Earth as an evolving planetary system

Earth as an Evolving Planetary System explores key topics and questions relating to the evolution of the Earth's crust and mantle over the last four billion years. This Second Edition features exciting new information on Earth and planetary evolution and examines how all subsystems in our planet-crust, mantle, core, atmosphere, oceans and life-have worked together and changed over time. Kent Condie synthesizes data from the fields of oceanography, geophysics, planetology, and geochemistry to address Earth's evolution. Slides of all figures in the book can be downlo.

Lower Mantle.

Front Cover; Earth as an Evolving Planetary System; Copyright; Contents; Preface; Chapter 1: Earth Systems; Earth as a Planetary System; Structure of Earth; Plate Tectonics; Is the Earth Unique?; Interacting Earth Systems; Further Reading; Chapter 2: The Crust; Introduction; Seismic Crustal Structure; The Moho; Crustal Layers; Complexities in the Lower Continental Crust; Crustal Types; Oceanic Crust; Seismic Features; Ocean Ridges; Ocean Basins; Volcanic Islands; Trenches; Back-Arc Basins; Transitional Crust; Oceanic Plateaus; Arcs; Continental Rifts; Inland-Sea Basins; Continental Crust.

Shields and PlatformsOrogens; Continent Size; Heat Flow; Heat Flow Distribution; Heat Production and Heat Flow in the Continents; Age Dependence of Heat Flow; Exhumation and Cratonization; Unraveling Pressure-Temperature-Time Histories; Some Typical P-T-t Paths; Cratonization; Processes in the Continental Crust; Rheology; The Role of Fluids and Crustal Melts; Crustal Composition; Approaches; Seismic Wave Velocities; Seismic Reflections in the Lower Continental Crust; Sampling of Precambrian Shields; Use of Fine-Grained Detrital Sediments; Exhumed Crustal Blocks; Crustal Xenoliths.

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