An Introduction To Marine Geology

An account of some aspects of marine geology and marine geophysics, comprehensible to those at an early stage in their study of geology and to scientists who are not specialists in these fields. There are many biologists, chemists, mathematicians or physicists who work in the laboratory or on board ship with geologists and geophysicists and this book will help them to understand the aims of their colleages' experiments. Wherever possible, without a loss of necessary precision, terminology is deliberately simplified.

This textbook deals with the most important items in Marine Geology, including some pioneer work. The list of topics has grown greatly in the last few decades beyond the items identified by Eugen Seibold as central and now includes prominently such things as methane and climate change; that is, the carbon cycle and the Earth system as a whole. Relevant geophysical, geochemical, sedimentological and paleontological methods are shortly described. They should allow the reader to comment on new results about plate tectonics, marine sedimentation from the coasts to the deep sea, climatological aspects, paleoceanology and the use of the sea floor. The text tries to transmit to the reader excitement of marine geological research both aboard and in modern laboratories. Basic mineralogical, geochemical, biological and other relevant data and a detailed list of books and symposia are given in an Appendix. This Introduction builds on the third edition of “The Sea Floor” by E. Seibold and W.H. Berger. While much of the original text was written by Seibold, a considerable portion of the material presented in this edition is new, taking into account the recent great shift in marine geological research, some of it with great relevance to human concerns arising in a rapidly changing world.

This fully revised and expanded edition of "Marine Geology closely examines the interrelationship between water and its life forms and geologic structures. It looks at several ideas for the origins of the Earth

The present volume is the first in a series of two books dedicated to the paleoceanography of the Late Cenozoic ocean. The need for an updated synthesis on paleoceanographic science is urgent, owing to the huge and very diversified progress made in this domain during the last decade. In addition, no comprehensive monography still exists in this domain. This is quite incomprehensible in view of the contribution of paleoceanographic research to our present understanding of the dynamics of the climate-ocean system. The focus on the Late Cenozoic ocean responds to two constraints. Firstly, most quantitative methods, notably those based on micropaleontological approaches, cannot be used back in time beyond a few million years at most. Secondly, the last few million years, with their strong climate oscillations, show specific high frequency changes of the ocean with a relatively reduced influcence of tectonics. The first volume addresses quantitative methodologies to reconstruct the dynamics of the ocean andthe second, major aspects of the ocean system (thermohaline circulation, carbon cycle, productivity, sea level etc.) and will also present regional synthesis about the paleoceanography of major the oceanic basins. In both cases, the focus is the “open ocean leaving aside nearshore processes that depend too much onlocal conditions. In this first volume, we have gathered up-to-date methodologies for the measurement and quantitative interpretation of tracers and proxies in deep sea sediments that allow reconstruction of a few key past-properties of the ocean( temperature, salinity, sea-ice cover, seasonal gradients, pH, ventilation, oceanic currents, thermohaline circulation, and paleoproductivity). Chapters encompass physical methods (conventional grain-size studies, tomodensitometry, magnetic and mineralogical properties), most current biological proxies (planktic and benthic foraminifers, deep sea corals, diatoms, coccoliths, dinocysts and biomarkers) and key geochemical tracers (trace elements, stable isotopes, radiogenic isotopes, and U-series). Contributors to the book and members of the review panel are among the best scientists in their specialty. They represent major European and North American laboratories and thus provide a priori guarantees to the quality and updat of the entire book. Scientists and graduate students in paleoclimatology, paleoceanography, climate modeling, and undergraduate and graduate students in marine geology represent the target audience. This volume should be of interest for scientists involved in several international programs, such as those linked to the IPCC (IODP – Integrated Ocean Drilling Program; PAGES – Past Global Changes; IMAGES – Marine Global Changes; PMIP: Paleoclimate Intercomparison Project; several IGCP projects etc.), That is, all programs that require access to time series illustrating changes in the climate-ocean system. Presents updated techniques and methods in paleoceanography Reviews the state-of-the-art interpretation of proxies used for quantitative reconstruction of the climate-ocean system Acts as a supplement for undergraduate and graduate courses in paleoceanography and marine geology

Man's understanding of how this planet is put together and how it evolved has radically changed during the last twenty years. This great revolution in geology now usually subsumed under the concept of Plate Tectonics and its ramifications - was an outgrowth of the study of the ocean floor. In its impact on the earth sciences, it is comparable to the revolution brought about by Charles Darwin (1809-1882) a century ago. The evolution of the biosphere was the focal point at that time. We are now discussing the evolution of the lithosphere, the uppermost 100 km of the Earth. Darwin drew his inspiration from observations made during the voyage of the Beagle, and his work gave strong impetus to the first global oceanographic expedition, the voyage of HMS Challenger (1872-1875). Ever since, oceanographic research has been intimately associated with fundamental advances in the knowledge of Earth. This should come as no surprise. After all, our planet's surface is mostly ocean. This booklet is the result of our conviction that to study introductory geology and oceanography and environment al science, one needs a summary of the tectonics and morphology of the sea floor, of the geologic processes active in the deep sea and in shelf seas, and of the climatic re cord in deep sea sedi ments. Our aim is to give abrief survey of these topics.