130 mm); Kassala (280 mm); and Gedaref (600 mm).  The conclusions challenge a popular notion that changing climate, drought and desertification in the East Sahel may have already accelerated the deterioration of its water resources. However, any evidence of a persistent and coherent regional trend of diminishing rainfall is obscure.  Quite the contrary, the evidence demonstrates that the fluctuations of climate and weather patterns over the ensuing decades of the past century - at all temporal scales from days to years to decades - profoundly overwhelm any suggestion of a large-scale, coherent decrease (or increase) in rainfall.  The implication is that, it is not long term change, but the highly localized interseasonal, interannual and multiannual variability of rainfall that poses the greatest and most immediate societal threat from naturally-induced causes; a process constantly destabilizing an agrarian economy struggling to survive in a climate that irregularly vacillates between years of drought and years of flooding.  While this report may have some interest for climate scientists, it is primarilydirected to a general readership (including students in public policy and anthropology) concerned with the availability of water in the Sahel, particularly the long term sustainability of local small-scale farms and transhumant pastoralism.

The study of disaster statistics and disaster occurrence is a complicated interdisciplinary field involving the interplay of new theoretical findings from several scientific fields like mathematics, physics, and computer science. Statistical studies on the mode of occurrence of natural disasters largely rely on fundamental findings in the statistics of rare events, which were derived in the 20th century. With regard to natural disasters, it is not so much the fact that the importance of this problem for mankind was recognized during the last third of the 20th century - the myths one encounters in ancient civilizations show that the problem of disasters has always been recognized - rather, it is the fact that mankind now possesses the necessary theoretical and practical tools to effectively study natural disasters, which in turn supports effective, major practical measures to minimize their impact. All the above factors have resulted in considerable progress in natural disaster research.Substantial accrued material on natural disasters and the use of advanced recording techniques have opened new doors for empirical analysis. However, despite the considerable progress made, the situation is still far from ideal. Sufficiently complete catalogs of events are still not available for many types of disasters, and the methodological and even terminological bases of research need to be further developed and standardized. The present monograph summarizes recent advances in the field of disaster statistics, primarily focusing on the occurrence of disasters that can be described by distributions with heavy tails. These disasters typically occur on a very broad range of scales, the rare greatest events being capable of causing losses comparable to the total losses of all smaller disasters of the same type.Audience:This SpringerBrief will be a valuable resource for those working in the fields of  natural disaster research, risk assessment andloss mitigation at regional and federal governing bodies and in the insurance business, as well as for a broad range of readers interested in problems concerning natural disasters and their effects on human life.

After a brief review of global tectonics and the structure of the crust and upper mantle, the basic relations of conductive heat transport and the rock thermal properties are introduced as well as the various methods for measuring thermal conductivity and heat generation due to the decay of radioactive elements. The authors analyze geothermal flow and the thermal state of the lithosphere and deep interior and discuss the fundamental problems related to the formation, upwelling mechanisms, solidification and cooling of magmas. The text presents analytical methods that allow us to gain information on heat and groundwater flow from the analyses of temperature–depth data. It also provides ample data and examples to facilitate understanding of the different topics. This book is useful to researchers and graduate students interested in pure and applied geothermics.