Critical Zones

Critical Zones
Author: Bruno Latour
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 473
Release: 2020-10-13
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0262044455

Artists and writers portray the disorientation of a world facing climate change. This monumental volume, drawn from a 2020 exhibition at the ZKM Center for Art and Media, portrays the disorientation of life in world facing climate change. It traces this disorientation to the disconnection between two different definitions of the land on which modernizing humans live: the sovereign nation from which they derive their rights, and another one, hidden, from which they gain their wealth—the land they live on, and the land they live from. Charting the land they will inhabit, they find not a globe, not the iconic “blue marble,” but a series of critical zones—patchy, heterogenous, discontinuous. With short pieces, longer essays, and more than 500 illustrations, the contributors explore the new landscape on which it may be possible for humans to land—what it means to be “on Earth,” whether the critical zone, the Gaia, or the terrestrial. They consider geopolitical conflicts and tools redesigned for the new “geopolitics of life forms.” The “thought exhibition” described in this book can opens a fictional space to explore the new climate regime; the rest of the story is unknown. Contributors include Dipesh Chakrabarty, Pierre Charbonnier, Emanuele Coccia, Vinciane Despret, Jerôme Gaillarde, Donna Haraway, Joseph Leo Koerner, Timothy Lenton, Richard Powers, Simon Schaffer, Isabelle Stengers, Bronislaw Szerszynski, Jan A. Zalasiewicz, Siegfried Zielinski Copublished with ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe

Hydrogeology, Chemical Weathering, and Soil Formation

Hydrogeology, Chemical Weathering, and Soil Formation
Author: Allen Hunt
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2021-04-06
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1119563968

Explores soil as a nexus for water, chemicals, and biologically coupled nutrient cycling Soil is a narrow but critically important zone on Earth's surface. It is the interface for water and carbon recycling from above and part of the cycling of sediment and rock from below. Hydrogeology, Chemical Weathering, and Soil Formation places chemical weathering and soil formation in its geological, climatological, biological and hydrological perspective. Volume highlights include: The evolution of soils over 3.25 billion years Basic processes contributing to soil formation How chemical weathering and soil formation relate to water and energy fluxes The role of pedogenesis in geomorphology Relationships between climate soils and biota Soils, aeolian deposits, and crusts as geologic dating tools Impacts of land-use change on soils The American Geophysical Union promotes discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity. Its publications disseminate scientific knowledge and provide resources for researchers, students, and professionals. Find out more about this book from this Q&A with the Editors

Hillslope Hydrology

Hillslope Hydrology
Author: M. J. Kirkby
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 416
Release: 1978
Genre: Science
ISBN:

A complete guide to the behavior of water on graded land Hillslope Hydrology provides a comprehensive introduction to the behavior of water on a slope. Describing the fates of precipitation, the mechanics of runoff, and the calculations involved in assessment, this book clarifies the complex interplay of soils, sediment, subsurface flow, overland flow, saturation, erosion, and more. An ideal resource for graduate students of Earth science, environmental science, civil engineering, architecture, landscape management, and related fields, this informative guide provides the essential information needed to work effectively with graded land or predict outcomes of precipitation.

Principles and Dynamics of the Critical Zone

Principles and Dynamics of the Critical Zone
Author:
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 674
Release: 2015-06-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0444634126

Principles and Dynamics of the Critical Zone is an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate courses and an essential tool for researchers developing cutting-edge proposals. It provides a process-based description of the Critical Zone, a place that The National Research Council (2001) defines as the "heterogeneous, near surface environment in which complex interactions involving rock, soil, water, air, and living organisms regulate the natural habitat and determine the availability of life-sustaining resources." This text provides a summary of Critical Zone research and outcomes from the NSF funded Critical Zone Observatories, providing a process-based description of the Critical Zone in a wide range of environments with a specific focus on the important linkages that exist amongst the processes in each zone. This book will be useful to all scientists and students conducting research on the Critical Zone within and outside the Critical Zone Observatory Network, as well as scientists and students in the geosciences – atmosphere, geomorphology, geology and pedology. - The first text to address the principles and concepts of the Critical Zone - A comprehensive approach to the processes responsible for the development and structure of the Critical Zone in a number of environments - An essential tool for undergraduate and graduate students, and researchers developing cutting-edge proposals

Reactive Transport in Natural and Engineered Systems

Reactive Transport in Natural and Engineered Systems
Author: Jennifer Druhan
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 550
Release: 2020-06-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1501512005

Open system behavior is predicated on a fundamental relationship between the timescale over which mass is transported and the timescale over which it is chemically transformed. This relationship describes the basis for the multidisciplinary field of reactive transport (RT). In the 20 years since publication of Review in Mineralogy and Geochemistry volume 34: Reactive Transport in Porous Media, RT principles have expanded beyond early applications largely based in contaminant hydrology to become broadly utilized throughout the Earth Sciences. RT is now employed to address a wide variety of natural and engineered systems across diverse spatial and temporal scales, in tandem with advances in computational capability, quantitative imaging and reactive interface characterization techniques. The present volume reviews the diversity of reactive transport applications developed over the past 20 years, ranging from the understanding of basic processes at the nano- to micrometer scale to the prediction of Earth global cycling processes at the watershed scale. Key areas of RT development are highlighted to continue advancing our capabilities to predict mass and energy transfer in natural and engineered systems.