The Geology Of Spain

The Landscapes and Landforms of Spain provides an informative and inviting overview of the geology and geomorphology of Spain. It incorporates a diverse range of topics, ranging from the fiery landscapes of the Canary Islands and its volcanic formations to the glacial scenery of the Pyrenees. The book devotes attention to granite landforms, karst terrains, coastal dunes and marshes, as well as to heritage and conservation, with the objective of offering the reader a comprehensive insight into the Spanish geological setting. The book presents readers with the opportunity to explore Spanish landforms in detail through its highly illustrated pages and maps, making this an appealing text on the subject field.

Taking a new global approach, this unique book provides an updated review of the geology of Iberia and its continental margins from a geodynamic perspective. Owing to its location close to successive plate margins, Iberia has played a pivotal role in the geodynamic evolution of the Gondwanan, Rheic, Pangea, Tethys s.l. and Eurasian plates over the last 600 Ma of Earth's history. The geological record starts with the amalgamation of Gondwana in the Neoproterozoic succeeded by the rifting and spreading of the Rheic ocean; its demise, which led to the amalgamation of Pangea in the late Paleozoic; the rifting and spreading of several arms of the Neotethys ocean in the Mesozoic Era and their ongoing closure, which was responsible for the Alpine orogeny. The significant advances in the last 20 years have attracted international research interest in the geology of the Iberian Peninsula. This volume presents the most comprehensive, careful and updated description of the variscan cycle in Iberia. This volume focuses in the different geological events since the Cambrian-Early Ordovician rift until the late variscan orocline formations including magmatic and metamorphic evolution.

The Geology of the Canary Islands provides a concise overview of the geology and volcanology of the Canary Islands, along with 27 carefully planned day excursions comprising trips on all of the islands. Each stop includes a description on how to approach a site and where to park with GPS locations provided. The book covers all the spectacular features of the islands, including active ocean island volcanoes whose origins are linked to a hot spot or plume causing anomalously hot mantle material to intrude the African plate, submarine volcanic sequences uplifted inside the islands, sub- aerial shield volcanoes, and the remains of giant lateral collapses. Through its clearly written and richly color-illustrated introduction and field guide, this book is essential reading for geologists who visit the Canary Islands, one of the largest and most fascinating active volcanic systems in Europe. Includes a forward by Prof. C. J. Stillman (Trinity College Dublin), a leading expert on the volcanology and geology of the Canary Islands Features 500 full color images, coupled with in-depth introductory text and a chapter on each island, followed by 27 guided excursions that include all of the seven islands of the archipelago Familiarizes the reader with the variety of volcanic landforms and eruptive products in the Canary Islands and provides practical support in recognition, recording, and interpretation Develops understanding of growth, evolution, and destruction of ocean island volcanoes, promoting temporal and spatial thinking within a given geological framework

Taking a new global approach, this unique book provides an updated review of the geology of Iberia and its continental margins from a geodynamic perspective. Owing to its location close to successive plate margins, Iberia has played a pivotal role in the geodynamic evolution of the Gondwanan, Rheic, Pangea, Tethys s.l. and Eurasian plates over the last 600 Ma of Earth's history. The geological record starts with the amalgamation of Gondwana in the Neoproterozoic succeeded by the rifting and spreading of the Rheic ocean; its demise, which led to the amalgamation of Pangea in the late Paleozoic; the rifting and spreading of several arms of the Neotethys ocean in the Mesozoic Era and their ongoing closure, which was responsible for the Alpine orogeny. The significant advances in the last 20 years have attracted international research interest in the geology of the Iberian Peninsula. This volume presents the most comprehensive, and updated description of the Alpine cycle in Iberia. This volume focuses in the different geological events during the Alpine orogeny as well as the lithological succession . This book is of interest not only for scientists of Portugal and Spain but also for geoscientists searching for analogies for oil and gas as well as tourists visiting the main mountain ridges of Iberia such as the Pyrenees.

This monograph presents the state of art of the geologic knowledge about the Spanish coast obtained through scientific research in the last 30 years.From a general point of view, coasts are the most quickly changing systems of the Earth. This is critical, since many human resources, such as the main part of economic and social activities, are located in the coastal areas. Especially in the case of Spain these coasts include cities, wide industrial areas (including harbor complexes), important ecologic systems, and our main economic resource: tourism. Understanding the dynamic functioning of each element of this coast is vital for correct future coastal management, so as to solve problems derived from bad plans developed in the last decades of the twentieth century. This is a valuable text for advanced graduate students and coastal researchers, which connects the specific dynamic functioning of the main Spanish coastal environments and their relationships with human activities.

This book provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of the soils of Spain gathered by a variety of Spanish experts in the field. It presents soils in this country as particularly conditioned by the naturally diverse and drastic distribution of the Spanish landscape, characterized by mountainous ranges in the North, and arid areas in the South and the East. The first chapter sets the agricultural scenario in Spain as influenced by the Arabic culture and American agricultural products; the second chapter provides a classification and distribution of Spanish soils; the third chapter approaches the topic of soils in the characteristically humid Northern Iberia area as prone to diversity and soil evolution; the fourth focuses on the soils of the South and East of Spain as affected by lack of rainfall and abundance in calcic soil horizons; the fifth chapter deals with Mediterranean soils, having as a particular characteristic the dominance of red colors; and the last chapter discusses the challenges and future issues of Spanish soils.

This book is the first comprehensive account in English of the geology of Chile, providing a key reference work that brings together many years of research, and written mostly by Chilean authors from various universities and other centres of research excellence. The 13 chapters begin with a general overview, followed by detailed accounts of Andean tectonostratigraphy and magmatism, the amazingly active volcanism, the world class ore deposits that have proven to be so critical to the welfare of the country, and Chilean water resources. The subject then turns to geophysics with an examination of neotectonics and earthquakes, the hazardous frequency of which is a daily fact of life for the Chilean population. There are chapters on the offshore geology and oceanography of the SE Pacific Ocean, subjects that continue to attract much research not least from those seeking to understand world climatic variations, and on late Quaternary land environments, concluding with an account examining human colonization of southernmost America. The geological evolution of Chile is the c. 550 million year history of a continental margin over 4000 km long. During his voyage on H.M.S. Beagle, an extended visit to Chile (1834-35) had a profound impact on Charles Darwin, especially on his understanding of volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis.