This volume is intended to provide a useful reference source and a picture of the present status of the chemistry, geochemistry and mineralogy of redox-reactive materials. Although in this volume some progress has been made in this direction, the aim is by no means achieved, especially with this extremely broad, diverse and vibrant area of research.

This volume accompanies an EMU School intended to bring contemporary research on mineral reaction kinetics to the attention of young researchers and to put it into the context of recent developments in related disciplines. A selection of topics, methods and concepts, which the contributors deem currently most relevant and instructive, is presented.

Microfossils are an abundant component of the sedimentary rock record. Their analysis can reveal not only the environments in which the rocks were deposited, but also their age. When combined, the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of microfossils offer enormous utility for archaeological and forensic investigations. Their presence can act as a geological ‘fingerprint’ and the tiniest fragment of material, such as a broken Iron Age potsherd, can contain a microfossil signature that reveals the geographical source of the materials under investigation. This book explores how microfossils are employed as tools to interpret human society and habitation throughout history. Examples include microfossil evidence associated with Palaeolithic human occupation at Boxgrove in Sussex, alongside investigations into human-induced landscape change during the Holocene. Further examples include the use of microfossils to provenance the source materials of Iron Age ceramics, Roman mosaics and Minoan pottery, in addition to their application to help solve modern murder cases, highlighting the diverse applications of microfossils to improving our understanding of human history.

Volcanoes sometimes host a lake at the Earth’s surface. These lakes are the surface expressions of a reservoir, often termed a hydrothermal system, in highly fractured, permeable and porous media where fluids circulate. They can become monitoring targets since they integrate the heat flux discharged by an underlying magma body and condense some volcanic gases. Since they trap volcanic heat and gases, they are excellent tools to provide additional information about the status of a volcano and volcanic lake-related hazards. This Special Publication comes at an exciting time for the volcanic lake community. It brings together scientific papers, which include studies of their structure, hydrogeological modelling, long-term multi-disciplinary monitoring efforts, as well as a number of innovative methods of sampling, data acquisition and in situ and laboratory experiments. Several papers challenge long-established paradigms and introduce new concepts and terminologies. This collection of papers will be a useful reference for researchers dealing with volcanic lakes and more generally with hydrothermal systems, phreatic/hydrothermal eruptions and wet volcanoes.

The study of the Earth’s origin, its composition, the processes that changed and shaped it over time and the fossils preserved in rocks, have occupied enquiring minds from ancient times. The contributions in this volume trace the history of ideas and the research of scholars in a wide range of geological disciplines that have paved the way to our present-day understanding and knowledge of the physical nature of our planet and the diversity of life that inhabited it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Commission on the History of Geology, the book features contributions that give insights into its establishment and progress. In other sections authors reflect on the value of studying the history of the geosciences and provide accounts of early investigations in fields as diverse as tectonics, volcanology, geomorphology, vertebrate palaeontology and petroleum geology. Other papers discuss the establishment of geological surveys, the contribution of women to geology and biographical sketches of noted scholars in various fields of geoscience.

The West Africa margin, formed by the progressive separation of the South American and African continents, has enjoyed a rich and varied exploration history and become a significant hydrocarbon-producing region. The amalgamation of hydrocarbon exploration approaches and imaginative ideas, leveraged with modern technologies, is yielding significant scientific and economic successes within the region. The main objective of this Special Publication is to provide an overview of the advancement in understanding of the crustal structure, tectonic evolution and Mesozoic to Cenozoic stratigraphy of the West Africa margin both onshore and offshore, with a particular focus on the petroleum geology.

Rocks exposed across the hundreds of islands that belong to the 800 km long Andaman–Nicobar archipelago provide a condensed window into the active subduction zone that separates the India–Australia plate from the over-riding Burma–Sunda plate. Despite a strategic and seismically active location the Andaman-Nicobar ridge has seen comparatively little research. This Memoir provides the first detailed and comprehensive account of geological mapping and research across the island chain and adjacent ocean basins. Chapters examine models of Cenozoic rifting of the Andaman Sea and the regional tectonic and seismogenic framework. A detailed critical review of the Andaman–Nicobar stratigraphy, supported by new data, includes arc volcanism and a description of Barren Island, India’s only active volcano. Seismic history and hazards and the impacts of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami are also described. The volume ends with an examination of the region’s natural resources and hydrocarbon prospects.

This Special Publication sheds light on crust formation and tectonic processes in early Earth by focusing on Archaean granitoids and related rocks from West Greenland in the North Atlantic Craton, Karelia Province of the Fennoscandian Shield, Eastern Dharwar and Bundelkhand cratons in the Indian Shield and Bug Complex of the Ukrainian Shield. Resulting from the IGCP-SIDA 599 project ‘The Changing Early Earth’, this compilation of papers provides explanations on the nomenclature of Archaean granitoids and explores the petrology, element and isotope geochemistry, geochronology and metamorphism of granitoids and supracrustal rocks of variable metamorphic grade. This volume provides information on the increase and timing of crust-mantle interactions and granitoid diversification from early Archaean protoliths of island arc origin to the emergence of multi-source high-K calc-alkaline granitoid batholiths at convergent continental margins. The formation of abundant granitoid batholiths suggests a significant change in mantle dynamics and plate tectonics towards the end of the Archaean.

This book describes the theory and practice of inverting seismic data for the subsurface rock properties of the earth. The primary application is for inverting reflection and/or transmission data from engineering or exploration surveys, but the methods described also can be used for earthquake studies. I have written this book with the hope that it will be largely comprehensible to scientists and advanced students in engineering, earth sciences, and physics. It is desirable that the reader has some familiarity with certain aspects of numerical computation, such as finite-difference solutions to partial differential equations, numerical linear algebra, and the basic physics of wave propagation (e.g., Snell’s law and ray tracing). For those not familiar with the terminology and methods of seismic exploration, a brief introduction is provided in the Appendix of Chapter 1. Computational labs are provided for most of the chapters, and some field data labs are given as well. Matlab and Fortran labs at the end of some chapters are used to deepen the reader’s understanding of the concepts and their implementation. Such exercises are introduced early and geophysical applications are presented in every chapter. For the non-geophysicist, geophysical concepts are introduced with intuitive arguments, and their description by rigorous theory is deferred to later chapters.

Basic Geophysics takes us on a journey that shows how the achievements of our predecessors have paved the way for modern exploration seismology. From the ancient Greeks through the Enlightenment to the greats of the contemporary age, the reasoning behind basic principles is explored and clarified. With that foundation, advanced topics are examined.

This volume in memory of Professor Martin Brasier, which has many of his unfinished works, summarizes recent progress in some of the hottest topics in palaeobiology including cellular preservation of early microbial life and early evolution of macroscopic animal life, encompassing the Ediacara biota. The papers focus on how to decipher evidence for early life, which requires exceptional preservation, employment of state-of-the-art techniques and also an understanding gleaned from Phanerozoic lagerstätte and modern analogues. The papers also apply Martin’s MOFAOTYOF principle (my oldest fossils are older than your oldest fossils), requiring an integrated approach to understanding fossils. The adoption of the null-hypothesis that all putative traces of life are abiotic until proven otherwise, and the consideration of putative fossils within their spatial context, characterized the work of Martin Brasier, as is well demonstrated by the papers in this volume.