Planetary Surface Processes

About this book

Planetary Surface Processes is the first advanced textbook to cover the full range of geologic processes that shape the surfaces of planetary-scale bodies. Using a modern, quantitative approach, this book reconsiders geologic processes outside the traditional terrestrial context. It highlights processes that are contingent upon Earth's unique circumstances and processes that are universal. For example, it shows explicitly that equations predicting the velocity of a river are dependent on gravity: traditional geomorphology textbooks fail to take this into account. This textbook is a one-stop source of information on planetary surface processes, providing readers with the necessary background to interpret new data from NASA, ESA and other space missions. Based on a course taught by the author at the University of Arizona for 25 years, it is aimed at advanced students, and is also an invaluable resource for researchers, professional planetary scientists and space-mission engineers.

Contents

Preface; 1. The grand tour; 2. The shapes of planets and moons; 3. Strength versus gravity; 4. Tectonics; 5. Volcanism; 6. Impact cratering; 7. Regoliths, weathering and surface texture; 8. Slopes and mass movement; 9. Wind; 10. Water; 11. Ice; References; Index.

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Biography

H. Jay Melosh is Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Science at Purdue University. His principal research interests are impact cratering, planetary tectonics and the physics of earthquakes and landslides. He is a science team member of NASA's Deep Impact mission that successfully cratered comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. Professor Melosh was awarded the Barringer Medal of the Meteoritical Society in 1999, the Gilbert prize of the Geological Society of America in 2001, the Hess Medal of the American Geophysical Union in 2008, and was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2003. He has published over 170 technical papers, edited two books and is the author of Impact Cratering: A Geologic Process (1988, Oxford University Press). Asteroid #8216 was named 'Melosh' in his honor.