Photographs, illustrations, and text introduce readers to energy conservation and the power of water as an energy source.

It is self-evident that a better understanding of depositional systems and analogs leads to better inputs for geological models and better assessment of risk for plays and prospects in hydrocarbon exploration, as well as enhancing interpretations of earth history. Depositional environments - clastic and carbonate, fine- and coarse-grained, continental, marginal marine and deep marine - show latitudinal variations, which are sometimes extreme. Most familiar facies models derive from temperate and, to a lesser extent, tropical examples. By comparison, depositional analogs from higher latitudes are sparser in number and more poorly understood. Numerous processes are amplified and/or diminished at higher latitudes, producing variations in stratigraphic architecture from more familiar depositional "norms." The joint AAPG/SEPM Hedberg Conference held in Banff, Alberta, Canada in October 2014 brought together broad studies looking at global databases to identify differences in stratigraphic models and sedimentary concepts that arise due to differences in latitude and to search for insights that may be applicable for subsurface interpretations. The articles in this Special Publication represent a cross-section of the work presented at the conference, along with the abstracts of the remaining presentations. This volume should be of great interest to all those working with stratigraphic models and sedimentary concepts.

The sedimentary record on Earth stretches back more than 4.3 billion years and is present in more abbreviated forms on companion planets of the Solar System, like Mars and Venus, and doubtless elsewhere. Reading such planetary archives correctly requires intimate knowledge of modern sedimentary processes acting within the framework provided by tectonics, climate and sea or lake level variations. The subject of sedimentology thus encompasses the origins, transport and deposition of mineral sediment on planetary surfaces. The author addresses the principles of the subject from the viewpoint of modern processes, emphasising a general science narrative approach in the main text, with quantitative background derived in enabling ‘cookie’ appendices. The book ends with an innovative chapter dealing with how sedimentology is currently informing a variety of cognate disciplines, from the timing and extent tectonic uplift to variations in palaeoclimate. Each chapter concludes with a detailed guide to key further reading leading to a large bibliography of over 2500 entries. The book is designed to reach an audience of senior undergraduate and graduate students and interested academic and industry professionals.