Book Review: Steven E. Ingebritsen, Ward E. Sanford, and Christopher E. Neuzil (eds), Groundwater in Geologic Processes, second edition

Excerpt

Although the role of groundwater in various disparate geological fields has been studied for at least a century, it is only more recently that a more unified approach to the study of hydrogeology in large-scale geologic systems has emerged. Reasons for this shift include the advent of more transdisciplinary and interconnected theories within the earth sciences, the development of improved numerical models (and computational power) for studying larger scale three-dimensional problems, and advances in our theoretical and measurement abilities. The book Groundwater in Geologic Processes by Ingebritsen and Sanford (1998) played a key role in creating a unified view of groundwater in earth systems by developing a rigorous technical and theoretical framework for studying groundwater processes at large scales. The recently published Groundwater in Geologic Processes, 2nd edn. by Ingebritsen et al. (2006) further solidifies this book as an important teaching and reference tool in the research field. The book contains substantial new material and is much more than simply an update to the first edition. There is a new coauthor, Christopher Neuzil, and completely new chapters on compaction and diagenesis, metamorphism, and sub-sea hydrogeology. Additionally there are expanded discussions of the coupling of groundwater flow and deformation/compaction (i.e., hydromechanics). …