Book Chapters

Rare earth elements (REEs) occur in magmatic rocks but are especially enriched in carbonatite and alkaline silicates. If these rocks are chemically weathered, then the REEs may become further enriched within the regolith developed from these rocks. Primary magmatic REE minerals, as well as the various carbonate minerals and apatite, provide the REEs which, under pervasive chemical...

Many man-made structures can form a hazard to avian wildlife. The most common hazard is one of collision, and this paper will look at problems with glass in buildings, power lines, and wind turbines all as sources of collision and trauma to avian wildlife. However, other anthropogenic factors that can adversely affect avian wildlife can be those that effectively eliminate suitable...

This field trip focuses on the geology of the central Appalachian Valley and Ridge province near Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA. Recent geologic mapping utilizing 1-m resolution lidar data has revealed new insights into the Paleozoic stratigraphy, structural geology, and Neogene landscape evolution of the region. The detailed mapping reveals the presence of the Big Spring Station Member and...

This one-day trip highlights new findings on a preliminary bedrock geologic map that shows results from ongoing geologic mapping in the Falling Spring Valley of Alleghany County, Virginia, USA, which is the southern end of the larger Warm Springs Valley, an elongated anticlinal valley rimmed by Ordovician and Silurian siliciclastic rocks, and which is famous for its thermal springs. This...

In this chapter I discuss the use of so-called macroseismic data, i.e., reports of damage and other effects of shaking on humans and the built environment, to improve the characterization of earthquakes and the ground motions they produce. Macroseismic data are critical not only to investigate earthquakes that occurred before the start of the instrumental era in seismology, but are also...

Establishing the rupture extent and slip distribution of individual paleo-earthquakes is vital for assessing fault behavior including the persistence of rupture segmentation, recurrence patterns, and similarity of successive events, key issues in both fault mechanics and hazard assessment. Techniques with high temporal and geodetic precision as well as a wide distribution of study sites...

No abstract available.

This chapter focuses on reconstructing the history of vegetation development in southern Alexander Archipelago (AA) of southeast Alaska during and after deglaciation up to the present day. It also summarizes key findings from recent paleoceanographic research in the Gulf of Alaska to provide a detailed, well-dated record of late Quaternary climate changes for the region. Understanding...

Phenological data collection and analysis are well-suited to higher education settings, providing valuable opportunities for hands-on data collection, manipulation, and interpretation. Few subjects are more conducive or accessible for engaging diverse learners in meaningful and impactful science at such large scales and minimal cost. In this chapter, we provide a range of examples of how

The Fifth National Climate Assessment updates the evidence regarding how climate change influences ecosystems, biological diversity, and the implications for changes to critical ecosystem services—as noted in the key messages above (McElwee et al., 2023). Large-scale transformational changes to ecosystems are occurring, including—but not limited to—land-use conversion, hydrological...

Nevado del Ruiz es uno de los volcanes más activos de Colombia. Adquirió una trágica notoriedad a causa de la devastadora erupción ocurrida en noviembre de 1985, que provocó la destrucción de la población de Armero. Desafortunadamente, los limitados datos de deformación recopilados en ese momento no proporcionaron una advertencia clara de la inminente erupción. Desde 1985, el seguimiento...

Pollen records from the unglaciated southeastern region of North America provide an overview of biogeographic changes associated with vegetational migration northward following the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Changing insolation during the Holocene affected forest composition on the Coastal Plain, and rising sea level controlled the distribution of marsh and forested wetlands...