ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Plates Amalgamation and Plate Destruction, the Western Gondwana History by Ngako Vincent and Njonfang Emmanuel --- Chapter 2: Lithospheric Structure and Tectonics of the Eastern Alps – Evidence from New Seismic Data by Ewald Brückl --- Chapter 3: Structure and Plate Tectonic Evolution of the Northern Outer Carpathians by Jan Golonka, Kaja Pietsch and Paweł Marzec --- Chapter 4: Tectonic Model of the Sinai Peninsula Based on Geophysical Investigations by Taha Rabeh --- Chapter 5: Siberia - From Rodinia to Eurasia by Dmitry V. Metelkin, Valery A. Vernikovsky and Alexey Yu. Kazansky --- Chapter 6: Proto-Basin Types of North China Craton (NCC) in Late Triassic and Its Implication for Regional Tectonics of Initial Craton Destruction by Yang Minghui, Liu Chiyang, Zeng Peng, Bai Hua and Zhou Jin --- Chapter 7: Tectonic Implications of Stratigraphy Architecture in Distal Part of Foreland Basin, Southwestern Taiwan by Jong-Chang Wu, Kenn-Ming Yang, Yi-Ru Chen and Wen-Rong Chi --- Chapter 8: Seismic Hazard in Tien Shan: Basement Structure Control Over the Deformation Induced by Indo-Eurasia Collision by Buslov, Mikhail M. and De Grave, Johan --- Chapter 9: Lithosphere as a Nonlinear System: Geodynamic Consequences by E. G. Mirlin --- Chapter 10: Layer-Block Tectonics, a New Concept of Plate Tectonics - An Example from Nansha Micro-Plate, Southern South China Sea by Hai-ling Liu, Hong-bo Zheng, Yan-Lin Wang, Chao-Hua Wu, Mei-Song Zhao and Yun-Kong Du --- Chapter 11: The Role of Geoelectrical DC Methods in Determining the Subsurface Tectonics Features. Case Studies from Syria by Jamal Asfahani --- Chapter 12: Salt Tectonics of the Lisan Diapir Revealed by Synthetic Aperture Radar Images by Damien Closson, Najib Abou Karaki, Nada Milisavljević, Frédéric Hallot, and Marc Acheroy --- Chapter 13: Mantle-like Trace Element Composition of Petroleum – Contributions from Serpentinizing Peridotites by Peter Szatmari, Teresa Cristina O. da Fonseca and Norbert F. Miekeley

Description / Table of Contents: The study of earthquakes combines science, technology and expertise in infrastructure and engineering in an effort to minimize human and material losses when their occurrence is inevitable. This book is devoted to various aspects of earthquake research and analysis, from theoretical advances to practical applications. Different sections are dedicated to ground motion studies and seismic site characterization, with regard to mitigation of the risk from earthquake and ensuring the safety of the buildings under earthquake loading. The ultimate goal of the book is to encourage discussions and future research to improve hazard assessments, dissemination of earthquake engineering data and, ultimately, the seismic provisions of building codes.

Description / Table of Contents: The field of groundwater hydrology and the discipline of hydrogeology have attracted a lot of attention during the past few decades. This is mainly because of the increasing need for high quality water, especially groundwater. This book, written by 15 scientists from 6 countries, clearly demonstrates the extensive range of issues that are dealt with in the field of hydrogeology. Karst hydrogeology and deposition processes, hydrogeochemistry, soil hydraulic properties as a factor affecting groundwater recharge processes, relevant conceptual models, and geophysical exploration for groundwater are all discussed in this book, giving the reader a global perspective on what hydrogeologists and co-scientists are currently working on to better manage groundwater resources. Graduate students, as well as practitioners, will find this book a useful resource and valuable guide.

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Cyclic Development of Axial Parts of Slow-Spreading Ridges: Evidence from Sierra Leone Area, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 5-7°N by E.V. Sharkov --- Chapter 2: Features of Caucasian Segment of the Alpine-Himalayan Convergence Zone: Geological, Volcanological, Neotectonical, and Geophysical Data by E.V. Sharkov, V.A. Lebedev, A.G. Rodnikov, A.V. Chugaev, N.A. Sergeeva and L.P. Zabarinskaya --- Chapter 3: 3D Modelling and Basement Tectonics of the Niger Delta Basin from Aeromagnetic Data by A.A. Okiwelu and I.A. Ude --- Chapter 4: Seismic Paleo-Geomorphic System of the Extensional Province of the Niger Delta: An Example of the Okari Field by Muslim B. Aminu and Moses O. Olorunniwo --- Chapter 5: Geodynamic and Tectonostratigrafic Study of a Continental Rift: The Triassic Cuyana Basin, Argentina by Silvia Patricia Barredo --- Chapter 6: Role of the NE-SW Hercynian Master Fault Systems and Associated Lineaments on the Structuring and Evolution of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Basins of the Alpine Margin, Northern Tunisia by Fetheddine Melki, Taher Zouaghi, Mohamed Ben Chelbi, Mourad Bédir and Fouad Zargouni --- Chapter 7: An Assessment of the Earthquakes of Ancient Troy, NW Anatolia, Turkey by Akın Kürçer, Alexandros Chatzipetros, Salih Zeki Tutkun, Spyros Pavlides, Süha Özden, George Syrides, Kostas Vouvalidis, Emin Ulugergerli, Özkan Ateş and Yunus Levent Ekinci --- Chapter 8: Paleoseismological Three Dimensional Virtual Photography Method; A Case Study: Bağlarkayası-2010 Trench, Tuz Gölü Fault Zone, Central Anatolia, Turkey by Akın Kürçer and Yaşar Ergun Gökten --- Chapter 9: Structural Geological Analysis of the High Atlas (Morocco): Evidences of a Transpressional Fold-Thrust Belt by Alessandro Ellero, Giuseppe Ottria, Marco G. Malusà and Hassan Ouanaimi --- Chapter 10: Plate Tectonic Evolution of the Southern Margin of Laurussia in the Paleozoic by Jan Golonka and Aleksandra Gawęda --- Chapter 11: Was the Precambrian Basement of Western Troms and Lofoten-Vesterålen in Northern Norway Linked to the Lewisian of Scotland? A Comparison of Crustal Components, Tectonic Evolution and Amalgamation History" by Steffen G. Bergh, Fernando Corfu, Per Inge Myhre, Kåre Kullerud, Paul E.B. Armitage, Klaas B. Zwaan, Erling K. Ravna, Robert E. Holdsworth and Anupam Chattopadhya

Description / Table of Contents: Micas are among the most common minerals in the Earth crust: 4.5% by volume. They are widespread in most if not all metamorphic rocks (abundance: 11%), and common also in sediment and sedimentary and igneous rocks. Characteristically, micas form in the uppermost greenschist facies and remain stable to the lower crust, including anatectic rocks (the only exception: granulite facies racks). Moreover, some micas are stable in sediments and diagenetic rocks and crystallize in many types of lavas. In contrast, they are also present in association with minerals originating from the very deepest parts of the mantle—they are the most common minerals accompanying diamond in kimberlites. The number of research papers dedicated to micas is enormous, but knowledge of them is limited and not as extensive as that of other rock-forming minerals, for reasons mostly relating to their complex layer texture that makes obtaining crystals suitable for careful studies with the modern methods time-consuming, painstaking work. Micas were reviewed extensively in 1984 (Reviews in Mineralogy 13, S.W. Bailey, editor). At that time, “Micas” volume …

Description / Table of Contents: The scientific discoveries that have been made with noble gas geochemistry are of such a profound and fundamental nature that earth science textbooks should be full of examples. Surprisingly, this really is not so. The "first discoveries" include presolar components in our _ solar system, extinct radionuclides, primordial volatiles in the Earth, the degassing history of Mars, secular changes in the solar wind, reliable present day mantle degassing fluxes, the fluxes of extraterrestrial material to Earth, groundwater paleotemperatures and the ages of the oldest landscapes on Earth. Noble gas geochemistry has scored so many such "firsts" or "home runs" that it should permeate a lot of earth science thinking and teaching. Yet rather surprisingly it does not. Noble gas geochemistry also is a broader and more versatile field than almost any other area of geochemistry. It pervades cosmochemistry, Earth sciences, ocean sciences, climate studies and environmental sciences. Yet most modern Earth, planetary and environmental science departments do not consider noble gas geochemistry to be at the top of their list in terms of hiring priorities these days. Furthermore, with the exception of Ar geochronologists, noble gas geochemists are a surprisingly rare breed. Why is the above the case? Perhaps the reasons lie in the nature of the field itself. First, although noble gas geochemists work on big problems, the context of their data is often woefully under-constrained so that it becomes hard to make progress beyond the first order fundamental discoveries. Noble gas data are often difficult to interpret. Although some concepts are straightforward and striking in their immediate implications (e.g. mantle 3He in the oceans), others are to this day shrouded in lack of clarity. The simple reason for this is that in many situations it is only the noble gases that offer any real insights at all and the context of other constraints simply does not exist. Some examples of the big issues being addressed by noble gases are as follows and I have deliberately posed these as major unresolved questions that only exist because noble gas geochemistry has opened windows through which to view large-scale issues and processes that otherwise would be obscure. (1) Is the presolar noble gas component present in a tiny fraction of submicroscopic meteoritic C or is it ubiquitously distributed? (2) How did solar noble gases get incorporated into the Earth? (3) How did solar noble gases survive the protracted accretion of the Earth via giant impacts? (4) What is the origin of the noble gas pattern in the Earth's atmosphere? (5) Why are the Earth and Mars almost opposites in terms of the relative isotopic differences between atmosphere and mantle? (6) What is the Eresent source of Earth's primordial helium? Can we ignore the core? (7) What is the 2~e/ 2Ne of the mantle, how was it acquired and why is it different from the atmosphere? (8) How does one reconcile the stronlJ fractionation in terrestrial Xe with data for other noble gases? (9) How much radiogenic Ar should the Earth have? How well do we know KIU? (10) Are the light isotopes of Xe the same in the mantle and the atmosphere? If not, why not? (11) How are noble gases transported through the creeping solid earth? (12) How does one explain the heat - helium paradox? (13) How incompatible are the noble gases during melting? (14) How are atmospheric components incorporated into volcanic samples? (15) How are the excess air components incorporated into groundwater? (16) Why are continental noble gas paleotemperature records offset from oceanic temperature records? Noble gas data tell us that the Earth and solar system represent very complex environments. When we make our simple first order conclusions and models we are only at the tip of the iceberg of discoveries that are needed to arrive at a thorough understanding of the behavior of volatiles in the solar system. Who wants to hear that things are complicated? Who wants to hire in a field that will involve decades of data acquisition and analysis in order to sort out the solar system? Sadly, too few these days. This is the stuff of deep scientific giants and bold, technically difficult long-term research programs. It is not for those who prefer superficiality and quick, glamorous, slick answers. Noble gas geochemists work in many areas where progress is slow and difficult even though the issues are huge. This probably plays a part in the limited marketability of noble gas geochemistry to the nonspecialist. Second, noble gases is a technically difficult subject. That is, noble gas geochemists need to be adept 11t technique development and this has to include skills acquired through innovation in the lab. Nobody can learn this stuff merely with a book or practical guide. Reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (by Robert Pirsig) would give you a clearer picture. This magnificent MSA-GS volume is going to be enormously useful but on its own it won't make anybody into a noble gas geochemist. Although the mass spectrometry principles are not complex, the tricks involved in getting better data are often self taught or passed on by working with individuals who themselves are pushing the boundaries further. Furthermore, much of the exciting new science is linked with technical developments that allow us to move beyond the current measurement capabilities. Be they better crushing devices, laser resonance time of flight, multiple collection or compressor sources - the technical issues are central to progress. Lastly, noble gas geochemists need a broad range of other skills in order to make progress. They have to be good at mass spectrometry as already stated. However, nowadays they also need to be able to understand fields as different as mantle geochemistry, stellar evolution, cosmochemistry, crustal fluids, oceanography and glaciology. They are kind of "Renaissance" individuals. Therefore, if you are thinking broadly about hiring scientists who love science and stand a good chance of making a major difference to our understanding of the solar system, earth and its environment - I would recommend you hire a really good noble gas geochemist. However, the results may take a while. If you want somebody who will crank out papers at high speed and quickly increase the publication numbers of your department then you may need to think about somebody else. The two are not mutually exclusive but think hard about what is really important. There was no short course associated with this volume, although an attempt was undertaken to get the volume printed in time for the V. M. Goldschmidt conference in Davos, Switzerland (mid-August 2002) at which there was a major symposium on noble gases.

Description / Table of Contents: In the two decades since J. Alexander Speer's Zircon chapter in Orthosilicates (Reviews in Mineralogy, Vol. 5), much has been learned about the internal textures, trace-element and isotope geochemistry (both radiogenic and stable) and chemical and mechanical stability of zircon. The application of this knowledge and the use of zircon in geologic studies have become widespread. Today, the study of zircon exists as the pseudo-discipline of "zirconology" that involves materials scientists and geoscientists from across a range of sub-disciplines including stable and radiogenic isotopes, sedimentology, petrology, trace elements and experimental mineralogy. Zirconology has become an important field of research, so much so that coverage of the mineral zircon in a review volume that included zircon as one of many accessory minerals would not meet the needs or interests of the zirconology community in terms of depth or breadth of coverage. The sixteen chapters in this volume cover the most important aspects of zircon-related research over the past twenty-years and highlight possible future research avenues. Finch and Hanchar (Chapter 1) review the structure of zircon and other mineral (and synthetic) phases with the zircon structure. In most rock types where zircon occurs it is a significant host of the rare-earth elements, Th and U. The abundances of these elements and the form of chondrite-normalized rare-earth element patterns may provide significant information on the processes that generate igneous and metamorphic rocks. The minor and trace element compositions of igneous, metamorphic and hydrothermal zircons are reviewed by Hoskin and Schaltegger in Chapter 2. The investigation of melt inclusions in zircon is an exciting line of new research. Trapped melt inclusions can provide direct information of the trace element and isotopic composition of the melt from which the crystal formed as a function of time throughout the growth of the crystal. Thomas et a!. (Chapter 3) review the study of melt inclusions in zircon. Hanchar and Watson (Chapter 4) review experimental and natural studies of zircon saturation and the use of zircon saturation thermometry for natural rocks. Cation diffusion and oxygen diffusion in zircon is discussed by Cherniak and Watson (Chapter 5). Diffusion studies are essential for providing constraints on the quality of trace element and isotope data and for providing estimates of temperature exposure in geological environments. Zircon remains the most widely utilized accessory mineral for U- Th-Pb isotope geochronology. Significant instrumental and analytical developments over the past thirty years mean that zircon has an essential role in early Achaean studies, magma genesis, and astrobiology. Four chapters are devoted to different aspects of zircon geochronology. The first of these four, Chapter 6 by Davis et a!., reviews the historical development of zircon geochronology from the mid-1950s to the present; the following three chapters focus on particular techniques for zircon geochronology, namely ID-TIMS (Parrish and Noble, Chapter 7), SIMS (Ireland and Williams, Chapter 8) and ICP-MS (Kosier and Sylvester, Chapter 9). The application of zircon chronology in constraining sediment provenance.and the calibration ofthe geologic time-scale are reviewed by Fedo et al. (Chapter 10) and Bowring and Schmitz (Chapter 11), respectively. Other isotopic systematics are reviewed for zircon by Kinny and Maas (Chapter 12), who discuss the application of Nd-Sm and Lu-Hf isotopes in zircon to petrogenetic studies, and by Valley (Chapter 13), who discusses the importance of oxygen isotopic studies in traditional and emerging fields of geologic study. As a host of U and Th, zircon is subject to radiation damage. Radiation damage is likely responsible for isotopic disturbance and promotes mechanical instability. There is increasing interest in both the effect of radiation damage on the zircon crystal structure and mechanisms of damage and recrystallization, as well as the structure of the damaged phase. These studies contribute to an overall understanding of how zircon may behave as a waste-form for safe disposal of radioactive waste and are discussed by Ewing et a!. (Chapter 14). The spectroscopy of zircon, both crystalline and metamict is reviewed by Nadsala et a!. (Chapter 15). The final chapter, by Corfu et al. (Chapter 16), is an atlas of internal textures of zircon. The imaging of internal textures in zircon is essential for directing the acquisition of geochemical data and to the integrity of conclusions reached once data has been collected and interpreted. This chapter, for the first time, brings into one place textural images that represent common and not so common textures reported in the literature, along with brief interpretations of their significance. There is presently no comparable atlas. It is intended that this chapter will become a reference point for future workers to compare and contrast their own images against. The chapters in this volume of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry were prepared for presentation at a Short Course, sponsored by the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) in Freiburg, Germany, April 3-4, 2003. This preceded a joint meeting of the European Union of Geology, the American Geophysical Union and the European Geophysical Society held in Nice, France, April 6-11, 2003.

Description / Table of Contents: The fractal analysis is becoming a very useful tool to process obtained data from chaotic systems in geosciences. It can be used to resolve many ambiguities in this domain. This book contains eight chapters showing the recent applications of the fractal/mutifractal analysis in geosciences. Two chapters are devoted to applications of the fractal analysis in climatology, two of them to data of cosmic and solar geomagnetic data from observatories. Four chapters of the book contain some applications of the (multi-) fractal analysis in exploration geophysics. I believe that the current book is an important source for researchers and students from universities.

Description / Table of Contents: The first half-century of X-ray crystallography, beginning with the elucidation of the sodium chloride structure in 1914, was devoted principally to the determination of increasingly complex atomic topologies at ambient conditions. The pioneering work of the Braggs, Pauling, Wyckoff, Zachariasen and many other investigators revealed the structural details and underlying crystal chemical principles for most rock-forming minerals (see, for example, Crystallography in North America, edited by D. McLachlan and J. P. Glusker, NY, American Crystallographic Association, 1983). These studies laid the crystallographic foundation for modem mineralogy. The past three decades have seen a dramatic expansion of this traditional crystallographic role to the study of the relatively subtle variations of crystal structure as a function of temperature, pressure, or composition. Special sessions on "High temperature crystal chemistry" were first held at the Spring Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (April 19, 1972) and the Ninth International Congress of Crystallography (August 30, 1972). The Mineralogical Society of America subsequently published a special 11-paper section of American Mineralogist entitled "High Temperature Crystal Chemistry," which appeared as Volume 58, Numbers 5 and 6, Part I in July-August, 1973. The first complete three-dimensional structure refinements of minerals at high pressure were completed in the same year on calcite (Merrill and Bassett, Acta Crystallographica B31, 343-349, 1975) and on gillespite (Hazen and Burnham, American Mineralogist 59, 1166-1176, 1974). Rapid advances in the field of non-ambient crystallography prompted Hazen and Finger to prepare the monograph Comparative Crystal Chemistry: Temperature, Pressure, Composition and the Variation of Crystal Structure (New York: Wiley, 1982). At the time, only about 50 publications documenting the three-dimensional variation of crystal structures at high temperature or pressure had been published, though general crystal chemical trends were beginning to emerge. That work, though increasingly out of date, remained in print until recently as the only comprehensive overview of experimental techniques, data analysis, and results for this crystallographic sub-discipline. This Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry volume was conceived as an updated version of Comparative Crystal Chemistry. A preliminary chapter outline was drafted at the Fall 1998 American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco by Ross Angel, Robert Downs, Larry Finger, Robert Hazen, Charles Prewitt and Nancy Ross. In a sense, this volume was seen as a "changing of the guard" in the study of crystal structures at high temperature and pressure. Larry Finger retired from the Geophysical Laboratory in July, 1999, at which time Robert Hazen had shifted his research focus to mineral-mediated organic synthesis. Many other scientists, including most of the authors in this volume, are now advancing the field by expanding the available range of temperature and pressure, increasing the precision and accuracy of structural refinements at non-ambient conditions, and studying ever more complex structures. The principal objective of this volume is to serve as a comprehensive introduction to the field of high-temperature and high-pressure crystal chemistry, both as a guide to the dramatically improved techniques and as a summary of the voluminous crystal chemical literature on minerals at high temperature and pressure. The book is largely tutorial in style and presentation, though a basic knowledge of X-ray crystallographic techniques and crystal chemical principles is assumed. The book is divided into three parts. Part I introduces crystal chemical considerations of special relevance to non-ambient crystallographic studies. Chapter 1 treats systematic trends in the variation of structural parameters, including bond distances, cation coordination, and order-disorder with temperature and pressure, while Chapter 2 considers P-V-T equation-of-state formulations relevant to x-ray structure data. Chapter 3 reviews the variation of thermal displacement parameters with temperature and pressure. Chapter 4 describes a method for producing revealing movies of structural variations with pressure, temperature or composition, and features a series of "flip-book" animations. These animations and other structural movies are also available as a supplement to this volume on the Mineralogical Society of America web site at (http://www.minsocam.orgIMSAlRimlRim41.html). Part II reviews the temperature- and pressure-variation of structures in major mineral groups. Chapter 5 presents crystal chemical systematics of high-pressure silicate structures with six-coordinated silicon. Subsequent chapters highlight temperature- and pressure variations of dense oxides (Chapter 6), orthosilicates (Chapter 7), pyroxenes and other chain silicates (Chapter 8), framework and other rigid-mode structures (Chapter 9), and carbonates (Chapter 10). Finally, the variation of hydrous phases and hydrogen bonding are reviewed in Chapter 11, while molecular solids are summarized in Chapter 12. Part III presents experimental techniques for high-temperature and high-pressure studies of single crystals (Chapters 13 and 14, respectively) and polycrystalline samples (Chapter 15). Special considerations relating to diffractometry on samples at non-ambient conditions are treated in Chapter 16. Tables in these chapters list sources for relevant hardware, including commercially available furnaces and diamond-anvil cells. Crystallographic software packages, including diffractometer operating systems, have been placed on the Mineralogical Society web site for this volume. This volume is not exhaustive and opportunities exist for additional publications that review and summarize research on other mineral groups. A significant literature on the high-temperature and high-pressure structural variation of sulfides, for example, is not covered here. Also missing from this compilation are references to a variety of studies of halides, layered oxide superconductors, metal alloys, and a number of unusual silicate structures.