Abstract This chapter presents a collection of first-generation Swiss geologists, who, around 1900, went abroad in order to work for oil organizations, both public and private. With the rise of oil exploration after 1900, the demand for experienced oil geologists grew rapidly. Oil companies started hiring trained geologists from different parts of the world, which led to an increasing number of Swiss geologists finding employment abroad. One of the first to start his career abroad was Carl Schmidt (1862–1923) from Basel, highly esteemed and later renowned for his achievements as a teacher of younger oil geologists. Another was Josef Erb (1874–1934), who accomplished an unparalleled career at Royal Dutch Shell. Other examples include Hans Hirschi (1876–1964), who worked for the Union des Pétroles d’Oklahoma for a few years, and Arnold Heim (1882–1965), working nearly 50 years for major oil companies. Many more followed over the decades to come, so that virtual successions took place between them: specific territories and specific companies were ‘handed down’ between geologists of the same nationality. Where once the Swiss were employed, others took over; the pioneers acted as door-openers for future generations.

Abstract: Establishing a Permian brachiopod biochronological scheme for global correlation is difficult because of strong provincialism during the Permian. In this paper, a brief overview of brachiopod successions in five major palaeobiogeographical realms/zones is provided. For Gondwanaland and peri-Gondwanan regions including Cimmerian blocks, Bandoproductus and Punctocyrtella (or Cyrtella ) are characteristic of the lower Cisuralian, as is Cimmeriella for the middle Cisuralian. As the Cimmerian blocks continued drifting north during the late Kungurian, accompanied by climate amelioration, contemporaneous brachiopods inhabiting these blocks showed a distinct shift from cold-water to mixed or warm-water affinities. However, coeval brachiopods in the Northern Transitional Zone (NTZ) are characterized by warm-water faunas and are associated with fusulinids in the lower Cisuralian. The Guadalupian brachiopods of the NTZ were clearly mixed between the Boreal and palaeoequatorial affinities. The end-Guadalupian is marked by the disappearance of a few characteristic genera, such as Vediproductus , Neoplicatifera and Urushtenoidea , in the Palaeotethyan region. The onset of the end-Permian mass extinction in the latest Changhsingian is clearly exhibited by the occurrence of the dwarfed and thin-shelled brachiopods commonly containing Paracrurithyris .

Abstract Tsunami warning traditionally has been perceived within the scientific community as an essentially deterministic process. This may be satisfactory in regions where tsunami monitoring is very extensive and the uncertainty in tsunami forecasting is low. However, where there is significant uncertainty, the worthy aspiration to achieve a zero-tolerance policy on tsunami fatalities is set against the reduction in public alert compliance associated with previous false alerts. A risk-informed approach is presented, which outlines a decision process that allows for a decline in alert compliance due to false alerts. This risk-informed approach assesses probabilistically the tsunamigenicity of fault rupture, using data not just from historical catalogues but also the geological record. Prior probabilities could be automatically updated in real time by a Bayesian Belief Network from observations obtained in real time: earthquake depth information; pressure sensor recordings, tide gauge measurements; or visual reports of coastal inundation. A decision to issue a general evacuation warning in a specific region might be made provided the updated posterior probability reached a critical threshold.

Abstract Past environments of equatorial SE Asia must have played a critical role in determining the timing and trajectory of early human dispersal into and through the region. However, very few reliable terrestrial records are available with which to contextualize human dispersal events. This circumstance, coupled with a sparse archaeological record and the likelihood that much of the archaeological record is now submerged, means we have an incomplete understanding of the role that geography, climate and environment played in shaping human pre-history in this region. From a review of the literature, we conclude that there must have been a substantial environmental barrier resulting in a genetic separation between east and west Sundaland that persisted even though a terrestrial connection was present for most of the Pleistocene. This barrier is likely to be a north–south corridor of open non-forest vegetation, and its existence may have encouraged the rapid dispersal of early humans through the interior of Sundaland and on to Sahul. We conclude that more reliable terrestrial palaeoenvironmental records are required to better understand the links between past environments and dispersal events. We highlight avenues of particular research value, such as focusing on eastern Sumatra, western/southern Borneo and the islands in the Java Sea, where the purported savanna corridor most probably existed, and including edaphic factors in palaeovegetation modelling.

Extract from beginning of chapter: ON THE CHINA SEA The many-colored sea was glorious in the splendid weather that favored us—deep blue-green far out; lighter and brighter green toward the coast, turning to yellowish and yellow where it mingled with river waters along the shore. The Yellow Sea 1 is well named, colored with the muddy waters of the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers. In places there were great purplish streaks. On Sunday evening [1910], we were quietly anchored in the Min River, ten miles below Foochow, 2 one of the most beautiful spots I was ever in. The entrance to the river is picturesque with mountains on both sides of a tortuous bay. There was a long trip up a fascinating valley with inlets and branches, between steep hills cultivated in horizontal terraces, in places to the highest points, with rice fields on either shore. We stopped in a lake-like expanse with stretches of river in three directions, each presenting a different mountainous scene. Rugged granite peaks formed the skyline in several directions at different distances. A low, reedy island was in one foreground; a wooded hill topped by a tall pagoda formed another. A green terraced ridge with artificially flat crests and scattered pines outlined against distant hills made a third, each view with its peculiar charm. Soon the steamer was surrounded by sampans, the locals climbing up the sides of the ship, struggling to unpack their stocks of all kinds on the lower deck. The whole family came in the sampan, the cleanest