This book deals with microbial mats, stromatolites and coated grains. Recent and ancient stromatolitic ecosystems are described in peritidal environments, including siliciclastic, carbonaceous and evaporite-dominated back-barrier systems. Various relevant categories were distinguished: - mat-forming microbiota - environmental conditions controlling mat types and lithology - bioturbation and grazing. Recent and ancient microbial mat systems show a latitudinal arrangement which can be used for paleoclimatological and paleogeographical reconstructions. This book should be of special interest to...

The present study will help answer questions of tree type evolution, function, optimum, and tree construction types, using the approach of constructional morphology which to date has been widely neglected in palaeobotany and botany. First, the evolution pattern of the earliest Devonian trees is analyzed and explained, including a brief introduction of tree biomechanics. Then fossil and recent trees are studied from the viewpoint of constructional morphology with the main emphasis on the trunk as the most characteristic element of a tree. The various trunk constructions are classified into...

This text offers simultaneous treatment of the theory and numerical applications of boundary-value problems related to the determination of a precise geoid from gravimetric data. The following subjects are discussed: topographical effects and their computations in precise gravimetric geoid determination; the downward continuation of a harmonic function; Stokes' problem formulated with ellipsoid of revolution; spherical Stokes' problem with ellipsoidal corrections involved in boundary conditions for an anomalous potential; and the altimetry-gravimetry boundary-value problem. Answers to a...

This volume contains a selection of scientific papers which were presented at an international workshop on the impacts of climatic variability held in Wengen, Switzerland, September 1997. For the first time, an assessment is made of the interactions between physical and biological elements of the Earth System on the basis of shifts in extreme climatic conditions, rather than simply changes in mean atmospheric conditions which research has tended to focus on until recently. Natural ecosystems and forests are typical examples of systems which, while constrained within certain ranges of mean...

This book deals with the application of fractal and nonlinear time-series analysis to seismicity and earthquakes within the framework of earthquake prediction research. Emphasis is on theoretical foundations as well as practical implementation and pitfalls to enable readers to conduct their own analyses. The theoretical parts include introductions to fractals and multifractals, the relation between fractal dimension and entropy, the Hurst phenomenon, basic ideas of low-dimensional chaotic dynamics and a roadmap of nonlinear time-series analysis. Practical implementation is discussed in each...

When spatial data is digitized for use in geographic information systems and other software, information about its original scale, resolution and accuracy is frequently lost.

Turbidite sandstone successions are common elements of the stratigraphic content of sedimentary basins, and are important hydrocarbon reservoirs in many parts of the world. This book addresses the important issue of mass-flow sedimentation modelling in the framework of basin-fill dynamics and sequence stratigraphy. The proposed computer algorithm, based on the slope instability criterion and DEMOSTRAT's diffusion equation, can be used to predict the timing and spatial effects of mass-flow sedimentation in a sedimentary basin under conditions specified by the modeller. This volume is designed...

This collection of conference papers describes state-of-the-art methodologies and algorithms used in the treatment of inverse problems, focusing on seismology and image processing. The papers also describe new general methodologies for analysis and solution of inverse problems by means of statistical and deterministic algorithms. The book gives a glimpse of recent techniques, many of which are still under development.

Steep crustal-scale faults, having their origins in the Late Archean and Early Proterozoic and trending NE-SW, which define the fundamental block lithospheric structure of the North American craton, are seen from geological and geophysical evidence to continue far into the interior of the Late Proterozoic-Phanerozoic Canadian Cordilleran mobile megabelt. This suggests that variously reworked ex-cratonic basement blocks underlie much of the Cordillera. The western edge of the modern craton is probably near the Rocky Mountain-Omineca belt boundary; the Rocky Mountain fold-and-thrust belt on the...