Unlocking The Stratigraphical Record

Stratigraphy is the key to understanding the Earth, its materials, structure, and past life. By the authors of "The Key to Earth History" (1994), this book explores the advanced tools with which to order and interpret the stratigraphical record.

Stratigraphy is the key to understanding the geological evolution of the earth. It provides the framework for our interpretation of the sequences of events which have shaped the earth throughout its 4600 million years of existence. It provides the timescale with which we can determine the relative order of these events, and it provides the means whereby we can calibrate this using absolute ages in years. Stratigraphy is therefore the most fundamental subject in the science of geology, and all geologists are practising stratigraphers. Traditionally, however, stratigraphy has been considered as a Victorian science, a ponderous process of the naming and cataloguing of innumerable geological units most of which are of limited interest outside of a given geographical region. This view has been challenged in recent years through the development of new techniques such as sequence stratigraphy, cyclostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy which have greatly enhanced our capability to interpret earth history. In this book many of the leading practitioners of modern stratigraphy have been gathered together to provide up-to-date and authoritative reviews of most of the important advances in the subject. As such it is the only volume to provide a comprehensive treatment of modern stratigraphy at an advanced undergraduate level.

Sedimentary rocks contain the most important archive of environmental change through earth history. They record changing climates, the movement of plates, and the rise and fall of sea-level on timescales of a few thousand to billions of years. This fully revised and updated edition introduces the reader to sedimentology and stratigraphic principles, and provides tools for the interpretation of sediments and sedimentary rocks. The processes of formation, transport and deposition of sediment are considered and then applied to develop conceptual models for the full range of sedimentary environments, from deserts to deep seas and reefs to rivers. Different approaches to using stratigraphic principles to date and correlate strata are also considered, in order to provide a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of sedimentology and stratigraphy. The text and figures are designed to be accessible to anyone completely new to the subject, and all of the illustrative material is provided in an accompanying CD-ROM. High-resolution versions of these images can also be downloaded from the companion website for this book at: www.wiley.com/go/nicholssedimentology.

The Key to Earth History introduces students to the basic tools used by geologists to reconstruct the Earth's history, and shows how these tools can be used to chart the pattern of global environmental change since the formation of the Earth some 4600 million years ago. It tells a story of mountain building, climate change and of the evolution of life, and uses the North Atlantic region (Europe and North America) as a study area to illustrate this story. Divided into two parts, the book shows how stratigraphy is the key to understanding the history of the Earth. The first part examines the basic stratigraphical methods used to establish, date and interpret the rock record as the product of a series of events whithin Earth history. The second part presents the results obtained by geologists, who have used these stratigraphical tools to reconstruct the pattern of global environmental change through geological time and focuses on the geological evolution of the North Atlantic region. The Key to Earth History is essential reading for geologists, geographers and environmental scientists, as well as to all those interested in the story of the planet. "The authors provide no one with an alibi for bad stratigraphic teaching!" —Geoscientist "The aims of this introductory textbook are to explain the process and pattern of Earth history, to generate interest and enthusiasm, to make stratigraphy fun and exciting! These aims are admirably achieved." —The Holocene "This is a great little book! I found that, not only was everything covered, but that it was covered in a refreshing, readable, no-nonsense fashion." —Earth Science Reviews "The Key to Earth History really should be compulsory reading for all ... geology students." —Geologie

A Comprehensive review of modern stratigraphic methods. The stratigraphic record is the major repository of information about the geological history of Earth, a record stretching back for nearly 4 billion years. Stratigraphic studies fill out our planet’s plate-tectonic history with the details of paleogeography, past climates, and the record of evolution, and stratigraphy is at the heart of the effort to find and exploit fossil fuel resources. Modern stratigraphic methods are now able to provide insights into past geological events and processes on time scales with unprecedented accuracy and precision, and have added much to our understanding of global tectonic and climatic processes. It has taken 200 years and a modern revolution to bring all the necessary developments together to create the modern, dynamic science that this book sets out to describe. Stratigraphy now consists of a suite of integrated concepts and methods, several of which have considerable predictive and interpretive power. The new, integrated, dynamic science that Stratigraphy has become is now inseparable from what were its component parts, including sedimentology, chronostratigraphy, and the broader aspects of basin analysis.

Stratigraphy has come to be indispensable to nearly all branches of the earth sciences, assisting such endeavors as charting the course of evolution, understanding ancient ecosystems, and furnishing data pivotal to finding strategic mineral resources. This book focuses on traditional and innovative stratigraphy techniques and how these can be used to reconstruct the geological history of sedimentary basins and in solving manifold geological problems and phenomena.

Accessibly written by a team of international authors, the Encyclopedia of Environmental Change provides a gateway to the complex facts, concepts, techniques, methodology and philosophy of environmental change. This three-volume set illustrates and examines topics within this dynamic and rapidly changing interdisciplinary field. The encyclopedia includes all of the following aspects of environmental change: Diverse evidence of environmental change, including climate change and changes on land and in the oceans Underlying natural and anthropogenic causes and mechanisms Wide-ranging local, regional and global impacts from the polar regions to the tropics Responses of geo-ecosystems and human-environmental systems in the face of past, present and future environmental change Approaches, methodologies and techniques used for reconstructing, dating, monitoring, modelling, projecting and predicting change Social, economic and political dimensions of environmental issues, environmental conservation and management and environmental policy Over 4,000 entries explore the following key themes and more: Conservation Demographic change Environmental management Environmental policy Environmental security Food security Glaciation Green Revolution Human impact on environment Industrialization Landuse change Military impacts on environment Mining and mining impacts Nuclear energy Pollution Renewable resources Solar energy Sustainability Tourism Trade Water resources Water security Wildlife conservation The comprehensive coverage of terminology includes layers of entries ranging from one-line definitions to short essays, making this an invaluable companion for any student of physical geography, environmental geography or environmental sciences.