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Learn how to identify rocks and minerals and appreciate the beauty of the natural world with Rocks & Minerals: An Illustrated Field Guide. Expert geologist Dr. Evelyn Mervine takes you through 50 profiles of these natural materials, including their characteristics, chemical compositions, occurrences, and key identifiers.

An understanding of the mineral nutrition of plants is of fundamental importance in both basic and applied plant sciences. The Third Edition of this book retains the aim of the first in presenting the principles of mineral nutrition in the light of current advances. This volume retains the structure of the first edition, being divided into two parts: Nutritional Physiology and Soil-Plant Relationships. In Part I, more emphasis has been placed on root-shoot interactions, stress physiology, water relations, and functions of micronutrients. In view of the worldwide increasing interest in plant-soil interactions, Part II has been considerably altered and extended, particularly on the effects of external and interal factors on root growth and chapter 15 on the root-soil interface. The third edition will be invaluable to both advanced students and researchers.

Current sea-level rise partly stems from increased surface melting and meltwater runoff from the Greenland ice sheet. Multi-year snow, also known as firn, covers about 80% of the ice sheet and retains part of the surface meltwater. Since the firn cold content integrates its physical and thermal characteristics, it is a valuable tool for determining the meltwater-retention potential of firn. We use gap-filled climatological data from nine automatic weather stations in the ice-sheet accumulation area to drive a surface-energy-budget and firn model, validated against firn density and temperature observations, over the 1998–2017 period. Our results show a stable top 20 m firn cold content (CC20) at most sites. Only at the lower-elevation Dye-2 site did CC20 decrease, by 24% in 2012, before recovering to its original value by 2017. Heat conduction towards the surface is the main process feeding CC20 at all nine sites, while CC20 reduction occurs through low-cold-content fresh-snow addition at the surface during snowfall and latent-heat release when meltwater refreezes. Our simulations suggest that firn densification, while reducing pore space for meltwater retention, increases the firn cold content, enhances near-surface meltwater refreezing and potentially sets favourable conditions for ice-slab formation.

Understanding the global carbon (C) cycle is of crucial importance to map current and future climate dynamics relative to global environmental change. A full characterization of C cycling requires detailed information on spatiotemporal patterns of surface–atmosphere fluxes. However, relevant C cycle observations are highly variable in their coverage and reporting standards. Especially problematic is the lack of integration of the carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange of the ocean, inland freshwaters and the land surface with the atmosphere. Here we adopt a data-driven approach to synthesize a wide range of observation-based spatially explicit surface–atmosphere CO2 fluxes from 2001 to 2010, to identify the state of today's observational opportunities and data limitations. The considered fluxes include net exchange of open oceans, continental shelves, estuaries, rivers, and lakes, as well as CO2 fluxes related to net ecosystem productivity, fire emissions, loss of tropical aboveground C, harvested wood and crops, as well as fossil fuel and cement emissions. Spatially explicit CO2 fluxes are obtained through geostatistical and/or remote-sensing-based upscaling, thereby minimizing biophysical or biogeochemical assumptions encoded in process-based models. We estimate a bottom-up net C exchange (NCE) between the surface (land, ocean, and coastal areas) and the atmosphere. Though we provide also global estimates, the primary goal of this study is to identify key uncertainties and observational shortcomings that need to be prioritized in the expansion of in situ observatories. Uncertainties for NCE and its components are derived using resampling. In many regions, our NCE estimates agree well with independent estimates from other sources such as process-based models and atmospheric inversions. This holds for Europe (mean ± 1 SD: 0.8 ± 0.1 PgC yr−1, positive numbers are sources to the atmosphere), Russia (0.1 ± 0.4 PgC yr−1), East Asia (1.6 ± 0.3 PgC yr−1), South Asia (0.3 ± 0.1 PgC yr−1), Australia (0.2 ± 0.3 PgC yr−1), and most of the Ocean regions. Our NCE estimates give a likely too large CO2 sink in tropical areas such as the Amazon, Congo, and Indonesia. Overall, and because of the overestimated CO2 uptake in tropical lands, our global bottom-up NCE amounts to a net sink of −5.4 ± 2.0 PgC yr−1. By contrast, the accurately measured mean atmospheric growth rate of CO2 over 2001–2010 indicates that the true value of NCE is a net CO2 source of 4.3 ± 0.1 PgC yr−1. This mismatch of nearly 10 PgC yr−1 highlights observational gaps and limitations of data-driven models in tropical lands, but also in North America. Our uncertainty assessment provides the basis for setting priority regions where to increase carbon observations in the future. High on the priority list are tropical land regions, which suffer from a lack of in situ observations. Second, extensive pCO2 data are missing in the Southern Ocean. Third, we lack observations that could enable seasonal estimates of shelf, estuary, and inland water–atmosphere C exchange. Our consistent derivation of data uncertainties could serve as prior knowledge in multicriteria optimization such as the Carbon Cycle Data Assimilation System (CCDAS) and atmospheric inversions, without over- or under-stating bottom-up data credibility. In the future, NCE estimates of carbon sinks could be aggregated at national scale to compare with the official national inventories of CO2 fluxes in the land use, land use change, and forestry sector, upon which future emission reductions are proposed.

Introduction to Mineralogy and Petrology presents the essentials of both disciplines through an approach accessible to industry professionals, academic researchers, and students.Mineralogy and petrology stand as the backbone of the geosciences.

Volume 51 of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry highlights some of the frontiers in the study of plastic deformation of minerals and rocks. This book reviews large-strain shear deformation and deformation experiments under ultrahigh pressures; the issues of deformation of crustal rocks and the upper mantle; the interplay of partial melting and deformation; the new results of ultrahigh pressure deformation of deep mantle minerals; the stability of deformation under deep mantle conditions with special reference to phase transformations and their relationship to the origin of intermediate depth and deep-focus earthquakes; a detailed description of fracture mechanisms of ice; of experimental and theoretical studies on seismic wave attenuation; the relationship between crystal preferred orientation and macroscopic anisotropy; recent progress in poly-crystal plasticity to model the development of anisotropic fabrics both at the microscopic and macroscopic scale; a thorough review of seismic anisotropy of the upper mantle covering the vast regions of geodynamic interests and the theoretical aspects of shear localization. All chapters contain extensive reference lists to guide readers to the more specialized literature. This volume was written for a workshop, in December 2002 in Emeryville, California.

Handbook of Natural Zeolites provides a comprehensive and up to date summary of important aspects of the science of natural zeolites. The text in this e-book is supported by excellent figures and tables. As a result, novices and established mineralogists alike will find this comprehensive volume a great resource for years to come.

Theory of the Earth is an interdisciplinary advanced textbook on the origin, composition, and evolution of the Earth's interior: geophysics, geochemistry, dynamics, convection, mineralogy, volcanism, energetics and thermal history. This is the only book on the whole landscape of deep Earth processes which ties together all the strands of the subdisciplines. It is a complete update of Anderson's Theory of the Earth (1989). It includes many new sections and dozens of new figures and tables. As with the original book, this new edition will prove to be a stimulating textbook on advanced courses in geophysics, geochemistry, and planetary science, and supplementary textbook on a wide range of other advanced Earth science courses. It will also be an essential reference and resource for all researchers in the solid Earth sciences.

The Steingarden Nunataks (STG) 07009 iron meteorite was found in 2007 during a search campaign in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, carried out by the Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR, Hannover, Germany). It was collected as one complete individual specimen with regmaglypts and weighing ~ 32.6 kg. The main mass (32.2 kg) is stored at the BGR, whereas the type specimen (36.6 g) is kept at the Natural History Museum, Vienna. Macroscopically, the meteorite appears well preserved and does not show any oxidation features in its interior. Textural studies of etched platelets revealed that the meteorite is a plessitic octahedrite with almost all kamacite spindles (apparent width = 0.08 ± 0.03 mm, N = 30) having nuclei of schreibersite. Compositionally, kamacite and schreibersite are mainly uniform. However, a detailed electron microprobe investigation revealed that, in places, the spindles contain schreibersite-metal intergrowths, exhibiting complex textures and compositions. Based on bulk chemistry data, STG 07009 was classified as ungrouped iron with no close relatives. Age calculations based on accelerator mass spectroscopy of the cosmogenic radionuclides ¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al, and ³⁶Cl gave for STG 07009 a cosmic-ray exposure age of 780 ± 100 Myr and a relatively young terrestrial age of 75 ± 33 kyr. Der Eisenmeteorit Steingarden Nunataks (STG) 07009 wurde 2007 im Rahmen einer von der Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR, Hannover, Deutschland) im Queen Maud Land, Antarktis durchgeführten Suchkampagne gefunden. STG 07009 wurde als 32,6 kg schweres komplettes Individuum mit Regmaglypten aufgesammelt. Die Hauptmasse (32,2 kg) wird an der BGR verwahrt, das Typmaterial (36,6 g) ist im Naturhistorischen Museum Wien deponiert. Makroskopisch erscheint der Meteorit in gut erhaltenem Zustand und weist keinerlei Rostanzeichen in seinem Inneren auf. Gefügestudien an geätzten Plättchen ergaben, dass es sich beim Meteoriten um einen plessitischen Oktaedriten handelt, wobei fast alle Kamazit-Spindeln (gemessene Breite = 0,08 ± 0,03 mm, N = 30) einen aus Schreibersit bestehenden Kern aufweisen. In den meisten Spindeln weisen Kamazit und Schreibersit jeweils denselben einheitlichen Chemismus auf. Detailuntersuchungen mittels Elektronenstrahlmikrosonde zeigten, dass die Spindeln bereichsweise Verwachsungen von Schreibersit und Metall enthalten, die komplexe Gefüge und Chemismen aufweisen. Aufgrund des ermittelten Pauschalchemismus wurde STG 07009 als ungruppierter Eisenmeteorit klassifiziert. Dabei konnte keine chemische Verwandtschaft mit anderen ungruppierten Eisen festgestellt werden. Basierend auf der mittels Beschleuniger-Massenspektrometrie gemessenen kosmogenen Radionuklide ¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al, und ³⁶Cl wurde für STG 07009 ein kosmisches Bestrahlungsalter von 780 ± 100 Ma und ein relativ junges terrestrisches Alter von 75 ± 33 ka errechnet.

When studying carbon (C) sequestration in soil, it is necessary to recognize the maximal storage potential and the main influencing factors, including the climate, land use, and soil properties. Here, we hypothesized that the silt and clay contents in soils as well as the clay mineralogy are the main factors affecting the maximal C and N storage levels of soils. This hypothesis was evaluated using a database containing the organic C contents of topsoils separated by ultrasonic dispersion to determine the particle size fractions. The slopes of the linear regressions between the C contents in silt and clay to the soil organic C (SOC) and between the N contents in silt and clay to the total N content were independent of the clay mineralogy (2:1, 1:1, calcareous soil, amorphous clays), climate type (tropical, temperate, and Mediterranean), and land use type (cropland, grassland, and forest). This clearly shows that the silt and clay content is the main factor defining an upper SOC level, which allowed us to propose a generalized linear regression (R 2  > 0.95) model with a common slope, independent of the land use and climate type, to estimate the soil C sequestration potential. The implications of these findings are as follows: (1) a common slope regression was accurately calculated (0.83 ± 0.02 for C-silt + clay < 63 μm and 0.81 ± 0.02 for C-silt + clay < 20 μm) and (2) there was no asymptotic pattern found to support the existence of an SOC saturation pool.