In the late 1960’s, Wegener’s theory of continental drift , originally conceived fi ft y years earlier, was merged with the theory of plate tectonics and the concepts gained global acceptance among geoscientists. For the fi rst time, a unifying concept, plate tectonics, could reconcile and unify all phenomena in geoscience into a common synthesis. Th e basic tenants have not changed since the 1960’s, although many corrections and refi nements have been added regarding questions of detail. Th e impact of the theory of plate tectonics cannot be overestimated – its importance to geoscience is as basic as Darwin’s theory of evolution is to the biological sciences.

Volcanic landscapes, both active and dormant, and their related features provide priceless natural resources, which are used worldwide as tourist attractions that are popular with people from a wide range of backgrounds.
The preparation for this book has taken rather longer than anticipated but combining the collective information was a complex task. The delay, however, turned into a blessing, as in the meantime several more volcanic areas acquired protected site status, either as inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list or as members of the growing geopark associations such as the European Geopark Network, the Japanese Geopark Network and the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network. <...>

This volume, Observing the volcano world: volcanic crisis communication, focuses at the point where the ‘rubber hits the road’, where the world of volcano-related sciences and all its uncertainties meet with the complex and ever-changing dynamics of our society, wherever and whenever this may be.

Volcanic lakes are amongst the most spectacular natural features on the planet. These intersections of magmatic-hydrothermal systems and the Earth’s surface are, poetically speaking, “blue windows” into the depth of a volcano (Fig. 1). The changing water compositions and colors of these lakes over time provide insights into the volcanic, hydrothermal and degassing processes of the underlying volcano.

The recognition and interpretation of ore textures is a difficult task, and the problem is compounded firstly by the relatively low priority given to the subject within most tertiary training institutions, and secondly by the lack of simple well illustrated texts. Special reference needs to be focused upon features which are visible to the eye or observed via a hand lens. These are the most valuable to practicing field geologists. <...>

It is always easier to write a textbook the second time around, or so I thought. Writing my first textbook entitled “Earth’s Materials: Minerals and Rocks” (published in 2001 by Prentice-Hall) was difficult because I had to make some tough decisions about what materials to include and what to leave out. Based on my own thinking and input from colleagues and students since that time, I decided to write a textbook on petrology and leave out mineralogy altogether. The result is the present textbook. It was anything but easy to write this book.

The basic tenet of the plate tectonic paradigm is that a newly generated oceanic plate is subducted at a trench. However, it is widely accepted today that some material is not subducted, but is accreted to form an accretionary wedge or prism, within which there may be a preserved section of the oceanic crust/mantle, known as an ophiolite.

Recurrent natural hazards, depletion of water resources and their contamination, and rapidly rising atmospheric CO2 levels are major concerns facing the globe, primarily due to a combination of various geogenic and anthropogenic processes. Lack of enough public awareness of environmental issues further complicates the scenario. In order to understand how pattern affects the environment, we must first be able to identify and quantify such patterns. Hence, this book aims to provide essential management tools (e.g., decision-support systems) with detailed information for a healthy and sustainable environment <...>

Vibrations in mechanical systems are oscillations occurring without being intentionally provoked. They often have detrimental effects on the system performance and may cause premature wear of the system components, underperforming processes, and could even involve security problems, such is the case in aircraft wings; which in the worst case scenario, excessive vibration causes the aircraft to crash.

In oilwell drillstring systems, vibrations constitute an important source of economic losses; drill bit wear, pipes disconnection, borehole disruption and prolonged drilling time, are only some examples of consequences associated with drilling vibrations.<...>