This book comprehensively analyzes and summarizes the types, characteristics and prevention of deep-sea geological disasters in the South China Sea based on the research progress of global background. It also brings attention to the general public and stakeholders the risks of deep-sea geological disasters.

This book studies mountains with a global perspective, like a complex topographic and topoclimatic mosaic organized in altitudinal belts that are influenced by a huge variability in slopes, soils, lithology and insolation. Furthermore, the presence of lower temperatures, higher precipitation and the seasonal presence of snow create conditions conductive to supporting various life forms and natural geomorphological and hydrological processes. The integration of environmental and human aspects highlights the impacts of human activities and climate fluctuations on soil hydrology, soil erosion, water resources, and landscape/landforms evolution. After presenting the way in which humans (from Prehistory to Alexander von Humboldt) discovered the mountains, subsequent chapters try to underline the importance of mountains in generating water resources and hydropower for lowlands, serving as biodiversity hotspots, and contributing to cultural diversity. The book delves into the role ofhuman actives in transforming the natural landscapes and creating new cultural landscapes. This exploration considers the significance of altitudinal belts in shaping the spatial and temporal organization of land uses which, in turn, have been determined by population growth and the development of regional and national markets.

This book explains different phenomena that occur in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs (NFRs) of carbonate rocks neighboring a salt structure and how it affects well drilling. Prediction of carbonate pore pressure is difficult; therefore, a new set of pore pressure equations for carbonates were developed, accounting for overpressure and depleted conditions. A detailed description of a fully coupled model is shown in order to discuss geomechanics and the coupling of fluid flow in porous media and to achieve a better representation of the mechanics involved in the exploitation of NFRs. Additionally, results of a new model of geomechanics in vuggy carbonate reservoirs are presented. This book also displays a wide discussion, analysis, and numerical implementation of six different salt rheology models. Furthermore, the most representative rheology salt models were studied aside with the fully coupled model of geomechanics and fluid flow in porous media. Finally, it presents an answer to areal case of a well drilled near a salt diapir where anomalous pore pressure was found.

In recent years there have been many attempts to use simple energy balance models to simulate the climatic changes that occurred during the Pleistocene by altering the earth's energy budget through sma 11 orb ita 1 element changes. Attempts with mean annual models which resolved latitudinal variation in tem- perature failed to produce large ice sheets when the obliquity was changed a few degrees (1,2) although these early models were generally more sensitive than today's parameterizations would suggest. Attention then turned to seasona 1 energy balance models, since the primary insolation anomaly is seasonal. Sel- lers (3), Thompson and Schneider (4) and North and Coakley (5) developed simple models which were either effectively zonally averaged or included a separate land and ocean surface tempera- ture at each latitude. Suarez and Held (6) added some vertical resolution in their model. All included the ice-albedo feedback mechanism and horizontal transport which was essentially diffu- sive. The models shared one interesting property : they remai- ned rather insensitive to the sizes of orbital changes which were thought to have occurred in the Pleistocene. There were minor differences in the results and some pointed toward possi- ble ways out of the puzzle but curiously the mechanisms of ice- -albedo feedback in the insolation and water vapor feedback in the infrared terms ·seemed too weak to account for the ice ages (for a review of these models see (7) and more recently (8)).

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the geological evolution of the Northern Andes and contiguous shield areas, with a focus upon Colombia. Updated geological interpretations are supported by modern lithogeochemical, seismic, gravity and magnetic data and radiogenic isotope and radiometric age determinations. The composite data permits a detailed interpretation of the tectono-magmatic history of the Northern Andean Block, including the Andes of Colombia, northern Ecuador, western Venezuela and eastern Panamá.

This book offers extensive information on the course of sedimentation in the Proterozoic Vindhyan Basin and the potential record of ancient life stored within the rocks. It covers topics ranging from facies analysis to sequence-building, from carbonates to siliciclastics, and mixed lithology and life records from microbial to potentially eukaryotes, along with the basin evolutionary history.