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Geol. Mag. 136 (6), 1999, pp. 697–711. Printed in the United Kingdom © 1999 Cambridge University Press
B O O K REVIEWS
FOUQUÉ, F. A. 1999. Santorini and Its Eruptions. xvi + 495 pp.
+ loose maps. Translated and annotated by A. R.
McBirney. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
Press. Price £62.00 (hard covers). ISBN 0 8018 5614 0.
Ferdinand Fouqué was one of the leading earth scientists of
the nineteenth century. His most significant and influential
publication was the treatise Santorini et ses eruptions pub-
lished in 1879. This was a landmark publication in volcanol-
ogy, petrology and archaeology, best known for the idea that
calderas form by collapse in association with large explosive
eruptions and the discovery of a great Bronze Age civiliza-
tion in the Aegean. This new edition of Fouqué’s publication
is a translation into English by the distinguished American
volcanologist Alexander McBirney, and is an important
contribution to the history of science, in particular on the
evolution of ideas about the causes of volcanism.
Unfortunately at the frenetic end of the twentieth century
researchers do not seem often to read publications more
than a decade old, let alone publications over a century old.
As the publication is long, complex and in a language now
only read fluently by a minority of volcanologists, Fouqué’s
work is often cited, but more in deference to his memory and
contributions than any real knowledge of what he said and
achieved. Therefore an English translation with extensive
explanatory annotations is most welcome and must surely
reinvigorate a more widespread appreciation of the major
achievements of nineteenth century science in mineralogy
and geology, much of which was written in German, French
and Italian.
Fouqué’s great book is enjoyable, but it is not always an
easy read. The book is often concerned with details, which
will be difficult for those unfamiliar with the geography and
geology of Santorini fully to appreciate, and with issues that
are now largely of historical interest. The writing is clear, but
often discursive and lacks the conciseness that is demanded
of the current age. The style can therefore make parts of the
book rather tedious and other parts very insightful and
entertaining, as Fouqué adds asides about the natural his-
tory or circumstances of his observations that would be the
first casualty of a modern editor’s pen. However, the effort is
well worth while for the revelations of just how substantial
and original a figure Fouqué was and for the picture of the
great scientific debates of that age.
Fouqué was one of the great nineteenth century poly-
maths. The book starts with a display of knowledge of the
classics enabling him to reconstruct the early historic erup-
tions from Roman scholars, medieval writers and eyewitness
accounts. Fouqué reveals early on his critical attributes by
remarking about Pliny: `One need only read at any random
page of his natural history to see that he accepted without
question any information that came to him; so one should
attach little credance to what he says.’ Later in the book
other earlier scientists of distinction are dealt with in similar
style as their ideas are destroyed by Fouqué’s incisive argu-
ments, critical observations and intellect. His remarks are,
however, never vindictive and are very much in the modern
spirit of reasoned scientific criticism with obvious respect for
those with alternative views.
Fouqué carried out much of his field research on
697
Santorini during the 1866–70 eruption, which he documents
in detail. This work is outstanding by any standards. Fouqué
had also observed eruptions of Etna and Vesuvius and so
could bring these experiences to bear on documenting and
interpreting the Santorini eruption. What stands out in this
chapter is Fouqué’s considerable observational skills (to
some extent the account is like a diary), his intuitive under-
standing of the processes and his determination to make
quantitative measurements. Amongst the prominent results
of his work was the recognition of the importance of tec-
tonic control in locating eruptive vents along fissures, recog-
nition of the importance of viscosity and discharge rate in
controlling lava advance, and one of the earliest descriptions
of a submarine lava dome with recognition of the role of
water cooling in producing a strong contrast of morphology
with subaerial lavas. I was particularly impressed with his
understanding of the morphological development of lavas
with levees and channels and his recognition of lava inflation
with episodic burst out and channel draining. Such ideas
have recently become again prominent in studies of lava
dynamics. Fouqué also gathered a great deal of information
about ground deformation, observing areas of substantial
subsidence and uplift during the eruption. Fouqué made
some of the most systematic and high quality measurements
of gas chemistry using methods which differ little from those
used today. He recognized the important differences in gas
chemistry between high temperature fumaroles and low tem-
perature emissions. He also deduced the basic principles of
hydrothermal circulation in which sea water sank into hot
rocks, was infused with magmatic gas, and ascended as hot
emissions. His gas work also allowed him to interpret the
rather unusual occurrence of true flames due to combustion
and to understand the chemistry of precipitates of chlorides
and sulphates related to reactions between acid gases and
lava. This was pioneering work and displayed Fouqué’s for-
midable knowledge and talent as a geochemist. He also took
risks with entertaining and somewhat nonchalant accounts
of dodging volcanic bombs while carrying out his field
studies.
Much of the book is devoted to petrography and mineral-
ogy of the lavas and dykes of Santorini. These were the days
where the optical microscope and thin-sections were revolu-
tionizing understanding of rocks. The impact of the petro-
graphic microscope was as great then as the various
microbeam techniques and mass spectrometry are today.
Three aspects of Fouqué’s petrological studies were ground-
breaking. He was the first scientist to study the tiny ground-
mass crystals of lavas. He developed the concept of
microlites and identified the microlite crystals by painstak-
ing physical and chemical separations. He recognized too
that the magma must have often been flowing at the time of
microlite formation and that the glassy groundmass of lavas
was silica-rich. A second achievement was in developing
methods for separating minerals. He invented the use of
magnetic separation and improved chemical methods for
selective dissolution of different minerals. A third innova-
tion was the use of petrography to study ancient ceramics,
deducing both methods and provenance of the raw materi-
als. A great deal of the petrographic work is concerned with
Fouqué’s major research interests in the feldspars. Much of
698
this is of historical interest. The book was written before the
notion of a continuous solid solution in plagioclase feldspar
with coupled substitution was fully understood. Fouqué’s
research, however, recognized that many different plagio-
clase compositions existed, but he interpreted these varia-
tions as intimate physical mixtures of anorthite and
labradorite. Within a decade or so Fouqué’s close colleague
Michel-Levy had published his optical charts, still used in
basic optical mineralogy classes, and the concept of solid
solution was recognized. Fouqué was one of a number of
outstanding European mineralogists whose work led to
modern understanding of feldspars.
The book also deals with the overall geology of Santorini,
illustrated by the wonderful sketches of the caldera wall,
colour paintings of the Kameni islands in eruption, thin-sec-
tion sketches and maps (in themselves worth the price of the
book). The sections on the geology are understandably a bit
confused in places due to an incomplete understanding of
the stratigraphy and geology of pyroclastic deposits. At the
time ignimbrites and base surges had not been recognized.
However Fouqué was able to distinguish correctly the older
submarine rocks from the younger subaerial sequences
based on his field observations. Most important he deduced
that there had been a huge explosive eruption associated
with the formation of a great volcanic depression. Fouqué’s
archaeological work with local enthusiasts led to perhaps
one of the most important discoveries of the ancient world,
the late Bronze Age civilization now known as the Minoan
culture. These ancient inhabitants on Santorini were
destroyed by a great explosive eruption which Fouqué recog-
nized from the covering of the islands under great thick-
nesses of white pumice and ash. The systematic description
of the excavations and the artefacts discovered within them
is a highlight of the book.
Fouqué is generally credited with developing the modern
interpretation of caldera formation by collapse associated
with explosive eruption from his observations on Santorini.
The final chapter of the book is an extended essay on previ-
ous theories, in particular on two ideas namely the `craters of
elevation’ theory, and the idea that calderas form by explo-
sive excavation. The Craters of Elevation theory had been
advanced by Leopold von Buch in 1802 and had attracted
many advocates, notably Elie de Beaumont in his publica-
tions of the 1830s. The basic idea was that craters on all
scales formed by doming of the strata, followed by explosive
releases and then construction of a smaller volcano inside
the crater. These ideas were clearly well on their way to being
discredited with several of the major figures in nineteenth
century geology, including Charles Lyell, showing that the
ideas simply did not fit with observations. Fouqué’s essay
summarizes the arguments of several other scientists and
observations from many volcanoes, not just Santorini.
Perhaps of more importance was his arguments on why
explosive cratering would not explain the caldera of
Santorini, which he based on his own observations and
interpretation of the geology of Santorini.
Curiously perhaps the most important scientific idea of
Fouqué’s emerges from his least impressive reasoning and
least effective research. His reasons for dismissing explosive
cratering were based on two main arguments, each of which
modern research on Santorini demonstrates are either weak
or partly flawed. First Fouqué had deduced from the older
geological record that a large volcanic edifice existed prior to
the Bronze Age eruption and thus the entire depression with
a volume of over 60 km3 formed in the eruption. Recent
research has demonstrated that a large caldera depression
BOOK REVIEWS
already existed. The Bronze Age eruption enlarged this
caldera and was somewhat more modest in size. Second
Fouqué made much of the very low content of lithics in the
deposits of the eruption. This was and still is a key argument
for the modern interpretation of calderas by collapse.
However the Minoan deposits in fact contain substantial
proportions of lithics (10 to 50 wt%). Much of the lithics are
in the ash grade and Fouqué never examined the ash with the
care and attention which he devoted to the 1866 ash and
study of microlites in the lavas. He severely underestimated
the lithic content as a fraction of a percent and introduced
some rather spurious volume arguments. In a way the
polemic essay is atypical of Fouqué’s attributes as a great sci-
entist, as so much of science is based on attention to detail,
meticulous measurements and analyses, and systematic
deductions based on observation.
The book was translated and annotated by Professor
Alexander McBirney. This was clearly a labour of love by
McBirney, who rightly came to see Fouqué as one of the
giants of volcanology. The extensive footnotes on the histor-
ical context of Fouqué’s work are very instructive and often
fascinating. These footnotes are best on the historical con-
text and are somewhat uneven in relation to more recent
research on Santorini. For example, in one footnote it is
stated that modern research has shown that the Bronze Age
Minoan eruption was divided into four stages separated by
years or even decades. This is simply incorrect, since all the
research of the last few decades had interpreted the eruption
as a single catastrophic large magnitude explosive eruption,
probably lasting days with no evidence for any breaks. This is
the most glaring example of a rather incomplete and some-
times inaccurate appreciation of the modern understanding
of Santorini. The book comes with the excellent geological
map of Santorini by Pichler published in 1980. Readers
should be aware that some important aspects of the geology
and stratigraphy have been changed since this map was
made. The most recent summary of Santorini geology and
evolution, including a new geological map, is shortly to be
published as Memoir no. 19 of the Geological Society of
London entitled Santorini Volcano by T. H. Druitt and col-
leagues.
McBirney is a little generous to Fouqué in terms of devel-
oping the complete modern idea of caldera formation. There
is no doubt the Fouqué’s work was seminal, but I could not
find any clear statement or evidence that Fouqué had fully
appreciated the nature of the link between explosive evacua-
tion of magma chamber and caldera collapse. Indeed the
text is rather confused and vague on the mechanism, with
Fouqué expending most of his efforts on powerfully dismiss-
ing rival theories rather than developing a coherent alterna-
tive hypothesis. He draws an analogy with collapse pits
relating to lava tubes and the idea that withdrawal of magma
from a reservoir can cause collapse. His writings are unclear
about how the explosive activity and collapse were actually
linked and the wording of his text leads me to think that he
thought collapse was the cause of explosive eruption rather
than the other way round.
I can strongly recommend researchers, volcanologists and
historians of earth science to obtain this classic book.
Reading the book reminds us how much we now owe to our
scientific ancestors and how scientific ideas really evolve. The
impression I was left with was that science in the 1870s
worked quite like it does today. Rather than one single
genius overthrowing previous ideas in a flash of inspiration,
ideas and understanding evolve by the efforts of an interna-
tional community with many twists and turns as the major
BOOK REVIEWS
figures and personalities of the day debate, interact and
research. Fouqué was one of several major figures in
European earth science whose effort revolutionized under-
standing of volcanic processes. Fouqué and his contempo-
raries were involved in debates and discoveries every bit as
exciting and important as those of today. It would be won-
derful to be able to take Ferdinand Fouqué on a trip to
Santorini and explain all the great archaeological, petrologi-
cal and volcanological developments that built on his
research and ideas. Alexander McBirney is also owed a debt
of gratitude for making Fouqué’s work and originality now
accessible to a wide audience.
R. S. J. Sparks
SIGURDSSON, H. 1999. Melting the Earth. The History of
Ideas on Volcanic Eruptions. xi + 260 pp. New York,
Oxford: Oxford University Press. Price US $30.00 (hard
covers). ISBN 0 19 510665 2.
Haraldur Sigurdsson has spent much of his scientific career
reconstructing past volcanic eruptions. In the case of some
of the great eruptions of the past, this has been much more
than a dry scientific exercise. Events like the great AD 79
eruption of Vesuvius have left a rich archaeological and
written record documenting the event and its impact. In
Melting the Earth Haraldur Sigurdsson leaves the geological
details of such events behind, and instead sets out to explore
the human record of volcanic phenomena around the globe.
For much of the book this takes us on an historical tour of
the classical world. With ample extracts from a diverse range
of ancient writings, and freely illustrated, this provides an
enlightening account of the development of observations
and thoughts on volcanism. In the latter stages of the book,
Sigurdsson concentrates on the evolution of ideas relating to
the process by which the Earth melts. The particular focus
here is the identification of the origins of models of ‘decom-
pression melting’, which is now taken to be the cause of most
melting inside the Earth.
Melting the Earth is an illuminating read, written for an
informed but general audience. It will appeal to those with a
general interest in the history of science, as well as anyone
with more specific interests in volcanology, and is at a price
that says ‘buy me’!
David Pyle
GILBERT, J. S. & SPARKS, R. S. J. 1998. The Physics of
Explosive Volcanic Eruptions. Geological Society
Special Publication no. 145. v + 186 pp. London, Bath:
Geological Society of London. Price £59.00, US $98.00
(hard covers); members’ price £29.00, US $48.00. ISBN
1 86239 020 7.
FREUNDT, A. & ROSI, M. (eds) 1998. From Magma to
Tephra. Modelling Physical Processes of Explosive
Volcanic Eruptions. Developments in Volcanology
Series no. 4. xv + 318 pp. Amsterdam, Lausanne, New
York, Oxford, Shannon, Singapore, Tokyo: Elsevier.
Price Nlg 285.00, US $135.00 (hard covers). ISBN 0 444
82959 8.
Welcome to the ‘New Volcanology’. Together, these two vol-
umes summarize some of the recent advances in the under-
standing of the physical processes that control the eruption
and emplacement of volcanic rocks. As the titles of the two
volumes suggest, much of the emphasis is directed at explo-
sive, and usually silicic, magmatism. Both volumes origi-
699
nated from workshops on the same topic, and so the contri-
butions are framed in the context of providing an up-to-date
review of the field, as well as focusing on particular aspects
of recent work. The span of both volumes is broad. Gilbert
& Sparks’ volume includes seven full chapters covering the
major processes influencing the magma as it vesiculates,
ascends the conduit, and is transformed into tephra. A
review of models of eruption columns links these subter-
ranean processes with the fate of tephra once erupted, and
its dispersal within the atmosphere and deposition from den-
sity currents.
Freundt & Rosi’s volume is also encapsulated within seven
chapters that broadly cover a similar range of topics, but
with the inclusion of a chapter on phreatomagmatic erup-
tions. Since only two authors (from eighteen) have contribu-
tions in both volumes, the emphases of the two books are
quite distinct. Interesting contrasts include, for example, the
different treatment of the processes within the conduit. In
Physics of Explosive Volcanic Eruptions, Heidy Mader uses
field and textural evidence, combined with the results from
shock-tube experiments, to investigate the nature of magma
flow and fragmentation. Claude Jaupart then explores the
likely significance of gas loss through the conduit walls for
the eruptive process. In contrast, in From Magma to Tephra,
Paolo Papale investigates the range of models that have been
developed to describe what happens below a volcanic crater.
Computational and analogue models clearly still have some
way to go before they converge.
Overall, both volumes provide a valuable entry into the
literature on the theoretical aspects of explosive volcanism.
For a student new to the field, the challenge will be to dis-
cover the limitations of the models and their underlying
assumptions. For the future, the goal must be to identify the
ways of testing these models against what really happens in
nature.
David Pyle
TAYLOR, S. R. 1998. Destiny or Chance: Our Solar System and
its Place in the Cosmos. xvii + 229 pp. Cambridge, New
York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Price
£17.95, US $24.95 (hard covers). ISBN 0 521 48178 3.
This is a book that should be read by anyone who wants to
be a scientist, is a scientist, or is interested in science. It is
written by a robust rationalist, who enjoys lacing his text
with tart comments. He perennially warns the reader against
the danger of simplification, but has neither time nor taste
for mysticism. Hence the real theme of this book lies in the
subtitle rather than unwittingly in the more metaphysical
title. At heart is asked one of the questions of questions:
‘Are we alone?’ Received wisdom is that we are not, and
seemingly this view has received dramatic astronomical rein-
forcement from the recent series of stunning discoveries of
new planetary systems. But there are some worrying por-
tents. So far these new solar systems are very different indeed
from ours, notably in possessing truly massive planets that
sometimes occupy orbits remarkably close to the central
star. For example, Tau Bootis possesses a planet almost four
times as massive as Jupiter, yet its orbit is closer than that of
Mercury and it circles its star once every three days. It is, of
course, important to appreciate that present methods of
observation still preclude detection of Earth-size planets, yet
Taylor is able to argue persuasively that the overall likeli-
hood of anything similar to our Solar System is vanishingly
small. Why should this be so?
700
Even a brief survey of the Solar System, which this book
so ably provides, clearly indicates that it is full of anomalies
and exceptions that can only have arisen from a series of
local historical accidents. These stem back to the formation
of the Solar System itself where there is a critical balance
between the accretion of the planets and the newly forming
star. Both derive, of course, from the original nebular cloud
of dust and gas, but as the star begins to shine, so its radia-
tion quickly disperses that component of the cloud that has
not been swept up into the planets. If the process of star for-
mation had been a little bit faster or the Sun lightly larger
then very probably no Jupiter. As Taylor remarks ‘The tim-
ing is exquisite’ (p. 70), and as he explains a Solar System
without the massive Jupiter would assuredly have been a
very different place.
The uniqueness of the Solar System may also be inferred
from more local instances. It is widely agreed that the Moon
originated as the result of a cataclysmic impact between the
Earth and another planet approximately the size of Mars.
This was an integral part of a protracted episode of major
bombardment that afflicted the entire Solar System and is
evident simply by glancing at the Moon where the pulverized
highlands and giant basaltic flood plains (maria) are visible
to the naked eye. Yet the giant impact that produced the
Moon was very unusual and only recently has been appreci-
ated what a profound influence our daughter satellite has
had on the evolution of the Earth, not least in axial stability,
the tides, and the rate of rotation. Nor does the story of
impacts stop here. Despite the sheltering effect of the giant
Jupiter, whose massive gravitational field redirects many
comets which otherwise might plunge into the inner Solar
System, the Earth has clearly experienced multiple hits of
which the end-Cretaceous impact at Chicxulub is the most
famous. Yet there seem to be unsolved problems. An exami-
nation of the Venusian surface indicates that on average
there is a devastating impact every half-million years. The
Earth should show similar insult, yet certainly the biological
record is less punctuated than this extra-terrestrial frequency
seems to suggest. What is going on?
So familiar has the Solar System become that it is useful to
be reminded of the many differences. Whilst our Moon is
unique, five of the other planets possess satellites. At first
sight these are rather similar, but not on close inspection.
There is Io with its sulphur volcanoes, Europa with its crust
of ice jostling above an interior ocean, Miranda with its pre-
cipitous canyons, and Triton with its geysers of frozen nitro-
gen. Each with an unexpected history, and each posing
unsolved problems. So too with Earth and Venus. In many
ways they are similar planets, but in other respects they are
utterly different. A key reason, it transpires, is the presence
of water. Here too the Earth may have been remarkably
lucky. Very early in the history of the Solar System the avail-
able water was probably only able to accumulate in an ‘ice-
trap’ far beyond the Earth’s present orbit, so that much of
our water was delivered by comets rich in volatiles. It was,
however, nip-and-tuck whether this system actually deliv-
ered the volatiles or blew them off the surface. In any event
Venus lost out and it is now bone dry. One unexpected corol-
lary of this is that the crustal dynamics are very different.
Dry crust is much stronger and so the familiar processes of
plate tectonics are on Venus an impossibility.
Repeatedly Taylor stresses that any attempt to find a
‘grand programme’ or ‘grand unifying theme’ for the forma-
tion of the Solar System is doomed to failure. As he dryly
remarks ‘This is not encouraging for people who wish to pro-
duce planetary systems by tidy computer programs’ (pp.
BOOK REVIEWS
83–84). Yet as he also stresses that the principles for under-
standing planetary formation are based on simple applica-
tions of physics. For example, we can be sure no ninth planet
(Pluto doesn’t count) exists beyond Neptune because its
orbit is extraordinarily close to a circle: any gravitational
perturbation by a more remote planet would have distorted
Neptune’s orbit. Another example is given by the gas giants
Jupiter and Saturn, both rich in hydrogen and helium. Why
then do we detect much less helium in the atmosphere of
Saturn? As Taylor succinctly explains this planet, being
smaller, cooled more quickly than Jupiter after its condensa-
tion from the nebula with the result that the helium was able
to freeze earlier and descend towards the centre, thereby
depleting the upper atmosphere.
Taylor’s conclusion is unequivocal and might be inter-
preted as bleak in the extreme. The Solar System is unique,
arising from a concatenation of effectively unrepeatable
events. Other solar systems there certainly are, but the likeli-
hood of a planet like the Earth, on which intelligence
emerged, is vanishingly small. Unwittingly the one meta-
physical conclusion Taylor comes to is similar to some of my
own thoughts. Thus he writes: ‘The knowledge that we are
probably alone in the universe, that conscious intelligence
has arisen accidentally, and we are its only keeper, should
stimulate us to behave more responsibly’ (p. 204), to which
my counterpoint was: ‘If indeed we are alone and unique,
and this possibility, however implausible, cannot yet be
refuted, then we have special responsibilities’ (Conway
Morris, 1998, p. 223). Thereafter, for what it is worth, we
diverge. Taylor is a thorough-going materialist, and content
to accept our emergence as simply a series of very lucky acci-
dents. I am less sure and although one may enjoy the irony of
materialist and theist finding common ground, the paradox
of apparent accident invites the more thoughtful to choose
between staring into the pit or, alternatively, looking again at
the stars.
Simon Conway Morris
Reference
CONWAY MORRIS, S. 1998. The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess
Shale and the Rise of Animals. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. 242 pp.
MCSWEEN, H. Y., JR. 1998. Fanfare for Earth. The Origin of
Our Planet and Life. xiii + 252 pp. New York: St Martin’s
Press. Price US $23.95, Can $31.99 (hard covers). ISBN
0 312 14601 9.
Fanfare for Earth, despite its title, is not widely publicized
outside North America, and ordering it seems possible for
most of us only through amazon.com. This is a great shame,
because Harry McSween has produced something excellent
for that elusive reader, the aware layperson, and full of
lessons for professional Earth Scientists. If forms a link
between Stuart Ross Taylor’s Destiny or Chance: Our Solar
System and its Place in the Cosmos and my own Stepping
Stones: The Making of Our Home World. Strangely, all three
were written in isolation, yet look for all the world like a
boxed set! But each has a very different style.
Authors of a popularized science book indulge themselves
in philosophy, and rightly so, for they must weave together
many more strands than in a purely academic text. The State
of Kansas, with shades of the Wizard of Oz and the cre-
ationist reaction of the 20s and 30s, recently legislated to
undermine the teaching of evolution and the origins of
material things as outcomes of natural processes. In that
BOOK REVIEWS
context my hackles were up on finding that the first 33 pages
and the Epilogue discoursed on mystical views of our
planet’s origin set against the growth of rational concepts,
with not a few apologies to readers with religious sentiments.
In my notes I wrote, “I long for a book that begins by saying,
‘If you are a sanctimonious, litigious and brain-dead rat-
bag, then don’t read on’” ! That was unkind. McSween is an
agnostic, but has taken delight in the demystifying role of his
science that more and more reveals the unexpected and com-
plex, yet charts a connectedness encompassing order and
disorder within the cosmos. Popularizers also use devices
that textbooks generally eschew: metaphors, personalized
anecdotes and, Lord forbid, humour and sinful anthropo-
morphism. Harry McSween is good at all this, and covers
some deep issues with a lightness of touch that makes
Fanfare for Earth easily and enjoyably read in only a few sit-
tings. He does, however, give a bit more of the flavour of a
boy and his puppy gazing with awe at the heavens than some
readers might wish for. Still, it will not be so long before the
‘aw, gee whizz’ genre in popular science becomes replaced by
the sage nodding of the New Ager’s “s’cool” – there is more
than a touch of that in ‘Gaian’ science – or even ‘wicked’!
McSween is a geochemist focused on the significance of
meteorites in revealing how the early Solar System evolved
and planets came into being. Until the last couple of decades
that seemed a dull branch of science, specialized in pigeon-
holing superficially dull objects. The excitement generated by
new insights into what their mineralogy and geochemistry
might actually mean for a link between the cosmos and our-
selves was hidden from common view, until the now notori-
ous massaging in 1998 of ambiguous evidence for former life
on Mars in meteorite ALH84001. Thankfully, McSween
shuns NASA and the Planetary Science Research Institute’s
fund-raising hype in that regard. Instead he weaves his spe-
cialist knowledge into, first, a chemical context for Earth’s
emergence, and then how that formed a perhaps unique
milieu from which living processes stemmed. It is a chemical
history, beginning with processes in stars, and then through
the way in which the law-given properties of elements condi-
tioned subsequent evolution in all manner of places in our
tiny patch of the Milky Way.
From the outset of his account, McSween clarifies gener-
ally mistaken views. For instance, stars and the supernovae
of big ones do not produce elements, but assemblies of pro-
tons and neutrons – isotopes – many of which are unstable
and transient. Elements are the stable residue with complete
electron orbitals, while the oddballs leave signatures of their
ephemeral presence in the form of their decay products. The
26
Mg in otherwise magnesium-free minerals in the Allende
meteorite could only have stemmed from decay of 26Al
formed by a supernova, and this puts only 1 Ma between the
linkage of a nearby stellar cataclysm with the first tangible
matter of the Solar System. Lightness and clarity of writing
makes this exciting, and draws us willingly to browse the
arcana of nanograins of diamond, SiC and fullerenes that
reveal yet more about the early links between stellar and
solar nebular processes. This prepares the reader well for a
wealth of information about the formation and evolution of
planetismals drawn from resourceful forensic studies of
meteorites. In turn, this ethos of geochemical detective work
draws the reader into grasping how we can be sure that our
planet did not simply accrete and then evolve quietly. Its
volatile deficiency, together with that of the Moon, implicate
protoEarth’s catastrophic collision with a Mars-sized planet,
from which the two companions emerged shortly after plan-
etary accretion had largely been accomplished.
701
This backdrop of sudden and awesome events continues
with the common 700 Ma age for all IIIAB irons in Earth-
crossing orbit. Could it be that they are debris from a 700
Ma mega-impact on Earth (about the same age as the break-
up of Rodinia)? Whatever, I was equally surprised to learn
that H chondrites are reassemblies of rubble from asteroidal
collisions. Even more so to discover that big impact basins,
like Imbrium on the Moon, have features at their exact
antipode that possibly formed by focusing of giant seismic
waves; something that those wrangling over whether
Chicxulub or the Deccan Traps led to the K/T extinction
would do well to take on board. There are other nuggets too,
not so directly concerned with the Earth. McSween is not
satisfied with dating the Earth, and reveals the paradox
between the paradigmic ‘age’ of the Universe from Hubble
expansion (8–12 Ga) and ages of nearby globular clusters
(from consideration of stellar evolutionary trends) at 14–18
Ga and for the formation of 232Th and 238U in our galactic
patch (13–20 Ga). That should have cosmogonists’ hearts all
a-flutter, but with awesome arrogance they plump for a mean
of these three independent approaches to maintain their
canon of one big bang.
Two of the last three chapters of Fanfare for Earth have a
more geological and biological slant, and these topics are the
most weakly treated, perhaps because they have to be there
in rounding off the account, but are not of the central theme.
Yet, they are not uninteresting where McSween writes in a
geochemical vein. Only reading his clever rendition of how
Nd isotopes in sediments help place upper limits on the
origin of continental crust and its rate of generation was
able to convince me that such topics do not have to be
sequestered away in journals and specialized books. Despite
the fact that he omits the molecular relatedness amongst liv-
ing things and the central place of the Fe–S bond in some of
life’s crucial molecules, that places their likely origins from
thermophilic Archaea – the key to current thinking on gene-
sis around sea-floor hydrothermal vents – he makes a good
case for delivery of complex, inorganic CHON compounds
by interplanetary ‘fluff’. That moves the difficult step of cre-
ating the peptide bond to some more physically favourable
place than the ravaged early Earth. But he refuses to pass the
buck for life’s origin to beyond Earth’s confines, unlike
Francis Crick, who oddly sees it in the hands of some
pan-galactic jobbing gardener. It is this geochemical confi-
dence that makes the third, on the origin and evolution of air
and water, probably the best short account available to the
general reader.
If the excellence of scientific content and ease of delivery
were not enough to recommend Fanfare for Earth to anyone
interested in its theme, Harry McSween does what all popu-
larizers should. He acknowledges the giants from whose
shoulders we all peer with greater clarity, and therein lie
several surprises. Who among us would care to admit that we
did not know of the audacity of Lord Kelvin’s assistant,
John Perry? He bravely showed that his awesome master’s
calculation of a very young age for the Earth from dissipa-
tion of energy of accretion was fundamentally flawed mathe-
matically, well before the discovery of radioactive decay as a
basis for absolute dating. Likewise, not many people know
that G. K. Gilbert of the USGS made the first experimental
models of impact structures in 1891, yet to his death refused
to believe that was how lunar craters formed. And seismic
evidence for the Earth’s core dates to Richard Oldham’s
1906 work at the Geological Survey of India. Every chapter
pays such long overdue homage, but we are not presented
with the usual burden of a 40-page list of daunting technical
702
sources, but with well-chosen lists of suggested reading, each
entry encouragingly vetted for content and readability. This
is proper public communication in science.
S. A. Drury
SCHOWENGERDT, R. A. 1998. Remote Sensing. Models and
Methods for Image Processing, 2nd ed. xiv + 522 pp. San
Diego, London: Academic Press. Price US $75.00 (hard
covers). ISBN 0 12 628981 6.
This book is a thorough rewrite and expansion of the
author’s 1983 work Techniques for image processing and
classification in remote sensing. Like its predecessor, it offers
one of the most original perspectives on image processing.
In a burgeoning market, it represents a particularly satisfy-
ing treatment of the subject. The balance between mathe-
matical rigour and breadth of coverage is excellent, and the
new work benefits greatly from its entirely digital produc-
tion. Its contents are relevant to a wide range of students
and researchers interested in calibrating, enhancing, clean-
ing, rectifying, and classifying remotely sensed data. It is cer-
tainly relevant to geologists interested in mapping and
quantitative applications of digital satellite or airborne
image data.
Schowengerdt begins by outlining the interactions
between electromagnetic radiation and the Earth’s surface
and atmosphere, treating radiative transfer at a straightfor-
ward level that neither trivializes the issues nor weighs into
the full detail of the mathematics. A similar balance is main-
tained throughout the text which goes on to cover the key
topics in image processing, including classification, image
merges, geometric and radiometric correction, image cos-
metics (by convolution and in the Fourier domain), multi-
spectral transformations, image statistics, and optical system
performance. The book offers much more to chew on than
many of its competitors by avoiding the lengthy descriptions
of the launch history and orbital tracks of different satel-
lites, photogrammetric principles, and so on, commonplace
in other texts. The chapters are very clearly written and well
referenced throughout. I like the implicit demarcation
between techniques employed to enhance images (multi-
spectral transformations, spatial filtering, etc.), and the pre-
processing steps (radiometric calibration, etc.) necessary for
more quantitative analysis (e.g. of surface temperature or
reflectance).
Schowengerdt also offers more specialist material, includ-
ing detail on hyperspectral image processing, neural net-
works and wavelet analysis. Hyperspectral remote sensing
has hitherto been restricted to a number of airborne instru-
ments but shows considerable promise for mineral mapping.
With the launch of Australia’s ARIES-1 hyperspectral sens-
ing satellite into low-earth orbit scheduled for 2000, this
capability is likely to become much more widely utilized by
the geological community in the near future.
Considerable thought has gone into the design of the fig-
ures (of which there are over 300); they are impressively con-
ceived and assembled. However, the reproduction of the
half-tone images is sometimes disappointing. It is great to
see an image processing technique illustrated with some real
examples, perhaps showing the outcomes of different proce-
dures or model parameters, but it is frustrating if the images
are so feebly reproduced that it is difficult to discern the
expected differences between the images. This problem only
crops up from time to time but it seems a particularly false
economy for a book dedicated to image processing. My only
BOOK REVIEWS
other wish would be to see more examples of data processing
and analysis of radar imagery, an increasingly important
source of information in the Earth and environmental sci-
ences. While much of the methodology discussed is generic
to optical and radar studies, there are a number of specialist
procedures applied to radar scenes (polarimetry, interferom-
etry, advanced filtering techniques for speckle-reduction,
optical-radar data merges) that could merit inclusion in a
third edition.
In summary, Schowengerdt’s new book is an important
reference for all remote sensing and digital image processing
practitioners. Few texts on this subject offer such a distinc-
tive viewpoint. Because of its solid theoretical foundations, I
have continued to use Schowengerdt’s 1983 text in graduate
teaching until now. This new edition should stand the test of
time equally well, and represents a very valuable contribu-
tion to the teaching of remote sensing and image processing.
Clive Oppenheimer
SCHOTT, J. R. 1997. Remote Sensing. The Image Chain
Approach. xiv + 394 pp. New York, Oxford: Oxford
University Press. Price £45.00 (hard covers). ISBN
0 19 508726 7.
Many environmental scientists that use remotely sensed data
are interested primarily in how to use them to solve their
particular problems and are happy to take the quality of
these data on trust. For those who want to use the data for
qualitative purposes this is fine. In this book Schott cautions
against this attitude, however, when you want to get quanti-
tative information. He argues that if the goal is to extract
quantitative information on the passage of radiant energy
from the ground through the atmosphere from remote sens-
ing at say the 1% level of accuracy then considerable atten-
tion to the details of data quality is required. The focus is
much narrower than the main title implies and there is noth-
ing on radar or active systems. Nor is there anything applied,
geological or otherwise. This small canvas allows Schott
to present a detailed treatment of the basics and application
of radiation physics to remote sensing and the interaction
of the radiation with the atmosphere that is as good as any-
thing I have seen at this level (advanced undergraduate/
postgraduate). Thus the heart of this work really concerns
assessing the error budgets associated with optical and ther-
mal remote sensing methods. He writes clearly and engag-
ingly such that one can dip in and out of the text with ease
and this will make it accessible to the student.
It is this strength of material and readability on radiomet-
ric error budgets for optical remote sensing that would make
this a text that teachers of intermediate and advanced
courses in remote sensing could recommend to students. The
chapter on image processing, though brief, is also of high
quality with some nicely worked examples on Fourier analy-
sis and pointers in the right places to more advanced treat-
ments. Sad to report then that the quality of image
reproduction in the book does not do the text justice. Some
of the black-and-white images have very poor contrast and
the colour plates are disappointingly dull and uninformative.
Chapters on information dissemination and image model-
ling also don’t really fit in and are a bit half-hearted. If the
main title is an oversell then the sub-title is a somewhat mis-
placed and laboured analogy. Each link in the chain of oper-
ations from image acquisition to information extraction has
a certain strength or quality and the weakest link controls
the overall quality. This is not a bad way to get across the
BOOK REVIEWS
notion of error budgets but it is not carried through with any
real formal conviction, which undermines the initial impres-
sion that here might be a genuinely new way of looking
things. The chapter on weak links is interesting and is struc-
tured around spatial and radiometric issues and tradeoffs,
though the lack of anything on validation of results as part
of the chain is a real omission.
Geoff Wadge
ANTHONY, J. W., BIDEAUX, R. A., BLADH, K. W. & NICHOLS,
M. C. 1997. Handbook of Mineralogy. Volume III.
Halides, Hydroxides, Oxides. xi + 628 pp. Tucson:
Mineral Data Publishing. Price US $106.00 (inc.
surface postage); hard covers. ISBN 0 9622097 2 4.
This book is the third volume in a series of mineral reference
texts first released by the same authors in 1990. As the name
suggests it deals primarily with halides, hydroxides and
oxides, but also includes the antimonates, antimonites,
arsenites, carbides, nitrides, phosphides, silicides and vana-
dium oxysalts. The format is one species to a page with the
628 species arranged in alphabetical order. The species name
and an idealized chemical formula (including metal valen-
cies where appropriate) are given at the top of each page and
each species is described under the following headings: crys-
tal data (including symmetry and common morphology),
physical properties, optical properties, cell data (Space
Group and cell dimensions), X-ray powder pattern (7
strongest lines), chemistry, occurrence, association, distribu-
tion (up to a dozen selected localities), name (significance
of), location of type material, and some selected references.
Where appropriate the headings polymorphism and series,
and mineral group are included. Given the one page per
species limitation the information provided under each
heading is brief, but concise and well selected. No discussion
of mineral chemistry is provided; the chemical data are
restricted to one to three analyses, usually microprobe and
usually including the ideal chemical composition. This is
adequate for most purposes and is a useful aid when
attempting to identify phases on the basis of microprobe
data. The alphabetical format of the series means that cross-
checking related species during the identification process is
more of a challenge to a reader without an extensive knowl-
edge of mineralogy; however, the publishers also produce
SEARCH, a PC-compatible program which is an excellent
aid in this process, and a complement to the volumes.
Locality data are up-to-date and well selected, with the
emphasis on localities where the species in question is abun-
dant, well crystallized or particularly pure. Inclusion of type
locality information (e.g. an asterisk after the type locality in
the distribution section) would be a simple improvement,
and would be appreciated by serious collectors, researchers
and museum curators.
This volume and in fact the entire series are remarkably
free from errors. The publishers’ commitment to the correc-
tion of any errors in the series is clear from the fact they are
offering readers a US$5 credit voucher for each error
brought to their attention (details can be found on the inter-
net at www. mineraldata.com). All volumes show a generally
high standard of manufacture. They are printed on 60-
pound acid-free paper, Smyth stitched to lie flat in use, and
bound in heavy buckram cloth. One minor criticism is that
the lettering on the spine is prone partially to rub off after
only a modest amount of normal handling, which somewhat
detracts from the volume’s appearance on the shelf.
703
I strongly recommended this text and the rest of the series
as a modern and concise reference for all earth sciences
libraries, professional mineralogists and serious collectors. A
set on the shelf in a microprobe or XRD lab would also see a
lot of use.
Ben Grguric
TURNER, A. 1998. Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives. xix +
234 pp. New York: Columbia University Press. Price
£31.95 (hard covers). ISBN 0 231 10228 3.
Cats are among the most popular of living vertebrate ani-
mals, both as domestic pets and as items of zoological study.
A mere seven large-bodied cats survive from the diverse
stock of felid carnivores since 25 million years ago. This is
the first ‘semi-popular’ scientific book to address the fossil
relatives of living big cats. The authors have sensibly
restricted themselves to the larger cat species (which have a
better fossil record), and so no mention is made of the range
of fossil and living small cats such as the African serval.
Before this review goes any further, mention must be made
of its outstanding feature, the astonishingly accurate and
meticulous reconstructions of fossil cats by the renowned
zoological artist Mauricio Anton. Here for the very first time
we see sabre-toothed cats not portrayed as ‘lions-with-big-
teeth-stuck-on’ but as subtly different animals with their own
unique anatomical identity. How many people have appreci-
ated just how different the skull, limbs and body proportions
of, say, the scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium is from an
extant lion or tiger? This book really shows these subtleties
brilliantly.
This book is an extensively illustrated overview of the ori-
gins, diversification and adaptations of the big cats, extant
and extinct. The anatomy, adaptations and behaviour of the
seven extant species constitute an appropriate perspective
from which other often quite different genera and species
may be compared and evaluated. Numerous books on
dinosaurs and mammoths exist, but until now there was
none on fossil cats.
Chapter One looks at the place of cats in nature, the nam-
ing of them, what fossils there are and how we find and date
them. Chapter Two deals with the principles of evolution
and gives a precis of the earliest history of cats (from about
30 Ma). Chapter Three provides very detailed information
on fossil species and living forms with a summary of the fos-
sil history of each living species. Chapter Four investigates
how cats work: for example, eyesight, claws, teeth and move-
ment. This provides functional analogues for the interpreta-
tion of behaviour in the fossil forms. Chapter Five integrates
anatomy and movement with social and hunting activity and
shows how different lines of evidence are used. Chapter Six
takes a broad long-term look at changes that have occurred
on the Earth over the past several millions of years, examines
the evolution of fossil big cats within this wider framework,
and makes really good use of dental and palaeoenvironmental
correlations.
There are a few errors in this excellent book. For example,
the Pliocene nimravid (palaeofelid) Barbourofelis is drawn as
being much too lion-like in appearance when this was really
a very bizarre animal indeed. The sabre-toothed creodonts
Apataelurus and Machaeroides are stated as being catlike.
This is erroneous; not only do they belong to the dog-like
family of the creodonts, the Hyaenodontidae, but ecomor-
phologically they are much more like canids than felids. The
assertion that Machaeriodes eothen is cat-like is then contra-
704
dicted in Figure 2.9 where it is shown as very dog-like. The
terms ‘taxon’, ‘distal’, ‘metapodia’, ‘deltoid’ or ‘supinatory’
are not explained in the text at all, yet this book is stated as
being accessible to the non-specialist. The brilliance of the
illustrations is slightly offset by their less-than-perfect inte-
gration with the text; for example, the reference to Figure
2.15 is ten pages before the actual figure, and there are worse
examples than this. Text and pictures could have been much
more closely integrated. There is a duplicated sentence at the
end of page 27, and on page 30 in Figure 2.10 Dasyurus is
incorrectly typed as Dasyrus. The introduction to family
trees could have been clearer and there are no provenance
details for museum specimens, for example UKM.3462
Adelphailurus kansensis.
The readability is slightly lessened by too many recourses
to ‘see chapter …’ and ‘summarised in text fig …’. Figure
3.34 legend refers to Figure 3.47 instead of Figure 3.28.
There is just the occasional throwaway statement or contra-
diction as on page 119. There are ink blots in the drawing of
Figure 4.26, and the running sequence of three different cats
is really rather inconclusive. The ‘pride’ drawings in Figure
5.4 contradict the text, and as befits an American publisher
there a number of irritating Americanisms such as saber,
maneuver and hyena. The reconstruction of Amphicyon
major in Figure 6.4 is not quite right: the skull is not nearly
robust and powerful enough; there are a number of other
picture inconsistencies such as in Figure 6.9 where
Megantereon and Homotherium are not much like earlier
portrayals in the book; and Figure 6.12 where Smilodon
seems a bit too small.
Despite these quibbles, this will go down as an epoch-
making book; Alan Turner’s text is excellent and readable,
although he has yet to achieve the same ‘scholarly readabil-
ity’ as Dave Norman and Mike Benton.
This intelligent and sumptuously illustrated book is
superb, and at the fair price of £31.95 should find its way
into the libraries of most palaeomammalogists and many
‘intelligent’ laymen. The reconstructions of Mauricio Anton
will provide a new benchmark for anatomical reconstruc-
tions of fossil vertebrates – at least fossil mammals.
Ian Jenkins
ASHLEY, P. M. & FLOOD, P. G. (eds) 1997. Tectonics and
Metallogenesis of the New England Orogen. Alan H.
Voisey Memorial Volume. Special Publication no. 19.
Sydney: Geological Society of Australia. Price
A$55 (members A$45) in Australia; A$65 (members
A$55) overseas; paperback. ISBN 1 876315 02 4; ISSN
0072–1085.
This book is a fitting memorial to the work and inspiration
of Alan H. Voisey (1911–1995). During his 26 years at the
New England College (later university) he carried out and
published much pioneering work on the geology of the New
England Orogen (Geosyncline). During the 1940s and 1950s
staff at the smaller Australian universities like Tasmania and
New England, despite very limited funds and with little or
no support from the state geological surveys, made impor-
tant contributions to their local geology. At the same time
they undertook intense and wide-ranging teaching pro-
grammes inconceivable even in the present straitened times.
Many of the contributors to this volume were taught by, or
worked with, Alan Voisey, who obviously inspired both
affection and scientific endeavour.
The book is a collection of papers presenting recent work
BOOK REVIEWS
in the orogen. They are broadly similar in style to those in
the previous volumes that recorded proceedings at the New
England orogen conferences, of which the latest was in 1994.
However, there are several overview papers such as that by
C. G. Murray outlining early ideas of the tectonics of the
orogen, two (really one) by R. J. Holcombe partnered by
eight colleagues, containing a review of the tectonic history
of the northern part of the orogen, and another by R. J.
Korsch and others outlining the findings of deep seismic
basin profiling that extended into adjacent terrain. There are
also papers on structural problems (5 in number), mafic and
ultramafic magmatism in the Great Serpentine Belt (1),
stratigraphy and tectonic evolution (2), Permian basalt
chemistry (1), the timing and nature of granitoid magma-
tism and related mineralization (3) including the Mole
Granite, mineralization of various styles (4) including
Mount Morgan, and finally, one on mine drainage pollution
and its remediation.
The New England Orogen is a particularly complex belt
that represents part of the post-Devonian eastward growth
of the Australian continent (the remainder being in conti-
nental crustal masses to the east that began to separate from
Australia at about 100 Ma). An important advance in
research into the New England Orogen was made more than
ten years ago with the identification of individual terranes,
and much of the current research necessarily involves tem-
poral and spatial relationships between terranes, and their
internal structure and composition. Apart, perhaps, from
the mine pollution paper, the papers in the volume all con-
tribute important steps in this direction. Intensive reading of
the earlier proceedings of the New England Orogen confer-
ences would enhance the reader’s appreciation of the impor-
tance of these papers.
Mike Solomon
BENNETT, M. R. & BOYLE, P. 1997. Environmental Geology.
Geology and the Human Environment. ix + 501 pp.
Chichester, New York, Weinheim, Brisbane, Singapore,
Toronto: John Wiley & Sons. Price £18.99 (paperback).
ISBN 0 471 97459 5.
Much as an old fogey like me might regret it, environmental
geology is currently the mainstream for many Earth Science
undergraduates, for that is one of few areas where there are
decent chances of finding employment. The University of
Greenwich saw the writing on the wall some time ago, and
Matthew Bennett and Peter Doyle’s book reflects well-con-
sidered curriculum design there. As they say in their preface,
the topic of human intervention in the Earth system is not
new, but giving it a context for practical environmental man-
agement is essential. Their focus is on the implications of
50% of world population occupying the 1% of land in urban
areas, from which stem most pressures on rocks, unconsoli-
dated sediments and soils, and on water. It is those pressures
of many kinds that rebound to change the natural world and
generate repercussions of their own on human activities,
both material and aesthetic. How geologists interface use-
fully with this world of real risks and concerns, and commu-
nicate their technical advice, form the subject of the first
chapter. Clarity of communication from expert to user
seems to be implicit throughout the book. Whether intended
or just an outcome of good writing doesn’t matter, for it
motivates the student to emulate. Communicating good sci-
ence is the key to being employable.
Bennett & Doyle’s scope, of course, is wide. It covers the
BOOK REVIEWS
implications of using physical resources of fuels, metals,
constructional materials and water, how Earth materials
constrain engineering works and our hiding unwholesome
products of modern life, and the hazards posed by both sur-
face and internal geological processes. Environmental
Geology is sufficiently comprehensive to raise awareness of
most potential geohazards and their mitigation in all kinds
of environment. The main text is laced with well-chosen,
though brief, case studies in highlighted `boxes’, whose
range covers topics as diverse as how the craze for rockeries
destroys natural limestone pavements, explosions of landfill
gas, conservation of fossil localities, management of surface
and underground water, and the problems of building in
Hong Kong. Space prevents it being a course in its own
right, but through its excellent lists of primary sources it
offers a route to career specialization. As a course reader, it
offers the instructor the opportunity to pursue detail in
formal lectures, in the confidence that the basics are well
taught by this carefully crafted textbook.
My own interest as an undergraduate in how geologists
can be useful social beings did not stem so much from a sub-
sidiary course in soil mechanics – a useful fallback for geolo-
gists in the 1960s, as civil engineering then endlessly
committed near-criminal errors – but from Fred Shotton’s
four or five lectures on living with permafrost conditions and
Britain’s heritage from glacial and periglacial conditions of
the near past. Our attention was grabbed by the boreal habit
of greasing piles, which Bennett & Doyle merely illustrate
without comment in their chapter on extreme environments.
Equally, Shotton’s profitable sideline as a trouble-shooter in
construction of the M6 was a ready source of hilarious anec-
dotes – McAlpine’s actually lost a self-propelled crane in one
of the swing bogs that occupy kettle holes in the tills of
Staffordshire. It was the way he told them, and when that is
in the bar of the Crooked House in what remains of Lower
Gornall, Staffs – a pub tilted at 13° by subsidence above stall
and pillar coal workings – the lesson endures. A drop of wry
would not have gone amiss in Environmental Geology; life
can be too serious and earnest.
What gives this book its major selling point is the way that
Bennett & Doyle cover issues and use examples that are truly
global in coverage. Students reading environmental geology
anywhere, let alone in Britain, will find it by far the best
choice for both content and clarity as their main course text.
Steve Drury
SINHA, A. K., SASSI, F. P. & PAPANIKOLAOU, D. (eds) 1997.
Geodynamic Domains in the Alpine–Himalayan Tethys.
A Publication of IGCP Project 276. xv + 441 pp.
Rotterdam, Brookfield: A. A. Balkema. Price Dfl. 195.00,
US $99.00, £65.00 (hard covers). ISBN 90 5410 705 7.
The Alpine–Himalayan orogenic belt extends from the
Pyrenees to Malaysia and it formed by processes of conti-
nent–collision in the Cenozoic. These processes involved
considerable reworking of Palaeozoic terranes such as
cratonic blocks, magmatic arcs, accretionary wedges, shelf
sequences, and overlap basins. However, whilst the Cenozoic
tectonic development of this orogenic belt is well estab-
lished, its Palaeozoic history is less well understood. To help
redress this imbalance, the International Geological
Correlation Project 276 was set up from 1988 to 1995 to
study the `Palaeozoic Geodynamic Domains and their
Alpidic Evolution in the Tethys’, and their subsequent evolu-
tion in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. A special symposium of
705
this project was organized at the 29th International
Geological Congress in Kyoto in Japan in 1992, and this
volume is largely an outcome of the papers presented at that
meeting.
This 441-page book contains 20 papers by different
authors. The first half consists of eight papers devoted to
different aspects of Himalayan geology, such as application
of the terrane concept, the Ladakh ophiolitic melange, the
Panjal Traps, the Zanskar–Spiti basin, and coal basins.
Other papers are concerned with the pre-Alpine basement
and Palaeozoic evolution of other segments of the orogenic
belt such as the Pyrenees, the Variscan of the Alps, Yunnan
Province of China, the Tibet–Sanjiang region of southwest
China, the western Carpathians, the Bulgarian Alps, the
Calabrian–Peloritan arc in Italy, the Greater Caucasus, the
southern Urals, and Triassic rifting in northeast Hungary.
A key problem I wish to address is: why did the editors not
arrange for these papers to be published as thematic set in an
international journal? Such an action would have enabled
libraries to obtain the papers free as part of their journal
subscription, and the authors would have had a wide inter-
national readership (so everyone would have been happy: the
authors, editors, libraries and readers). But the libraries are
unlikely to buy this £65.00 book, because there are a lot
more important research books to buy for this price. So, at
present, the authors’ papers will receive a poor readership.
Will many individuals buy this book? I very much doubt it.
Researchers buy books related to their field of investigations.
Anyone undertaking research in the Alpine–Himalayan belt
will find mostly only one paper of direct relevance in this
book, so they are unlikely to buy it. So with the present pub-
lished book everyone is unhappy.
Brian Windley
BENNISON, G. M. & MOSELEY, K. A. 1997. An Introduction
to Geological Structures and Maps, 6th ed. x + 129 pp.
London, New York, Sydney, Auckland: Edward
Arnold. Price £9.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 340 69240 5.
This introductory textbook on geological maps is one of the
great survivors amongst geological publications. For 35
years, successive generations of A-level students and first
year university students (myself included) have learned the
skills of geological map interpretation with a helping hand
from this book. The book’s simplicity is the key to its suc-
cess. In a subject area that is traditionally considered difficult
for students to grasp, especially since it involves the ability to
visualize structural forms in three dimensions, this slim vol-
ume provides a first foothold. For present-day students this
new edition will be equally appealing.
The book is centred around a number of excellent map
exercises that are clear and attractively drafted with each
addressing only one discrete aspect of map interpretation.
Teachers can be confident that errors that inevitably arise in
the construction of these invented maps have long since been
rectified. Besides these artificial maps, there are others based
closely on real survey maps. The solutions are given to some
of the exercises, and hints are given for the solution of others.
The longevity of this book can be ascribed to the way it has
been modified over the years to include new topics. For
example, the new edition includes a chapter devoted to plan-
etary geological maps.
The problem maps are accompanied by explanatory text
that is generally sufficient to allow the student to tackle the
exercises with a minimum of supervision. This text has been
706
added to with each new edition, but some of the definitions
given are beginning to show their age, e.g. the quaint terms
want, hade, and reversed as applied to faults (p. 39). No men-
tion is given of the important term separation, which is usu-
ally the most obvious manifestation of a fault’s movement
on a map or cross section.
Folds are dealt with in two separate chapters. In the
majority of cases these structures are well illustrated. In
some instances, however, definitions are at odds with present
usage. An example of this is the definition given of fold
asymmetry (p. 26) based on the relative dips of the two limbs,
rather than on the relative lengths of the limbs. A suicidal
image of these structures is portrayed on p. 64 where it states
that `eventually a fold will die out by plunging’.
The attractiveness of the book derives from its ability to
convert complex geological relationships into simple map-
based exercises. Dangers arise where this simplification is
extended to the basic rules used in map interpretation. For
example, on p. 57 it is stated that `the relative ages of the
strata will indicate the direction of dip in the limb of a fold’.
These defects in the text in an otherwise excellent book can
be easily rectified in the seventh edition.
Richard J. Lisle
BOWLER, P. J. 1996. Life’s Splendid Drama. Evolutionary
Biology and the Reconstruction of Life’s Ancestry,
1860–1940. xiii + 525 pp. Chicago, London: University
of Chicago Press. Price US $37.95, £30.25 (hard
covers). ISBN 0 226 06921 4.
I appreciate that these days most academic palaeontologists
are more hard pressed than ever to teach more, publish more
and administrate more than ever before. Time, I often hear,
is nonexistent for extracurricular reading of books such as
those on the history of science for most people. If it is true,
then it is a great pity because you miss out on books such as
Life’s Splendid Drama.
I think that the quality of teaching and research and
breadth of interest that can be communicated is enhanced by
an understanding of the historic context. The most important
part of that history for palaeontologists and biologists is per-
haps the ‘evolutionary biology and the reconstruction of life’s
ancestry, 1860–1940’, as Peter Bowler calls it in his subtitle.
Palaeontological research has an important historical
base through taxonomy which we should not need to apolo-
gize for. Libraries might have to create space by removing all
books and journals more than 15 years old into some far
flung store. But we do not have to clear our minds in the
same way. An important benefit of reviewing the past as
Bowler does is to remind palaeontologists of the develop-
ment of biological thinking. The intellectual training of
most British palaeontologists still unfortunately mitigates
against deep understanding of biological issues and contin-
ues to maintain the gap between the disciplines. Not that
there is much of an improvement in the quid pro quo coming
from the biologists either.
Bowler re-examines the debate over the interpretation of
the ‘course of life’s evolution’ following the publication of
Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859. He asks whether
Darwin/Wallace theory really did produce the revolution in
biology that we glibly think it did. Bowler argues that there
was more of a ‘cumulative transformation of biologists’ atti-
tudes’, which encouraged profound modifications in their
view of the history of life. Eventually these led to the emer-
gence of twentieth century Darwinism.
BOOK REVIEWS
Particular attention is paid to the problems that many
palaeontologists encountered with the mechanism of evolu-
tion by comparison with the patterns of fossil occurrence
and change they were encountering in the rock record.
Palaeontologists such as Edward Drinker Cope were
impelled towards Lamarckian mechanisms resulting in the
emergence of neo-Lamarckism.
I have always been somewhat puzzled by the apparent lack
of interest in evolution shown by British palaeontologists
in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
turies. Over the years, I have asked several elderly palaeon-
tologists who trained as long ago as the 1930s about the role
evolution played in the courses they attended as undergradu-
ates. The answer invariably was that evolution was barely
considered or taken for granted and that there did not seem
to be much interest in it. But then most were ‘imbedded’
within geology degree courses and palaeontology was seen
very much as a vehicle to aid stratigraphy.
The main topics considered by Bowler are just as pertinent
today as they were over 100 years ago: the questions of the
origins of major groups such as arthropods, vertebrates and
the vertebrate classes plus the patterns of distribution of life
in time and space. Together they provide a good cross-
section of the debates which led up to the ‘modern synthesis’
of Darwinism. British biologists played a significant role
but where were our palaeontologists (apart from D. M. S.
Watson)? Americans such as George Gaylord Simpson led
the renaissance in palaeontology. Perhaps we can learn
something useful from history after all.
Douglas Palmer
YANG, Y., ZOU, R., SHI, Z. & JIANG, R. (eds) 1996. Atlas
for Coal Petrography of China. vi + 323 pp. Beijing:
China University of Mining and Technology Press.
Order from: Information Archives, China National
Administration of Coal Geology, Fanyang Road,
Zhuozhou City, Hebei Province, 072752, People’s
Republic of China. Bank cheques should be made
payable to the Bank of China Zhuozhou Branch (Hebei
Province). For further information contact Yang Fang
at the Information Archives (tel. 0312-3685249; fax.
0312-3634915). Price US $198.00 (hard covers). ISBN
7 81040 519 5.
POTTER, J., STASIUK, L. D. & CAMERON, A. R. (eds) 1998. A
Petrographic Atlas of Canadian Coal Macerals and
Dispersed Organic Matter. viii + 105 pp. Calgary:
Geological Survey of Canada, jointly with the
Canadian Society for Coal Science and Organic
Petrology and the Canmet Energy Technology Centre.
Price C$138.00 (C$117.30 for members of the Society);
hard covers. ISBN 0 660 17538 X.
Much of the original work on coal petrology was based
upon studies of Carboniferous coals of Euramerica. Over
the past twenty years it has been increasingly clear that there
is considerable variation in petrographic constituents both
through time and in space. These two volumes recently pub-
lished illustrate well this variety.
The Canadian atlas is masterful and useful. The brief
introduction is helpful, briefly outlining the major coals and
the nomenclature of their petrographic constituents. Each of
the sections comprises mainly annotated micrographs (often
more than 20 per page and fluorescence photos in colour).
Section I considers coal macerals and shows their variation
in a range of coal ranks. Section II describes dispersed
BOOK REVIEWS
organic matter and bitumens, and includes zoological as well
as plant material. Each of the sections has an extensive bibli-
ography. This volume is for the practising coal petrographer
but students interested in coal petrology would find this a
useful addition to their library.
The Chinese work is a much larger volume and has an
extensive introductory section, but alas in Chinese. There is a
brief five-page English abstract. There are 111 plates with
many in colour. Here, however, there is English translation of
the plate explanations which makes this a most useful volume.
This is particularly so, as it allows an insight into some of the
unique terminology used by Chinese coal petrographers. This
is a specialist volume, likely to be of interest only to those with
an interest in Chinese coals, but as China is the World’s largest
coal producer and an expanding exporter I would recommend
this book for larger or specialist geological libraries.
Andrew C. Scott
INGEBRITSEN, S. E. & SANFORD, W. E. 1998. Groundwater in
Geologic Processes. xxi + 341 pp. Cambridge, New
York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Price
£45.00, US $69.95 (hard covers). ISBN 0 521 49608 X.
This intelligent and highly readable book is a much-needed
addition to the geological literature, presenting in an
approachable form the basic theory and effects of fluid flow
in porous rocks. The title could perhaps be accused of being
misleading, as the authors have taken the rather unusual step
of a literal definition of ‘groundwater’ as being any subsur-
face aqueous fluid, including magmatic and connate fluid
with meteoric fluids. Once word gets round however, the
metamorphic community will be joining the hydrogeologists
in recommending this book to all their final year students
and ‘fluidy’ graduate students, or buying it themselves as a
reference work.
The first three chapters concentrate on presenting the
theory of fluid flow in a porous medium, and transport of
mass and heat by fluid flow. These concepts are applied to a
generalized geological context in the following chapter, and
to specific examples in the final five chapters. These examples
include the interactions between groundwater and subsur-
face deposits of evaporite minerals, diagenesis in sedimen-
tary basins, metamorphism in the mid-crust, the formation
of ore deposits, the role of aqueous fluids in hydrocarbon
development, and geothermal processes. Each of these
topics is treated with clarity and, due to the thorough and
wide-ranging introductory theoretical chapters, a refreshing
degree of breadth.
It will appeal to a broad section of the geological commu-
nity because the authors have purposefully set out to cross
the apparent cultural divide between low-temperature and
high-temperature flow. They extend the traditional hydroge-
ological approach by tackling the coupling between fluid
flow and heat transport, in addition to the more usual treat-
ments of the effects of solute transport, thus being able to
include almost the full range of (aqueous) fluid-present situ-
ations of interest to geologists. The complex inter-relation
between fluid flow and deformation is not fully explored,
however, although a whole chapter is devoted to the role of
fluids in inducing seismicity and to the influence of faulting
on crustal permeability, but given the overall breadth of the
book’s scope this is entirely forgiveable.
It is an example of that rare breed, a book in which the
theoretical basis of the subject is explained in an easily
digestible manner and yet which takes the interested reader a
707
good proportion of the distance towards being in complete
mastery of the subject matter. The only thing I could find to
criticize is the lack of ideal answers to the section of prob-
lems to be found at the end of each chapter. This would have
made the book much easier to use as a learning tool.
I unreservedly recommend this book as a teaching and ref-
erence text for everyone working on aqueous fluid-bearing
environments in the Earth.
Marian Holness
EDGECOMBE, G. D. (ed.) 1998. Arthropod Fossils and
Phylogeny. vii + 347 pp. New York: Columbia
University Press. Price US $125.00 (domestic), US
$144.00, £100.00 (international); hard covers. ISBN
0 231 09654 2.
Of all the major metazoan groups, phyla if you will, it is the
arthropods that are arguably the most promising in terms of
the fossil record making a significant contribution to an
understanding of their phylogeny. This is, in large part, due
to the exceptional preservation seen in the Burgess Shale-like
deposits, with Chengjiang continuing to give the richest
stream of new information, as well as the extraordinary
microarthropod faunas from the Upper Cambrian Orsten.
And this well-edited and attractively produced book is
certainly an important contribution to our knowledge of
arthropod evolution. It is also, however, another milepost in
the continuing difficulties that accompany the use of phylo-
genetic systematics. In his opening chapter the editor gamely
tries to bring together a synthesis, but it is clear that this is
still a strangely elusive concept. Take, for example, the remi-
pedes. A relatively newly discovered group of crustaceans
inhabiting the recesses of caves: are they amongst the most
primitive or actually highly derived? F. R. Schram, who was
much involved with their original descriptions, has shifted
ground and, while acknowledging that matters are far from
resolved, now argues here (with C. H. J. Hof) that they can-
not be treated as particularly primitive. In part, as J.
Bergström and X.-G. Hou note in their chapter, this is
because our understanding of the crustacean stem-group
has undergone rather radical rethinking with the continuing
interpretation of the Orsten faunas by D. Walossek and K. J.
Müller. In this framework the remipedes remain difficult to
accommodate. Yet, despite all this, M. A. Wills and his four
co-workers tend to regard the remipedes as primitive.
So who cares? Phylogenetic studies are notoriously labile
and in the final analysis very little is known for certain. Yet,
we are continuously assured that phylogenetic systematics is
the only justifiable methodology, and to judge from the
insults and general bad temper with which some of the
papers are sprinkled only fools and the credulous fail to
appreciate the power of the method. W. Wheeler, for exam-
ple, dismisses one analysis as ‘somewhat retrograde’ and ‘ad
hoc’ (p. 12), while another contribution is consigned to an
‘analytical fog’ (p. 13). The difficulty, of course, is that the
lists of character states so dutifully assembled are still prone
to a fair degree of subjectivity. When convergences are
‘uncovered’ they are invariably dismissed because for this
method they are only tiresome irritations that tend to mask
the pure cladistic formulation that somehow is just beyond
mortal sight. And so it will continue: vast effort has been
poured into this approach and yet a consensus seems to be as
elusive as ever. And, to compound the problems, this volume
is almost exclusively devoted to anatomical data. There is, it
is true, one chapter (by W. Wheeler) on molecular data, but
708
this tends to be dismissive and the remaining contributions
make almost no reference to these areas. Yet here too there
are flat contradictions. Molecular evidence strongly points
to the insects evolving from within the crustaceans, and there
are also some remarkable anatomical correspondences, espe-
cially in the nervous system. Yet this hypothesis receives only
grudging mention. And this is puzzling. The fact remains
that the mathematical sophistication of analysis is
unmatched by a coherent understanding of what character
states actually mean, especially in terms of development
genetics. D. Walossek and K. J. Müller’s comment that ‘con-
fusion is complete’ (p. 225) is with reference to the specific
problem of a possible crustacean–insect link, but it could as
well apply to a significant portion of this book.
S. Conway Morris
NICHOLS, G. 1998. Sedimentology & Stratigraphy. x + 355 pp.
Oxford: Blackwell Science. Price £26.50 (paperback).
ISBN 0 632 03578 1.
Introductory university courses in geology are changing. No
longer are they mostly given to an ‘honours geology’ class,
each student with a strong science background and the
intention to specialize in the subject for three years. Instead,
modular geology courses, taken with a wide range of other
subjects, need to be given at a more basic and less quantita-
tive level than before. An inevitable consequence of this shift
in approach is that yesterday’s ‘introductory’ textbooks
become too advanced for today’s courses. This is so in sedi-
mentology, with otherwise excellent books such as Mike
Leeder’s Sedimentology: Process and Product (Unwin
Hyman, 1982) now being too detailed for the beginner. Gary
Nichols has attempted to remedy this situation with a book
that is accessible to present first-year students. This publish-
ing endeavour is particularly important in sedimentology,
which is one of the favourite components of interdiscipli-
nary degrees.
The organization of the book is satisfyingly logical. An
introduction precedes three chapters on description and
classification of sedimentary rocks and on transport
processes. At the heart of the book are twelve chapters cov-
ering the deposits of each depositional environment. A
chapter on post-depositional processes completes the forma-
tion of the rock record. Its stratigraphic interpretation is
tackled in the next five chapters before two concluding chap-
ters cover sedimentary basins and surface processes through
time. This mix of content is likely to satisfy many teachers of
introductory sedimentology courses. In particular, the
emphasis on rock description and facies interpretation pro-
vides a sufficient knowledge base for useful introductory
fieldwork, and the later chapters lay foundations for more
advanced courses. The early chapters on sedimentary
processes will not be rigorous enough for some tastes, but
provide a reliable qualitative basis for a more fundamental
treatment.
The presentation of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy is up
to the high standards set by Blackwells’ recent geological
offerings. The author’s text is clear and intentionally free of
unnecessary jargon. It makes up in accessibility what it
might lack in brevity or elegance. The graphics are purpose-
drawn and admirably designed for the target readership.
Particularly helpful are the maps and block diagrams of
each environment and the graphic logs of the resulting
deposits. Simplification has gone too far in only a few dia-
grams: some crustal cross-sections in chapters 21 and 23
BOOK REVIEWS
show continental crust that does not thin beneath rifts or
thicken beneath mountain belts. Photographs are always
appropriate and not so numerous as to overshadow the text.
In summary, Sedimentology and Stratigraphy can be
confidently recommended as a textbook for the first year of
a university course. It is affordable by students, and its
cosmopolitan range of examples and case studies should
ensure the book world-wide sales.
Nigel Woodcock
ALEXANDER, D. E. & FAIRBRIDGE, R. W. (eds) 1999.
Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. xxx + 741 pp.
Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer. Price Nlg 800.00,
US $480.00, £280.00 (hard covers). ISBN 0 412 74050 8.
The Encyclopedia of Environmental Science claims to be a
multidisciplinary reference work providing information on
the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere. This
volume comes from a long tradition of earth science ency-
clopaedia championed by Rhodes W. Fairbridge, and is a
complete revision of the Encyclopaedia of Geochemistry and
Environmental Science first published in 1972. It contains
373 different entries, by 228 authors, from over 25 countries,
many of whom are leading figures within the earth and envi-
ronmental sciences. With over 750 pages and an inflated
price tag it is an impressive text which commands attention,
but is it worth breaking the library budget to order a copy?
As one would expect there is no simple answer to this
question; it all depends on one’s perspective. From my view-
point as an earth scientist, the answer would have to be no.
There are two main factors behind my evaluation: the acade-
mic emphasis of the volume, and its production values. As a
meld of the earth, social and biological sciences, environ-
mental science is one of the broadest and most varied sub-
jects today. Consequently, the contents of an encyclopaedia
to this vast subject must cover a diverse range of subjects, the
selection and evaluation of which will naturally be controlled
by one’s own perspective and the needs of one’s students. As
an earth scientist I would argue that an understanding of the
physical earth, and its history, underpins the whole of the
natural world and the human interaction with it, and is there-
fore central to environmental science. Consequently, I would
argue that the earth sciences should be well covered in the
Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. Unfortunately they
are not, and the text is heavily biased towards the biological
and ecological sciences. A rough classification of entries sug-
gest that less than 22% are earth-science related and this
includes all entries on meteorology, climate, geomorphology
and earth history. One of the first things I looked up was
environmental geology, an important link between tradi-
tional earth science and environmental science. However,
there is no text entry, simply a cross-reference to urban geol-
ogy and to natural hazards. In general the quality of the
earth science entries is very variable and there are few entries
which give a sense of the Earth’s history, or its resources and
materials. This reflects a patchy and confused coverage of
the earth sciences within the volume. In contrast, some of
the modern environmental buzz words such as sustainable
development, environmental ethics, environmental impact
assessment, or conservation are covered by consistently well
written and informative entries. As a consequence of this
uneven coverage the volume falls short of a truly holistic
view of the Earth, and panders to a biologically biased view
of environmental science.
If we now examine the production values of the volume, it
BOOK REVIEWS
here that the real questions need to be asked as to its value
for money. For a book costing £280 one might expect high
quality photographs, perhaps even colour, that all the line
diagrams would have been redrawn to common style, and
that the volume should in general be richly illustrated. This is
not the case. The quality of the line diagrams is frequently
poor and there are several examples of badly reproduced
illustrations from other publications. Similarly, the pho-
tographs have little impact and are often irrelevant to the
text. Space is probably an issue in such a large volume, but
more could have been done with the choice of photographs
and quality of line diagrams included. At a time when such
volumes must compete with a plethora of CD-ROMs and
web sites, containing a wealth of sophisticated graphics, the
book appears dated and dull.
In summary, therefore, I would question the value for
money provided by this volume. Notwithstanding this criti-
cism, the editors deserve credit in bringing together so many
contributors and producing such a mammoth volume and I
am confident that it will have many champions.
Matthew R. Bennett
MCSWEEN, H. Y., JR. 1998. Meteorites and Their Parent
Planets, 2nd ed. xii + 310 pp. Cambridge, New York,
Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Price £45.00,
US $74.95 (hard covers), £16.95, US $29.95 (paper-
back). ISBN 0 521 58303 9; 0 521 58751 4 (pb).
There is no doubt that meteorites are interesting objects and
hold a fascination for many far beyond the small band of
professional meteoritists. Yet the science of meteoritics is a
relatively minor branch of the Earth Sciences, although
highly interdisciplinary. The literature on meteoritics tends
to be either aimed at the layman or highly technical. There
are two notable exceptions which bridge the gap between the
general and the specialist audience: Bob Hutchinson’s A
Search for Our Beginnings (OUP, 1983) and the current vol-
ume. This is a revised and updated second edition of the
original first published in 1987. The new edition follows
closely the organization of the original. The book starts with
an introductory chapter that gives a brief history of the
study of meteorites and dispels many of the myths, such as
that meteorites are very hot when they land or that they
always make craters. Then follow chapters which deal with
the main meteorite groups: chondrites, achondrites, irons
and stony-irons, and separate chapters dealing with the
nature of their various parent bodies. These chapters are in
pairs and the first gives an account of the chemistry, struc-
ture and nature of a main meteorite type then the second
relates this information to the original parent bodies for
these meteorites. Chapter 8 describes how meteorites are
extracted from their parent bodies and placed into orbitals
that intersect that of the Earth. The final chapter is new in
this edition and discusses the importance of the study of
meteorites in unravelling the origin and evolution of the
Solar System. This chapter naturally includes a discussion of
the recent reports of possible microfossils in a Martian mete-
orite and evidence for an extraterrestrial origin for life. The
author concludes that the matter remains unresolved.
Overall the book gives a very readable account of these
interesting extraterrestrial rocks. I recommend the book as
an excellent introduction to meteoritics for those Earth
Scientists who have an interest in but not a specialist knowl-
edge of the subject.
Allan Pring
709
MAVKO, G., MUKERJI, T. & DVORKIN, J. 1998. The Rock
Physics Handbook. Tools for Seismic Analysis in Porous
Media. x + 329 pp. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne:
Cambridge University Press. Price £40.00, US $64.95
(hard covers). ISBN 0 521 62068 6.
Rock physics is the study of the relationships between geo-
physical observations and the physical properties of rocks.
The Rock Physics Handbook covers a wide range of topics
and brings together most of the theoretical and laboratory
work of rock physics which is necessary for the interpreta-
tion of seismic data. The first three chapters cover basic
mathematical tools, fundamental elasticity and seismic wave
propagation. These topics are covered in most standard seis-
mological texts but the authors have presented their discus-
sion from the viewpoint of rock physics. They have also
covered a number of topics not typically covered in most
seismological textbooks: for example, the effect of voids on
the elastic parameters, and seismic amplitude variations
as a function of distance and azimuth which result from
anisotropy.
The next three chapters cover seismic propagation
through more realistic media: the effects of mixed mineral
grains, granular media and fluid saturated media. The final
three chapters discuss empirical relationships between seis-
mic velocities and the media, various flow and diffusion laws,
and electrical properties of rocks. These topics are all dealt
with from the point of effective media and are not covered in
any of the standard seismological texts. The appendices are a
valuable compendium of rock physics data.
In covering these topics the authors have summarized in a
convenient form many of the commonly-needed theoretical
and empirical relationships of rock physics. Rather than the
conventional book format, The Rock Physics Handbook is
presented in the form of 76 stand-alone articles allowing the
reader to go directly to a topic and find all of the necessary
information within a few pages. The authors’ approach has
been to present results along with the key assumptions and
limitations and not to get bogged down in theoretical deriva-
tions. As a result the book forms an excellent reference text
and provides an insight into a broad and often disconnected
literature. This text is not only important for those involved
in applied seismology, but also to those involved in more
basic seismological studies.
Keith Priestley
JANSON-SMITH, D. & CRESSEY, G. 1996. Earth’s Restless
Surface. 60 pp. London: HMSO for the Natural History
Museum. Price £5.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 11 310056 6.
One of a series of popular books produced by the Natural
History Museum (others include Crystals and Volcanoes),
they are slim but very-well-illustrated and reasonably-priced
introductions to the various topics. With a combination of
very-high-quality colour photos and equally good colour
artwork, the full range of the geomorphological cycle is
covered. The topics range from the atmosphere and ocean
through erosion, sedimentation to climate change and read-
ing different landscapes. There is a brief glossary, ‘further
reading’ and index.
Although generally pitched at interested children, GCSE
and beginning A-level, the quality of the illustration makes
it a joy to look at for anyone interested in geology. If only the
pictures were available as a set of slides for teachers of intro-
710
ductory geology – but copyright problems would probably
make them prohibitively expensive.
Douglas Palmer
ROTHERY, D. A. 1997. Teach Yourself Geology. Teach
Yourself Series. iv + 236 pp. London: Hodder &
Stoughton Educational. Price £6.99 (paperback). ISBN
0 340 67992 1
For its price (£6.99), this is a good value text suitable as a
reference for A-level teaching or first year undergraduates
without any previous knowledge of geology. The whole of
geology is covered from a general description of the solid
Earth through to the geology of other planets, with appen-
dices on minerals, rock names, geological time, a glossary
and index.
The one area that gets pretty short shrift in all this is ‘past
life and fossils’ which has not much more space devoted to
it than ‘geology on other planets’. Of the nine sketches of
fossils two of them are less than useful (the graptolites), and
plants are not represented at all. Simple black-and-white line
drawings require considerable skill if they are to be effective
in an introductory text like this. Generally the diagrams here
are of mixed quality but at least the text is well written, as to
be expected from an Open University geologist. One final
gripe: surely an introductory text should have some bibli-
ography for further reading?
Douglas Palmer
SELWOOD, E. B., DURRANCE, E. M. & BRISTOW, C. M. (eds)
1998. The Geology of Cornwall. xxi + 298 pp. Exeter:
University of Exeter Press; distributed in North America
through Northwestern University Press. Price £42.50
(hard covers), £15.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 85989 529 7;
0 85989 432 0 (pb).
One of the most entertaining corners of a geological library
is still the collection of local and regional geology texts and
field guides. Typically eschewed by large multinational pub-
lishers, these guides are often largely authored, edited and
published in the region to which they refer. They usually pro-
vide a reliable and cost-effective way of finding out about
regional geology, and have steady sales to a range of readers
from the professional geologist to the informed amateur.
The University of Exeter Press entered this market with
The Geology of Devon (Durrance, E. M. & Laming, D. J. C.
(eds) 1982). The companion volume on Cornwall follows the
same general format, in being an interpretative text rather
than a collection of field itineraries. After an introductory
chapter, the following seven are arranged in approximate
stratigraphic order: pre-Devonian framework; Lizard
Complex; Devonian; Carboniferous, Variscan structure and
metamorphism; granites; mineralization. Two more special-
ized chapters on mineralization modelling and china clay are
followed by one on the offshore and Mesozoic geology. The
stratigraphic theme concludes with chapters on the Tertiary
and Quaternary. The final three chapters cover the history of
mining, the contemporary extractive industry, and environ-
mental geology. As a guide to where to see the geology of
Cornwall in the field, there is an appendix listing details of
important sites in the SSSI, GCR and RIGS networks.
The factual content of The Geology of Cornwall has been
well chosen to provide a balanced overview of Cornwall’s
spectacular geology. The authors of each chapter are gener-
BOOK REVIEWS
ally acknowledged experts in their area, and the content is
therefore authoritative and up to date. The level of explana-
tion will appeal more to the professional than the amateur
end of the market, which has recently been well served
by C. M. Bristow’s Cornwall’s Geology and Scenery: An
Introduction (1996, Cornish Hillside Publications, St
Austell). However, even the professional or student geologist
would have welcomed a more lively range of illustrations in
this book. The eight colour plates are welcome, but the line
drawings are rather standard fare of maps and stratigraphic
columns. The scarcity of interpretative cross-sections and
block diagrams means that the geology does not come to life
very effectively for readers without a considerable prior
knowledge of British geological history. Nevertheless, the
book will be a worthwhile addition to that local geology sec-
tion of libraries, and is good enough value to sell well to
individual readers.
Nigel Woodcock
REES, G. 1999. The Remote Sensing Data Book. xiii + 262 pp.
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge
University Press. Price £25.00, US $39.95 (hard covers).
ISBN 0 521 48040 X.
It is not obvious from the title what this book is about. One
might imagine that this is where to go to find out how to
acquire remotely sensed data, but that is not the case. The
words ‘dictionary’ or ‘reference’ instead of ‘data’ would have
been more informative. It is a compact reference work
arranged alphabetically with about 2000 entries. Remote
sensing is awash with acronyms mainly from sensors and
even enthusiasts struggle to keep up as the pace of develop-
ment accelerates. This then is a good snapshot of this bur-
geoning field, with plenty to chew over and use for devising
mnemonics: DORIS AIRS TOMS POEM would be a useful
string of the acronyms for four sensors if they were associ-
ated, which they are not.
A simple collection of definitions would be dull stuff, but
this book is much more than that. Rees has entries on gen-
eral methods (e.g. multispectral systems), acquisition and
processing concepts (e.g. local-crossing time) and applica-
tions (e.g. ice sheets) that make up more than half of the
material. The treatment is concise, consistent and well cross-
referenced, making it eminently easy to dip in and out of.
Anyone with aspirations to having an up-to-date remote
sensing library will want to have this. The author acknowl-
edges that this type of work will date rapidly, so it is to be
hoped that it is successful enough to run to new editions with
the opportunity to be updated and improved. Many satellite
and sensor entries have URL web addresses. However,
although there is a two-page bibliography at the back there
are no specific references from the methods/concepts/
applications entries allowing the reader to pursue the topics
elsewhere. This reduces the usefulness of the book. The
choice of entries is broad and generally well thought out, but
there are some oddities: there is an entry for ‘quality of life’,
which is a nebulous concept in this context, but nothing on
climate change which is a topic that exercises a significant
number of remote sensing specialists.
Geoff Wadge
TAYLOR, G. H., TEICHMÜLLER, M., DAVIS, A., DIESSEL,
C. F. K., LITTKE, R. & ROBERT, P. 1998. Organic
Petrology. A New Handbook incorporating some revised
parts of Stach’s Textbook of Coal Petrology. xvi + 704
 BOOK REVIEWS
pp. Berlin, Stuttgart: Gebrüder Borntraeger. Price DM
196.00, US $116.00 (hard covers). ISBN 3 443 01036 9.
Stach’s Textbook of Coal Petrology has been a standard
work of reference for coal petrologists. This volume is not
entirely new, incorporating as it does some ‘revised’ parts of
Stach’s Textbook. I was pleased to receive this new volume
but upon reading I was disappointed at the result. The vol-
ume is too large and expensive to be considered as a text-
book but yet has serious deficiencies in some areas to make it
the complete reference work. On reflection, keeping sections
of the old volume was probably a mistake as out-of-date dis-
cussion and ideas are perpetuated.
Following an introduction and historical survey there is a
substantial chapter on the origin of organic matter in sedi-
mentary rocks. This section is rather unsatisfactory both
in superficial coverage and the direct use of out-of-date
material from the earlier volume. The authors have limited
palaeobotanical knowledge and it is clear that it is still not
widely appreciated that the plants forming peats may be dif-
ferent from plants living in other non-peat-forming environ-
ments. For a discipline which demands a strict terminology,
it is particularly irritating to find a looseness of terminology
for plant preservation (fig 2.1). These are probably sandstone
casts or fills. Figures 2.3 and 2.4 both illustrate permineral-
ized plants. There is no place here (or indeed elsewhere) for a
discussion of wildfire and charcoal production. Chapter 2
considers coalification and maturation before we are told
about the morphology and chemistry of plant precursors. It
would have been useful to have had a discussion of alter-
ation of organic material before burial. The important area
of vitrinite suppression is rather superficially considered.
Chapter 4 is a major section on the nature of organic
matter: macerals and associated minerals. Here the variation
of approach between authors is most obvious. Some sec-
tions, for example on the Liptinite group, do contain up-to-
date concepts and references but other sections, for example
on the Inertinite group, are totally out of date with no refer-
ence to extensive work on modern charcoals and ancient
fusains and does not have any meaningful discussion on the
origin of inertinites. Key references even back to 1989 are
not included here. There is not even a mention of extensive
work on experimental charring and on the petrology of
charcoal.
Chapter 5 concerns lithotypes and microlithotypes. This
has a traditional approach and it is not made clear why it is
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711
still relevant today. There is little discussion on the role of
vegetation type in controlling coal lithotypes or microlitho-
types. Chapter 6 considers some important coals and other
carbonaceous rocks of the world. It is strange that here
again we have headings concerning macerals. There is no
room, however, for a mention of the important work of
DiMichele & Phillips (1994). Here again numerous signifi-
cant papers have been omitted. In many ways thus is a most
disappointing chapter which wanders from topic to topic
with the only theme being age.
The next chapters consider more applied aspects. Chapter
7 considers methods and procedures from sampling to
microscopy. The sampling and preparation sections are use-
ful but a list of suppliers (e.g. for standards and grids) would
have been helpful. In some cases, e.g. SEM, TEM, the sec-
tions are rather thin and there is no place for new techniques
such as confocal laser scanning microscopy (LSM). Whilst
much of the discussion of the use of digitized images is use-
ful, it would have been helpful to have had reference to the
new generation of microscopes. Too much of the equipment
discussed is no longer available.
Chapter 8 considers geological applications including
rank/maturity analysis, seam correlation and source rock
analysis. In many aspects this is potentially the most useful
section and a fast moving research area. However, there are
few references post-1991 and some areas such as a discussion
of oil-prone coals are poor. There is no place here for a
discussion of the palaeoecological interpretation of coals.
Chapter 9 discuses technological applications including coal
exploration, coal preparation, coal carbonization, coal com-
bustion, coal gasification, coal liquefaction. Yet despite the
importance of these fields there are few references later than
1992.
Overall I would only recommend thus volume for libraries
and perhaps only if they do not possess Stach’s Textbook.
There are many less expensive resources for coal petrology
including new CD-ROMs and also websites (see for example
www.mccoy.lib.siu.edu/projects/crelling2/altas/).
Andrew C. Scott
Reference
DIMICHELE, W. A. & PHILLIPS, T. L. 1994. Palaeobotanical and
palaeoecological constraints on models of peat formation
in the late Carboniferous of Euramerica. Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 106, 39–90.
STACH, E. et al. 1975. Stach’s Textbook of Coal Petrology. Gebrüde
Borntraeger, Berlin.