Books

Book reviewed in this article:
Solnhofen: A Study in Mesozoic Palaeontology by K. W. Barthel, N. H. M. Swinburne and S. Conway Morris.
Catastrophism: Systems of Earth History by Richard Huggett.
Catastrophic Episodes in Earth History by C. C. Albritton.
Volcanism and Tectonism in the Columbia River Flood-Basalt Province by Stephen P. Reidel and P. R. Hooper (eds).
James David Forbes: Pioneer Scottish Glaciologist by Frank Cunningham.
Scientist of Empire: Sir Roderick Murchison, Scientific Exploration and Victorian Imperialism by Robert A. Stafford.
The Solid Earth: An Introduction to Global Geophysics by C. M. R. Fowler.     

Books

Book reviewed in this article:
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Earth Sciences by A. & M. Allaby (eds).
Palaeobiology: A Synthesis by Derek E. G. Briggs and Peter R. Crowther (eds).
Tectonics of Suspect Terranes: Mountain Building and Continental Growth (Topics in the Earth Sciences 3) by D. G. Howell.
Limestones and Caves of Wales by Trevor D. Ford (ed.).
Evolution and the Fossil Record by Keith Allen and Derek Briggs (eds).
Cataclysms and Earth History: The Development of Diluvialism by Richard Huggett.
Geology in Shropshire by Peter Toghill.     

Book reviews

Book reviewed in this article
Themes in Geomorphology by Alistair Pitty (ed).
New Views on an Old Planet: Continental Drift and the History of the Earth by Tjeerd van Andel.
Discovering Landscape in England and Wales by Andrew Goudie & Rita Gardner.
Geological Structures by T. Uemura & S. Mizutani (eds).
KRISP — An international seismic investigation of the Kenya Rift     

Book reviews

Book Reviewed in this article:
Sedimentary Dynamics of Continental Shelves , ed. by C. A. Nittrouer.
Soils and Landforms. An Integration of Geomorphology and Pedology , by A. J. Gerrard.
The Deep Sea Drilling Project: a decade of progress , ed. by J . E. Warme, R. G. Douglas and E. L. Winterer.
Geomorphological Techniques , ed. by Andrew Goudie, with M. Anderson, T. Burt, J. Lewin, K. Richards, B. Whalley, P. Worsley.
Computer Applications in the Earth Sciences-update of the 70s , by D. F. Merriam.
Deep-water Clastic Sediments: a Core Workshop , ed. by C. T. Siemers, R. W. Tillman and C. R. Williamson.     

Books

Book reviewed in this article
Journey to the Centre of the Earth: The New Geology by Martin Redfern.
Paleomagnetism by Robert F. Butler.
Deep Interior of the Earth by J. A. Jacobs.     

The Big Ice

Book reviewed in this article:
Fulton, Robert J. & Andrews, John T. (eds.) 1987: La calotte glaciaire laurentidienne-The Laurentide Ice Sheet. Géographie Physique et Quaternaire     

Books

Book reviewed in this article:
Causes of Evolution: A Paleontological Perspective by R. M. Ross and W. D. Allmon (eds).
Geology of Construction Materials by J. E. Prentice. Chapman & Hall, 1990.
Dinosaur Systematics: Approaches and Perspectives by Kenneth Carpenter and Philip J. Currie (eds).
An Introduction to Seismological Research: History and Development by Benjamin F. Howell.
Geological Maps: An Introduction by Alex Malman.     

Books

Book review in This Issue:
Environmental Evolution: Effects of the Origin and Evolution of Life on Planet Earth by Lynn Margulis and Lorraine Olendzenski (eds).
Climate Modes of the Phanerozoic: The History of the Earth's Climate over the Past 600 Million Years by L.A. Frakes, J.E. Francis and J.L. Syktus.
Uluru and Kata Tjuta: A Geological History by I. P. Sweet and I. H. Crick.
Satellites of the Outer Planets: Worlds in their Own Right by David A. Rothery.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
UPDATE: The Quaternary Ice Age (with particular reference to Britain) by Murray Gray.
Intermediate Statistics for Geographers and Earth Scientists by R.B.G. Williams.
Reservoir Sandstones by Robert R. Berg.
The Penguin Guide to the Landscape of England and Wales by P. Coones and J. Patten.
Perspectives on a Dynamic Earth by T. R. Paton.
An Excursion Guide to the Geology of the Isle of Skye by B.R. Bell and J.W. Harris.     

Books

Book reviewed in this article:
Vertebrate Palaeontology by Michael J. Benton.
The Highlands Controversy: Constructing Geological Knowledge Through Fieldwork in Nineteenth-Century Britain by D. R. Oldroyd.
Planetary Mapping by Ronald Greeley and Raymond M. Batson (eds).     

TERRA BOOKS

Book reviewed in this article:
THREE OF A KIND Carbonate Sedimentology. M.E. Tucker and V.P. Wright
Carbonate Diagenesis and Porosity. C.H. Moore
Carbonate Platforms; facies, sequences and evolution. M.E. Tucker, J.L Wilson, P.D. Crevello, J.R. Sarg and J.F. Read (eds)
MORPHOMETRIC TOOLS FOR LANDMARK DATA: GEOMETRY AND BIOLOGY. Fred L. Bookstein     

A practical guide to the study of glacial sediments

Evans, D. J. A. & Benn, D. I. (eds.) 2004: A Practical Guide to the Study of Glacial Sediments . Edward Arnold, London, 266 pp. ISBN 0–340–75959–3 (pb). GBP 19.99.     

Book reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
(1) Geological Maps: Solution and Interpretation by T. Bolton.
(2) Four Dimensional Analysis of Geological Maps: Techniques of Interpretation by Clive A. Boulter, John Wile
(3) Geological Structures and Maps by R. J. Lisle.
(4) Interpretation of Geological Maps by B. C. M. Butler and J. D. Bell.
(5) Surveying and Mapping for Field Scientists by William krchie, Michael Wood, Robert Wright and David Tait.
(6) Field Hydrogeology by R. Brassington.
Physical Principles of Remote Sensing by W. C. Rees.     

Book reviews

Book Reviewed in this article:
Karst Geomorphology and Hydrology , by Derek Ford and Paul Williams
Basin Analysis: Principles and Applications , by P. A. Allen and J. R. Allen
Petroleum Basin Studies , by P. M. Shannon and D. Naylor
Soils and Micromorphology in Archaeology , by A. M Courty, P. Goldberg and R. Macphail
Stratigraphy: Principles and Methods , by Robert M. Schoch, Van Nostrand Reinhold
Classic Petroleum Provinces , ed. by J. Brooks
Northwest European Micropalaeontology and Palynology , ed. by D. J. Batten and M. C. Keen
Paleobiology of the Dinosaurs ed. by J. O. Farlow
Geological Map of Bangladesh , scale 1: 1000 000, Mohamed Khurshid Alam, A. K. M. Shahidul Hasan, Mujibur Rhaman Khan and J. W. Whitney     

Books

Book reviewed in this article
Principles, Methods and Applications of Particle Size Analysis by James P. M. Syvitski (ed.).
Fossils of the Oxford Clay by D. M. Martill and John D. Hudson.
Mountains of Fire: The Nature of Volcanoes by Robert W. Decker and Barbara B. Decker.
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs by Peter Wellnhofer.
Geology of Scotland (3rd edition) by G. Y. Craig (ed.).
Chambers Earth Science Dictionary by P. M. B. Walker (ed.).     

Accretion and differentiation of carbon in the early Earth.

The abundance of C in carbonaceous and ordinary chondrites decreases exponentially with increasing shock pressure as inferred from the petrologic shock classification of Scott et al. [Scott, E.R.D., Keil, K., Stoffler, D., 1992. Shock metamorphism of carbonaceous chondrites. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 56, 4281-4293] and Stoffler et al. [Stoffler, D., Keil, K., Scott, E.R.D., 1991. Shock metamorphism of ordinary chondrites. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 55, 3845-3867]. This confirms the experimental results of Tyburczy et al. [Tyburczy, J.A., Frisch, B., Ahrens, T.J., 1986. Shock-induced volatile loss from a carbonaceous chondrite: implications for planetary accretion. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 80, 201-207] on shock-induced devolatization of the Murchison meteorite showing that carbonaceous chondrites appear to be completely devolatilized at impact velocities greater than 2 km s-1. Both of these results suggest that C incorporation would have been most efficient in the early stages of accretion, and that the primordial C content of the Earth was between 10(24) and 10(25) g C (1-10% efficiency of incorporation). This estimate agrees well with the value of 3-7 x 10(24) g C based on the atmospheric abundance of 36Ar and the chondritic C/36Ar (Marty and Jambon, 1987). Several observations suggest that C likely was incorporated into the Earth's core during accretion. (1) Graphite and carbides are commonly present in iron meteorites, and those iron meteorites with Widmanstatten patterns reflecting the slowest cooling rates (mostly Group I and IIIb) contain the highest C abundances. The C abundance-cooling rate correlation is consistent with dissolution of C into Fe-Ni liquids that segregated to form the cores of the iron meteorite parent bodies. (2) The carbon isotopic composition of graphite in iron meteorites exhibits a uniform value of -5% [Deines, P., Wickman, F.E. 1973. The isotopic composition of 'graphitic' carbon from iron meteorites and some remarks on the troilitic sulfur of iron meteorites. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 37, 1295-1319; Deines, P., Wickman, F.E., 1975. A contribution to the stable carbon isotope geochemistry of iron meteorites. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 39, 547-557] identical to the mode in the distribution found in diamonds, carbonatites and oceanic basalts [Mattey, D.P., 1987. Carbon isotopes in the mantle. Terra Cognita 7, 31-37]. (3) The room pressure solubility of C in molten iron is 4.3 wt% C. Phase equilibria confirm that the Fe-C eutectic persists to 12 GPa, and thermochemical calculations for the Fe-C-S system by Wood [Wood, B.J., 1993. Carbon in the core. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 117, 593-607] predict that C is soluble in Fe liquids at core pressures. The abundance of 36Ar in chondrites decreases exponentially with increasing shock pressure as observed for C. It is well known that noble gases are positively correlated and physically associated with C in meteorites [e.g. Otting, W., Zahringer J., 1967. Total carbon content and primordial rare gases in chondrites. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 31, 1949-1960; Reynolds, J.H., Frick, U., Niel, J.M., Phinney, D.L., 1978. Rare-gas-rich separates from carbonaceous chondrites. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 42, 1775-1797]. This suggests a mechanism by which primordial He and other noble gases may have incorporated into the Earth during accretion. The abundance of He in the primordial Earth required to sustain the modern He flux for 4 Ga (assuming a planetary 3 He/4 He; Reynolds et al. [Reynolds, J.H., Frick, U., Niel, J.M., Phinney, D.L., 1978. Rare-gas-rich separates from carbonaceous chondrites. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 42, 1775-1797] is calculated to be > or = 10(-8) cm3 g-1. This minimum estimate is consistent with a 1-10% efficiency of noble gas retention during accretion and the observed abundance of He in carbonaceous chondrites (10(-5) to 10(-4) cm3 g-1 excluding spallogenic contributions).     

A splendid book on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Book reviewed in this article:
Van der Veen, C. J. & Oerlemans, J. (eds.) 1986: Dynamics of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Statistische Methoden für Erdwissenschaftler (Statistical Methods for Earth Scientists) . D. M arsal . E. Schweizerbart
Petroleum Microbiology . J. B. D avis .
Geology of Shelf Seas . D. T. D onovan (Editor). Oliver Boyd     

BOOK REVIEWS

Modern and Ancient Geosynclinal Sedimentation. Edited by R. H. Dott, Jr and Robert H. Shaver.
Evolving Concepts in Sedimentology. Edited by R. N. Ginsburg.
The Mediterranean Sea: A natural sedimentation laboratory. Edited by D. J. Stanley Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, Stroudsburg.
Die Bildung von Sedimenten und Sedimentgesteinen (Principles of sediment- and sedimentary rock-forming processes). By W. von Engelhardt.     

Microfossils from the Cambrian to the Recent

Books reviewed in this article:
Bate, R. H., Robinson. E. & Shcppard, L. M. (eds.) 1982: Fossil and Recent Ostracods.
Neale, J. W. & Brasicr, M. D. (cds.) 1981: Microfossils from Recent and Fossil Shelf Seas.