ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: The invasion of the land by plants (‘terrestrialization’) was one of the most significant evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth, and correlates in time with periods of major palaeoenvironmental perturbations. The development of a vegetation cover on the previously barren land surfaces impacted on the global biogeochemical cycles and the geological processes of erosion and sediment transport. The terrestrialization of plants preceded the rise of major new groups of animals, such as insects and tetrapods, the latter numbering some 24 000 living species, including ourselves. Early land-plant evolution also correlates with the most spectacular decline of atmospheric CO2 concentration of Phanerozoic times and with the onset of a protracted period of glacial conditions on Earth. This book includes a selection of papers covering different aspects of the terrestrialization, from palaeobotany to vertebrate palaeontology and geochemistry, promoting a multidisciplinary approach to the understanding of the co-evolution of life and its environments during Early to Mid-Palaeozoic times.

Description / Table of Contents: This wide area of the Alpine–Himalayan belt evolved through a series of tectonic events related to the opening and closure of the Tethys Ocean. In doing so it produced the largest mountain belt of the world, which extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. The basins associated with this belt contain invaluable information related to mountain building processes and are the locus of rich hydrocarbon accumulations. However, knowledge about the geological evolution of the region is limited compared to what they offer. This has been mainly due to the difficulty and inaccessibility of cross-country studies. This Special Publication is dedicated to the part of the Alpine–Himalayan belt running from Bulgaria to Armenia, and from Ukraine to the Arabian Platform. It includes twenty multidisciplinary studies covering topics in structural geology/tectonics; geophysics; geochemistry; palaeontology; petrography; sedimentology; stratigraphy; and subsidence and lithospheric modelling. This volume reports results obtained during the MEBE (Middle East Basin Evolution) Programme and related projects in the circum Black Sea and peri-Arabian regions.

Description / Table of Contents: This book considers the geology between North and South America. It contributes to debate about the area's evolution, particularly that of the Caribbean. Prevailing understanding is that the Caribbean formed in the Pacific and was engulfed between the Americas as the latter drifted west. Accordingly, the Caribbean Plate comprises internal, Jurassic–Cretaceous oceanic rocks, thickened into a Cretaceous hotspot/plume plateau, with obducted ophiolites and Cretaceous–Palaeogene, subduction-related, intra-oceanic volcanic arc and metamorphosed arc/continental rocks exposed on its margins. An alternative interpretation is that the Caribbean evolved in place. It consists largely of continental crust, extended in the Triassic–Jurassic, which subsided below thick Jurassic–Cretaceous carbonate rocks and flood basalts, and Cenozoic carbonate and clastic rocks. After uplift of ‘oceanic’ and volcanic arc rocks onto (continental) margins, the interior foundered in the Middle Eocene. Papers range from regional overviews and discussions of Caribbean origins to aspects of local geology arranged in a circum-Caribbean tour and ending in the interior. They address tectonics, structure, geochronology, seismicity, igneous and metamorphic petrology, metamorphism, geochemistry, stratigraphy and palaeontology.

Description / Table of Contents: The Mesozoic Era begins with the approximately 50-million-year-long Triassic Period, a major juncture in Earth history when the vast Pangaean supercontinent completed its assembly and began its fragmentation, and the global biota diversified and modernized after the end-Permian mass extinction, the most extensive biotic decimation of the Phanerozoic. The temporal ordering of geological and biotic events during Triassic time thus is critical to the interpretation of some unique and pivotal events in Earth history. This temporal ordering is mostly based on the Triassic timescale, which has been developed and refined for nearly two centuries. This book reviews the state of the art of the Triassic timescale and includes comprehensive analyses of Triassic radio-isotopic ages, magnetostratigraphy, isotope-based and cyclostratigraphic correlations and timescale -relevant marine and non-marine biostratigraphy.

Description / Table of Contents: This volume contains a collection of stratigraphic and diagenetic case studies of Mesozoic and Cenozoic carbonate sequences from the Tethyan realm. High levels of industry and academic interest in the region have generated numerous multi-disciplinary studies of these sequences, a selection of which are presented in this volume. The studies presented are based on both comprehensive subsurface datasets from important hydrocarbon-bearing strata of the Middle East and the excellent surface exposures in the region of interest. The studies presented in this volume may serve as suitable starting points in the development of age and architecture specific carbonate reference models. Such models can form the basis of internally consistent models for carbonate deposition, sequence development and reservoir performance. Ideally such models, suitably scaled, will be equally applicable to academic studies, the exploration and development phases of the field life cycle and in the prediction of future reservoir performance.

Description / Table of Contents: Following the late Neoproterozoic – early Cambrian breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia, Gondwana evolved as one of the principal continental masses on Earth, embracing most of South America, Africa, Australasia, Antarctica, much of western Europe and parts of Asia. Around its margins were various other terranes that had varying tectonic and biogeographical affinities with the main continental block. This book incorporates a series of reviews and multidisciplinary research papers that together explore the tectonic, palaeogeographical and palaeobiogeographical evolution of the elements that made up the peri-Gondwanan collage. The stratigraphical scope of the coverage embraces the late Precambrian through early Devonian, providing a comprehensive overview of structural, stratigraphical and biological evolution through this significant interval of Earth history. Integration of these various processes throughout the volume will be of broad-based interest to a wide range of geoscientists.

Description / Table of Contents: Increasingly, researchers have reported that passive margins do not show a simple uninterrupted thermal sag pattern of post-rift subsidence following continental separation. Rather, the structural and stratigraphic development of such margins may record evidence of complex phases of differential subsidence, exhumation and fold development. Some of the fold structures observed on passive continental margins appear to be related to regional stresses transmitted through basement rocks, whereas others are related to gravitational sliding and toe-thrusting. This special publication concentrates on the first of these categories. The morphology and distribution of such folds, together with potential mechanisms for generation of regional stress, are described in a series of papers by authorities in the field. As well as being an enigmatic feature of passive margin geology, the compressive folds have significance in the exploration for petroleum.

Description / Table of Contents: Introduction: Australian geomorphology into the 21st century / Paul Bishop and Brad Pillans / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 1-6, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.1 --- A theory (involving tropical cyclones) on the formation of coarse-grained sand beach ridges in NE Australia / Jonathan Nott / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 7-22, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.2 --- Sheltered sandy beaches of southwestern Australia / A. Travers, M. J. Eliot, I. G. Eliot and M. Jendrzejczak / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 23-42, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.3 --- Are the Murray Canyons offshore southern Australia still active for sediment transport? / S. Schmidt, P. De Deckker, H. Etcheber and S. Caradec / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 43-55, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.4 --- East Australian marine abrasion surface / Bruce G. Thom, Jock B. Keene, Peter J. Cowell and Marc Daley / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 57-69, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.5 --- Geoarchaeology in Australia: understanding human-environment interactions / Simon J. Holdaway and Patricia C. Fanning / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 71-85, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.6 --- Ecogeomorphology in the Australian drylands and the role of biota in mediating the effects of climate change on landscape processes and evolution / David Dunkerley / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 87-120, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.7 --- History of Australian aridity: chronology in the evolution of arid landscapes / Toshiyuki Fujioka and John Chappell / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 121-139, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.8 --- The Australian desert dunefields: formation and evolution in an old, flat, dry continent / Paul P. Hesse / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 141-164, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.9 --- Advances in Quaternary studies in Tasmania / Eric A. Colhoun, Kevin Kiernan, Timothy T. Barrows and Albert Goede / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 165-183, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.10 --- ‘Of droughts and flooding rains’: an alluvial loess record from central South Australia spanning the last glacial cycle / David Haberlah, Peter Glasby, Martin A. J. Williams, Steven M. Hill, Frances Williams, Edward J. Rhodes, Victor Gostin, Anthony O'Flaherty and Geraldine E. Jacobsen / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 185-223, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.11 --- Eroding Australia: rates and processes from Bega Valley to Arnhem Land / Arjun M. Heimsath, John Chappell and Keith Fifield / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 225-241, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.12 --- Tectonic geomorphology of Australia / Mark C. Quigley, Dan Clark and Mike Sandiford / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 243-265, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.13 --- Lithology and the evolution of bedrock rivers in post-orogenic settings: constraints from the high-elevation passive continental margin of SE Australia / Paul Bishop and Geoff Goldrick / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 267-287, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.14 --- Rethinking eastern Australian caves / R. A. L. Osborne / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 289-308, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.15 --- Oxygen-isotope dating the Yilgarn regolith / Allan. R. Chivas and Julius. R. Atlhopheng / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 346, 309-320, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP346.16

Description / Table of Contents: Magmas are subject to a series of processes that lead to their differentiation during transfer through, and storage within, the Earth's crust. The depths and mechanisms of differentiation, the crustal contribution to magma generation through wall-rock assimilation, the rates and timescales of magma generation, transfer and storage, and how these link to the thermal state of the crust are subject to vivid debate and controversy. This volume presents a collection of research articles that provide a balanced overview of the diverse approaches available to elucidate these topics, and includes both theoretical models and case studies. By integrating petrological, geochemical and geophysical approaches, it offers new insights to the subject of magmatic processes operating within the Earth's crust, and reveals important links between subsurface processes and volcanism.

Description / Table of Contents: Faults are primary focuses of both fluid migration and deformation in the upper crust. The recognition that faults are typically heterogeneous zones of deformed material, not simple discrete fractures, has fundamental implications for the way geoscientists predict fluid migration in fault zones, as well as leading to new concepts in understanding seismic/aseismic strain accommodation. This book captures current research into understanding the complexities of fault-zone internal structure, and their control on mechanical and fluid-flow properties of the upper crust. A wide variety of approaches are presented, from geological field studies and laboratory analyses of fault-zone and fault-rock properties to numerical fluid-flow modelling, and from seismological data analyses to coupled hydraulic and rheological modelling. The publication aims to illustrate the importance of understanding fault-zone complexity by integrating such diverse approaches, and its impact on the rheological and fluid-flow behaviour of fault zones in different contexts.