1 comments about Exercises in Physical Geology (12th Edition).

1. When I purchused this item, my main concern was about the condition of the book. The book is in great condition and I am happy with the product.

No comments about Applications and Investigations in Earth Science (5th Edition).

No comments about Reservoir Geomechanics.

5 comments about Earth's Dynamic Systems (10th Edition) (Earth's Dynamic Systems).

1. Hamblin y Christiansen han creado el perfecto balance entre lo esencialmente tecnico y lo ampliamente comprensible. Es una obra que durara toda la vida en manos de geologos, geofisicos y cualquier amante del estudio del planeta tierra.

   Un exelente libro que, por su excesivo costo para latinoamérica, está fuera del alcance de muchos estudiantes quienes continuaremos estudiando en la bibliotecas.

   Una exelente obra de los autores y un muy mal acto de la editora.




2. I own a copy of the fifth edition of this book. I am a science junkie and enjoy reading science text books. I find geology particularly interesting and over the years I have read dozens and dozens of geology textbooks. Earth's Dynamic Systems is by far the best I have ever read. If I was ever to teach a geology class, this is the book I would use. The line of thinking is so clear and logical in this book it is a joy to read. The illustrations are among the best I have ever seen and I have just the old the 5th ed. Generally when there are a number of good books on a given subject, they are all pretty much the same in quality. But that is not the case here, this book is head and shoulders above all other geology books. The edition I have also came with a lab manual that I also highly recommend. A wonderful set of books I am proud to own. If you are looking for a definitive single book that best covers all of geology, this is it. In this one book is more geology than in several other books put together. If you thoroughly read this book, you will know geology better than most geologists, it really is that good.



3. This book was advertised as the 10th edition, but was really the 9th edition. The seller contacted me and offered my money back or a discount, but I didn't respond promply to the email, so I ended up with the book anyway. I ended up buying it from the bookstore too. This books seemed to be the same, exempt the chapters were in different orders. I felt that is was my fault for not responding to the email, but advertising the right edition I think is key if you are going to sell books online.



4. i find it hard to understand the concepts



5. Another great book. useful not only for a student but even for a graduated geologist, where you can find all the basic concepts explained in an exceptional way.

4 comments about Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences, Volume 91, Second Edition (International Geophysics).

1. Like the first edition, this book is an excellent and thorough overview of statistical methods used in the atmospheric sciences.
   The main updates which are included in the second edition are the six final chapters (chapters 9-14) which cover multi-variate statistical methods as an expansion of that covered in one chapter of the first edition.
   An excellent reference text for many geophysical researchers.



2. This book is surely one of the worst statistical books in my library. If anyone is in need of a reference for some of the statistical methods commonly used in atmospheric sciences, I would suggest you look elsewhere



3. I judge the usefulness of a book by how quickly I can learn something new and apply it to the problem I am currently working on. Most statistics books, judged by this criteria, fail miserably. But here is a book that not only succeeds, but succeeds so well I actually find myself getting excited about reading the next chapter, which has nothing to do with the problem at hand! By confining himself to just a handful of simple data sets, Wilks makes it possible to work though the examples in detail and in a variety of ways. But the most important benefit to me is that I can immediately turn his examples into software code (I use IDL), which I can use to solve my problem. Unlike so many books, which provide the broad theoretical strokes, but leave the details in shadow, Wilks explains the details in simple, straightforward language. His explanation of harmonic analysis and FFT spectral analysis was so crystal clear I believe it was the first time I thought I truly understood this important concept. I can imagine there will be statisticians who will not like this book. But for those of us working with environmental data who need to know some statistics to get our work done, this book is a godsend.



4. I highly recommend this book for those interested in atmospheric science statistical methods. Three cheers and five stars for this great book.

1 comments about Beyond the Moon: A Conversational, Common Sense Guide to Understanding the Tides.

1. Come on, admit it, you always thought you knew exactly what caused the tides, and why the Bay of Fundy has such a large tidal range! Hah! You only thought you knew. Now, thanks to Dr. Jim McCully's easy to read treatise, you will soon be able to impress all of your friends with great knowledge. Who knows, you might win some trivia contest!
   
   No, seriously, this is a readable and witty explanation of all of the many factors that go into the tidal process. This book patiently explains why tides come and go, why some areas have more than two tides per day, and where the water goes when it goes. Dr. McCully is a knowledgeable researcher and an entertaining writer who makes all the physics and astronomy easy to understand. If you have curiosity about all things natural, if you are a yachtsman or woman, or if you love to fish (as does the author), you will find this book incredibly interesting and helpful.

5 comments about Supercontinent: Ten Billion Years in the Life of Our Planet.

1. Based on the subtitle of this book, I was expecting details on the changes in the earth's crust/continents over the last 10 billion years -- a very interesting survey that would be! However, the author begins with a parable on what an alien visitor would see from outer space, suitable for teenage readers, after which the bulk of the book is a survey of the history of plate tectonics. This survey focuses on the individuals involved, jumping back and forth between them, and offers little real information. It is not particularly scientific but would instead be a history of the research, with bios of the scientists/philosophers. I ended up skimming in order to find the kind of info I was looking for. Also, to note, the illustrations don't have captions, so you aren't entirely sure what you are looking at or where/why it applies to the text.



2. "Did the Earth move for you?", asks the voice beside you. Well, yes. Because that's what it does. All the time. The continent you live on used to be someplace else, and far away from where it is now. Your home ground has even been part of a greater landmass known as a "supercontinent" - and will be again. Hence, the title of this book. Ted Nield provides us with a fine account of how we came to learn about these movements. He has brought together the years of research tracking where the rocks have been and where they are likely to go. He likens the movement of continents to a dance of landforms - a "Grand Quadrille". A fine synopsis of the history of geology and its compelling figures - scholars who had to project what was known in their time back into a distant past.
   
   Earth has been a busy place for the past four billion years, and it hasn't stopped to rest. We speak of the "firmness of the Earth", but that phrase is a sham. The key figure in this story is the great supercontinent of Pangaea that began breaking up 250 million years ago. Assembled from previous continents that had once joined and also separated, Pangaea's breakup into places we live on today have been traced in exquisite detail. The matching of rocks in places separated by wide seas provided the clues. In fact, as Nield relates, it was the vast Atlantic that bears the responsibility for Pangaea's fracturing to form the basis for the continents we know today. The author explains how the continents have been engaging in a Grand Quadrille and will continue to do so - for another five billion years, at least.
   
   The progenitor of the idea of "drifting continents" was Alfred Wegener. Using maps to show how western Eurasia and Africa matched the east coasts of the Western Hemisphere, Wegener proposed they had once been joined, but had pulled apart. He couldn't provide a mechanism for the movement, and his idea was rejected - most notably by the geologic "establishment" of the United States. Rejection of the proposal was so strong there that one British geologist described it as "regarding the Declaration of Independence as retroactive to the Palaeozoic". Continents formed separately and remained so through time, it was thought.
   
   However, one US dissident, Reginald Daly of Harvard, had been in South Africa, encountering the work of Alexander du Toit, who noted similarities in rocks of the Great Karoo and South America. That discovery, enhanced by some detailed measurements in Greenland, suggested that movement was occurring. It took a war and the hunt for submarines to reveal what prompted continental movement. An Irish geophysicist, John Joly had already postulated the mechanism, heat from radioactive elements deep in the Earth required escape. That venting pushed the softer areas in the Earth's crust around. Sitting atop that stirring material, the continents track the flow patterns of the heat.
   
   In moving, the continents encounter each other, joining, fusing and establishing mighty landmasses that break up again. Nield skilfully describes the mechanisms and the people who have read the rocks to understand how they work. Beyond Pangaea, for example, the author cites the work of Mark McMenamin, who proposes a yet older supercontinent, Rodinia. Rodinia's importance in the history of the Earth is that it was probably the extant landform around which complex life, after over 3 billion years, finally emerged. Nield's skill in presenting all these complex ideas and their significance never wanes throughout the book. He's achieved a fine summary of the history of modern geology, supported by a collection of portraits and some line drawings. The emphasis on Pangaea is slightly overdone, but his pointer to Chris Scotese's web page of geologic ages more than overcomes that small limitation. An excellent overview. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]



3. This book tackles the great subject of the geologic history of the Earth from the vantage point of plate tectonics. Along the way, the author writes compellingly of the origins and development of life and the history of our atmosphere. He also gets side-tracked in biographies of some key geologists in the Continental Drift controversy as well as a light-hearted discussion of fictitious 'Lost Continents'. Luckily the book is organized in such a way that these digressions can be skipped if desired. My main objection in this book is the lack of good and relevent illustrations and maps. At the very least, a detailed stratigraphic chart relating geologic periods to continent-building and other events would be helpful. Also, maps detailing the assembly and disassembly of the supercontinents would greatly enhance his narrative of these events.
   
   In many ways this is a wonderful and informative work. Paradoxically, it is not an easy read in the most interesting sections but it is well worth the effort.



4. It's interesting in a sense that if it had been someone other than Neild writing this book, I probably would have given it five stars. As it is however, the presentation of the subject matter is at times vague and at other times condascending. Science is always evolving as new ideas are put forward and old ones become obselete. As such, there's no need to criticize old ideas, even if they've been rendered null and void.
   
   The science is still good though, so I'd recomend picking this book up.



5. In this remarkable book, the author touches upon just about everything regarding long lost continents: how the idea of a supercontinent came about, ancient and not-so-ancient myths (Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu), why continents cannot simply sink, highlights in the lives of some of the individuals involved and, in particular, the fascinating science. After discussing how the existing continents are moving relative to each other (continental drift) and how they will likely collide in the distant future, thus forming another supercontinent, he discuses the supercontinents of the past. In so doing, the reader is treated to a history of the earth and how it works, brimming throughout with scientific facts, principles as well as theories and the evidence that supports them. The scientific processes involved and the dating techniques that are used by scientists are particularly well explained; this is not surprising given the author's credentials. The writing style is clear, elegant, authoritative, often witty and always quite engaging. As a result, this is a book that can be enjoyed by anyone, although science/geology buffs may be the ones that would savor it the most.

5 comments about Earth System, The (2nd Edition).

1. Earth System Science is a new field, one that evolves much more quickly than textbooks can be revised. This one is as current as you can expect, and it approaches the field of science in a much better way than any other textbook I have seen. In particular, most earth system texts approach the field by morphing from a traditional discipline. Usually, it's a geology textbook revised to include atmospheric, oceanic, and climatic studies. But earth system science requires an interdisciplinary approach from the start, a problem based approach. Our global environmental problems need this approach, and this book covers them in a reasonably detailed and accurate manner.



2. Kump has worked with James Lovelock of 'Gaia' fame on modelling Daisyworld. I'll let the reviewer discover what that means in this title.(But also see REVENGE OF GAIA, 2006, for Lovelock's predictions for our heating planet).
   This is the best book for geoscientists and geographers in training who have an interest in climate past, present, and future. An excellent college level scientific supplement to popular works on climate change and earth systems science.



3. I'm a prof at a small liberal arts college, and I love using this text in my upper level course on global change. It works well with non-science majors, as well as with the more advanced science students. It does a superb job with climate change science, which is one of the major focii in my course. It doesn't hesitate to use real physics, math, and chemistry, yet at the same time is accessible to the non-science folks. Lee Kump is one of the premiere geoscientists in the field, and he has lent his broad understanding to this excellent text. It might also be fun to simply read the book if you are not a student.



4. I read this book outside of a class context. I am not well-versed in chemistry or geology (both are very important in earth science), but I was able to understand a majority of The Earth System. The book is lucidly written and provides a fine analysis of the dynamics of both small and large-scale planetary change.
   
   I bought and read The Earth System with the goal of understanding the science behind global warming: little did I know what a tall order that was! Global climate is enormously complex and contains far more variables than the layman would imagine. Scientists do not and probably will not understand global warming in the same way that they understand less complex phenomena.
   
   The climate system is Chaotic. The best we can do is understand the causal relations that exist within it, plug observed data into computers, and hope that the predictions based on computer modeling will be accurate.
   
   Current modeling technology will predict today's climate by running simulations on what we know of conditions on Earth 150 years ago. The agreement between a variety of simulations that predict future climate based on current conditions is the basis of the scientific consensus that global warming will occur.



5. Book is in acceptable condition, but I wasn't worried about it. Came just in time

5 comments about The Deep Hot Biosphere : The Myth of Fossil Fuels.

1. Running out of oil?? Hardley!!! The earth PRODUCES oil...............ongoing!! We will never run out. Read this Great book.



2. 1. Pores within rock, like cells within living organisms, can be maintained at very high pressures, sol long as the fluid that occupies the pores or cell exerts an outward pressure as great as the opposing pressure of the surroundings.
   
   2. Under the abiogenic theory, if oil and gas are flowing upwards from deep high pressure levels any caprock. No rock has a significant tensile strength, so no rock can hold down a flue that comes up with a pressure greater than that exerted by the weight of the overburden. A caprock will create a concentration of the fluids below it, but he steady flow rate will eventually be reestablished at a value equal to the flow rate at the deep source. For example, a dam causes a lake to form on the upstream side, but after the lake has filled, the flow rate rate resumes.
   
   3. If oil and gas have indeed come up from below, we can expect a vertical series of deeper reservoirs to be stacked below the producing field.
   
   4. If the uppermost domain has fluid pressure decreased by production of oil or gas, then the pressure differential across the crushed layer of low permeability will automatically increase. Transport through that layer will therefore accelerate. The top field will be replenished at a rate given by the leakage from below, when the delicate pressure balance between rock and fluid has been change. The top field will be drawing on the deeper reserves that have not been accessed directly.
   
   5. Petroleum reservoirs seem to refill themselves, noteably in the Middle East and the US Gulf Coast.
   
   6. The abiogenic theory of petroleum formation presumes that an enormous source of primordial hydrocarbons (created a the time of the planet formation) resides in the upper mantle and lower crust-far deeper than can be drilled and sampled directly (30-100km).
   
   7. Seven evidences of abiogenic theory are: First, reservoirs of petroleum, including various gaseous forms such as methane and ethane, are frequently found in geographical patterns of long lines or arces extending for hundres or even thousands of kilometers. Second, Koudryavtsev's rule states Hydrocarbon-rich areas tend tobe hydrocarbon-rich at all lower leels, corresponding to quite different geological epochs, and extending down to the crystalline basement that underlines the segment. Third, methane is found in many locations where biogenic explanations for its presence is improbable or where biological deposits seem inadequate to account for the size and extent of the methane resource. Fouth, hydrocarbond deposits of a large area often show common chemical features regardless of the varied composition or the geological ages of the formations in which they are found. Fifth, a numberof hydrocarbon reservoirs seem to be refilling as they are exploited for commercial production. Sixth, the distribution of large amounts of carbonate rock in the upper crust and the isotopic composition of the carbon atoms within it argue against the theory of a a surface biological origin of most of the buried hydrocarbons. Seventh, the clear, well-established regional associations of hydrocarbons with the chemically inert gaseous element helium have no explanation in the theories of a biological origin of petroleum.
   
   8. It use to be thought that temperatures about 600C would dissociate the simplest and most heat resistent hydrocarbons, methane CH4, and that temperatures as low as 300C were sufficient to destroy most of the heavy hydrocarbon components of natural petroleum, at a few tens of kilometers of crust. In 1980, E.B Chekalium indicated in a publication that methane would resist complete dissocation down to a depth of 300 kilometers, except in volcanic regions where temperatures approached 2000C. Chekalium believed that methane could exitence at a maxium depth of 600 kilometers.
   
   9. According to molten earth theory, the earth was formed as a hot body, a liquid ball of rock, and cooled forming a crust overlying a homogeneous mantle. In such a history, no primordial hydrocarbons could have survived the molten state.
   
   10. Today, Scientist believe the earth and other inner planets and the satellites of the outer planets, all accreted as solid boids from solids that had condensed from a gaseous planetary disk. The heat that melted the mantle was caused from radioactive material and gravitational compression. The earth must hve been subjected to only a partial melt. Hydrocarbons were a a common constituent of the accreting earth.
   
   11. If the gases ascend in region of magma, then chemical equilibrium between the hydrocarbons and magma would be approached, and this would usually favor formation of the hydrocarbon gases. Thus it is no surprise that volcanoes generally emit carbon main in the form of CO2, with only minor amounts as methane CH4.
   
   12. Astronomical techniques have thus produced clear and indisputable evidence that hydrocarbons are major constituents of bodies great and small within our solar system. The greatest quantity is found in the massive out planets and their satellites. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have large admixturers of hydrocarbons in their atmospheres.
   
   13. The abiogenic theory holds that hydrocarbons were a component of the material that formed the earth, through accretion of solids, some 4.5 billion years ago.
   
   14. In a violent eruption there will not be the small bubbles that come up at quiet times; instead there will be large plumes of gas, racing upward through the molten rock.
   
   15. At the temperatures and pressures on or near the earth's surface, some hydrocarbons are solid (coal), some are liquid (crude oil), and some are in the vapor state (natural gas).
   
   16. In 1996, indigenous microbes found from an oil well in Alaska at a depth of 4.2 kilometers and a temperature of 110C.
   
   17. In 1997, microbial fossils where discovered in granite rock at a depth of 200 meters.
   
   18. 1991, at a dept of 5.2 kilometers in Sweden microbes were detected where drilling in solid granitic bedrock. A sample was taken and cultured in a laboratory. The anaerobic microbes would only reproduce in a temperature range from 60C to 70C.
   
   19. At 2.25 kilometers the critical point is reached. Here the pressure is so great that no matter what the temperature, there is no distinction between vapor and liquid. It is appropriate to refer to water beyond the critical point as existing as fluid, specially a super critical fluid. Temperature increase at a rate of 15C and 30C per kilometer of depth in non-volcanic regions.
   
   20. Greater density means that methane is actually easier for life to access at depth. At six kilometers methane is 400 time more dense. 21. Higher temperatures that coincide with greater depth escalate the rate at which methane molecules collide with the cell membranes of microbes. Both factors enhance the rate at which methane would be expected to diffuse across waxy cell membranes. Deep is desirable to assist methane consumers in accessing their food.
   
   21. there are two sources of oygen atoms that are loosely bound: Fe2 03 Iron oxide and SO2 oxidized sulfer. Sulfate (SO4) is the second most abundant ion of negative charge in seawater.



3. Author Thomas Gold was born in England, but
   grew up in the United States. This book proves
   once and for all the myth about the 'fossel-
   fuels' is bunk, just like Evolution. One of
   Tom's most important interviews to date. Pick
   up on any Radio Free America or Radio Liberty
   cassettes while they are still out there. Radio
   Liberty also available on CDs. Highly recommended!



4. This book provides a logical and comprehensive explanation of how petroleum hydrocarbons are formed deep in the earth's mantle and migrate upwards to form gas and crude oil fields and coal measures nearer the earth's surface. It coroborates what russian petroleum geologists have known and applied for many years where they drill wells up to 13 km deep to tap crude oil nearer its source and far below where any surface biota could have been buried. Gold demonstrates that the theory of a biogenic origin of petroleum is wrong and cannot be sustained in the light of new information that is now available.



5. 
   This book provides a good starting place for the exploration of the myths about the original
   formation of the materials commonly called "Fossil Fuels", that is petroleum and
   black coal. The change of assumptions discussed here alters many things, including the understanding
   of the geo-politics of oil and energy. Gold is a smart cookie and after you read the book
   you will see that an open minded astronomer would be a logical candidate to understand
   and develop this theory. New only to many western minds. The Russians have worked on this
   for a long time and their knowledge was the seed germ for Gold's work here. Worth the time to read. dxr

4 comments about Essentials of Geology, 9th Edition.

1. If you are taking a Geology class, this book is very helpful. Its easy to read, and has many pictures.



2. This book is intended as a text for the collegiate course in physical geology. The course encompasses a general overview of the physical processes by which the Earth continues to develop, both gradually and by sudden events of great magnitude. Plate tectonics, volcanism, erosion, mountain building and shaping, mineralogy, mass wasting, the impact of man, glaciation, and all other manner of things are clearly discussed in nineteen separate chapters. The color photography and diagrams are remarkably good, and closely follow the text, which is a real boon, especially to a student who is hard-pressed for time. The coverage is up-to-date and accurate in all respects. Many of the photographs, such as the those of the eruptions at Montserrat, are very current.

   Given the fact that physical geology is the first of six courses required for any geology degree, and that any well-informed person should have no trouble understanding the contents of this book, I would recommend it to any reader interested in earth science, student or not.




3. The book has a wealth of information, I have enjoyed reading it, and using it in my class.



4. I honestly do not know how to rate this, because I still have not received this book. I already had my first test. So, I had to go buy this textbook from the bookstore on campus and was charged an outrageous amount. Also, I emailed the seller to see what the tracking number was and still haven't had response.