This book presents the accumulated data and current state of geological knowledge on China’s main shale gas fields. It addresses a broad range of topics, including the geological setting, reference sections and published boreholes, lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy, sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the late Ordovician to early Silurian, spatial and temporal distribution patterns and environmental changes in the black shales of the Wufeng and Lungmachi formations, numerical analysis of the Wufengian and Lungmachian Total Organic Carbon (TOC), late Ordovician to early Silurian bentonites of the Yangtze region, and a graptolite atlas of the Wufeng and Lungmachi formations. Given its scope, the book represents a valuable asset for researchers and petroleum engineers alike.

The Geologic Time Scale 2012, winner of a 2012 PROSE Award Honorable Mention for Best Multi-volume Reference in Science from the Association of American Publishers, is the framework for deciphering the history of our planet Earth. The authors have been at the forefront of chronostratigraphic research and initiatives to create an international geologic time scale for many years, and the charts in this book present the most up-to-date, international standard, as ratified by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and the International Union of Geological Sciences. This 2012 geologic time scale is an enhanced, improved and expanded version of the GTS2004, including chapters on planetary scales, the Cryogenian-Ediacaran periods/systems, a prehistory scale of human development, a survey of sequence stratigraphy, and an extensive compilation of stable-isotope chemostratigraphy. This book is an essential reference for all geoscientists, including researchers, students, and petroleum and mining professionals. The presentation is non-technical and illustrated with numerous colour charts, maps and photographs. The book also includes a detachable wall chart of the complete time scale for use as a handy reference in the office, laboratory or field. The most detailed international geologic time scale available that contextualizes information in one single reference for quick desktop access Gives insights in the construction, strengths, and limitations of the geological time scale that greatly enhances its function and its utility Aids understanding by combining with the mathematical and statistical methods to scaled composites of global succession of events Meets the needs of a range of users at various points in the workflow (researchers extracting linear time from rock records, students recognizing the geologic stage by their content)

Two of the greatest evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth occurred during Early Paleozoic time. The first was the Cambrian explosion of skeletonized marine animals about 540 million years ago. The second was the "Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event," which is the focus of this book. This is the first book devoted specifically to establishing the global patterns of differentiation of Ordovician biotas through time and space. It provides extensive genus- and species-level diversity data for the many Ordovician fossil groups and presents an evaluation of how each group diversified, with assessments of patterns of change, and rates of origination and extinction.