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This cutting-edge summary combines ideas from several sub-disciplines including geology, geomorphology, oceanography and geochemistry to provide an integrated view of Earth surface dynamics in terms of sediment generation, transport and deposition. Introducing a global view of fundamental concepts underpinning source-to-sink studies, it provides an analysis of the component segments which make up sediment routing systems. The functioning of sediment routing systems is illustrated through calculations of denudation and sedimentation as well as the response to external drivers; with the final sections focusing on the stratigraphic record of sediment routing systems. Containing quantitative solutions to a wide range of problems in Earth surface dynamics, it is suitable for graduate students as well as academic and professional researchers; and will enable an understanding of sediment routing systems.
List of contents
Preface; Part I. A Global View of Sediment Routing Systems: 1. Sediment routing systems: first concepts; 2. The global character of river basins; 3. Global biogeochemical cycles; Part II. The Segments of Sediment Routing Systems: 4. The catchment-fluvial segment; 5. The continental shelf segment; 6. The deep marine segment; Part III. The Functioning of Sediment Routing Systems: 7. Denudation and sedimentation; 8. Dynamics of sediment routing systems; Part IV. The Stratigraphic Record of Sediment Routing Systems: 9. Sediment production, evolution and provenance; 10. Sediment routing systems and sequence stratigraphy; References; Index.
About the author
Philip A. Allen is Emeritus Professor of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, and a process-oriented Earth scientist with particular interests in the interactions and feedbacks between the solid Earth and its 'exosphere' through the critical interface of the Earth's surface. He has received both the Royal Society's Wolfson Research Merit Award for 2006–2011 and the Lyell Medal from the Geological Society of London in 2007. He served on the Council of the Geological Society 2008–2012 and was Secretary of the Science Committee from 2009 to 2012.
Summary
The investigation of sediment routing systems is part of the growing field of Earth surface dynamics. This state-of-the-art summary combines ideas from several sub-disciplines including geology, geomorphology, oceanography and geochemistry to provide an integrated view of Earth surface dynamics in terms of sediment generation, transport and deposition.
Report
'In this new book, Philip A. Allen has distilled a lifetime of insightful study of the Earth's surface into a wide ranging and rigorous synthesis of planetary sediment processes. Sediment Routing Systems is the first to use the idea of global sediment routing - 'following the sediment' - to provide a framework for synthesis across environments and scales, to integrate the source and sink sides of the routing system, and to link geochemical and particulate fluxes. It manages to do this in a quantitative framework that is carefully formulated, accessible, and perfectly pitched in clarity and detail. Sediment Routing Systems is a landmark and masterpiece; for many Earth scientists, it will be all they need in terms of global sediment dynamics.' Chris Paola, University of Minnesota
