"This volume atempts to explore and clarify the relationship among the geological records, the extinctions, and the causes of catastrophes for life in Earth's history. Most of the papers address the geological record and the extinctions across the Cretaceou-Teriary boundary, and the buried Chicxulub structure that is now consensually deemed to be of impact origin and to be intimately related to that boundary." (GSA website).

One of Springer’s Major Reference Works, this book gives the reader a truly global perspective. It is the first major reference work in its field. Paleoclimate topics covered in the encyclopedia give the reader the capability to place the observations of recent global warming in the context of longer-term natural climate fluctuations. Significant elements of the encyclopedia include recent developments in paleoclimate modeling, paleo-ocean circulation, as well as the influence of geological processes and biological feedbacks on global climate change. The encyclopedia gives the reader an entry point into the literature on these and many other groundbreaking topics.

The biological effects of asteroid and comet impacts have been widely viewed as primarily destructive. The role of an impactor in the K/T boundary extinctions has had a particularly important influence on thinking concerning the role of impacts in ecological and biological changes. th During the 10 and final workshop of the ESF IMPACT program during March 2003, we sought to investigate the wider aspects of the involvement of impact events in biological processes, including the beneficial role of these events from the prebiotic through to the ecosystem level. The ESF IMPACT programme (1998-2003) was an interdisciplinary effort that is aimed at understanding impact processes and their effects on the Earth environment, including environmental, geological and biological changes. The IMPACT programme has 15 member states and the activities of the programme range from workshops to short courses on topics such as impact stratigraphy, shock metamorphism, etc. The program has also awarded mobility grants and been involved in the development of teaching aids and numerous publications, including this one.

"Comprises articles stemming from the March 2013 international conference at London's Natural History Museum. Researchers across geological, geophysical, and biological disciplines present key results from research concerning the causes of mass extinction events"--

Mass extinction and cataclysmic volcanic activity: will fascinate everyone interested in the history of life and death on our planet.