Earth Resources & Environment

Earth is a dynamic planet that provides enormous resources and also has environment to live. The world is passing through a critical stage to meet the demand of Earth resources, especially hydrocarbons, minerals and water. The economic importance of geology continues into our everyday life in the fields such as oil and gas exploration, mineral exploration, mining, water resource management and environmental applications. We are also witnessing loss of life periodically due to the natural disasters and calamities.

The next century holds unprecedented challenges for Geological Sciences as the world experiences hitherto unknown rates of population growth. The world’s population growth is expected to rise dramatically, from 7 billion now to about 9 billion in 2020, placing enormous new pressures on natural resources and environments. New concepts and understanding are urgently needed to find new natural resources and to protect environments. A better Geo-scientific knowledge will directly enhance the quality of human life.

This edited volume contains contributions from the scientists and experts from various branches of Geological Sciences, which is the outcome of the National Seminar on Earth Resources, Environment and Earth Sciences for Society (Earth-2009) and 12th National Convention of South Asian Association of Economic Geologists held at Salem between 5-7 February 2009, during the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE: 2007-2009) program initiated jointly by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The Chapters in this book covers the topics on Energy Resources, Mineral Resources, Water Resources, Paleo-climate, Tectonic Studies and Geohazards, Geologic Problems Solving with Microfossils, Environmental Studies, Remote Sensing and GIS Applications. Each of these chapters in this book highlights the research work of the authors and explains the outcome of their studies. Thus this book contains chapters dealing with various and vital aspects of earth resources and environment from various authors.