Book reÕiews
range of experts to discuss exhumation of rocks in just about any continent and using just about any method available to Earth scientists ranging from elegant mathematical models to field mapping, geochronology and sedimentology. The first introductory chapter by Ring et al. is long but excellent — it deserves to be long. It presents the long overdue summary of different exhumation processes with clear and well-referenced sections on how each process may be recognized in the field and a good section including definitions of terms. In particular, this section is of utmost importance for a book like this, as terms describing vertical motions of rocks in the crust have often been confused in the literature. If I were to criticize anything at all in this chapter, it would be the figures that I often found too complicated and hard to read for the purpose of illustrating simple concepts of vertical motion. Some of the other chapters contain fantastic mapping results, most notably in my eyes is the paper of Miller et al. One of my personal favourites was the paper by Glazner, predominantly for its clarity of argument and internal consistency of the results. It also should be recognized that the book contains a long and useful index — which is something editors often do not bother to do with books including papers from a large number of authors. The disadvantages of the book are all those typical of a conference proceedings volume. It contains contributions from those that attended the meeting and papers that the attendants had in their pockets when attending the meeting and not necessarily papers and authors that are selected experts for the very issue of the book Žmind you: the profile of authors is very high.. When reading the book, it becomes clear that a common title was thought up for a group of international expert earth scientists, not that a group of people was sought to fill a book with a given title. Nobody is to be blamed for this ŽI do it exactly like this myself., but it is the nature of proceedings volumes. In fact, the editors admit on the back cover that in their view: Afield geology is by definition the geology of exhumed rocksB. While I agree that field geology almost always deals with exhumed rocks, I feel that it is not trivial that field geology can be defined this way. One might argue this is a semantic critique, but I feel it is symptomatic of the book, where a common wide-reaching theme was thought
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up to cover many aspects of hard rock geology and beyond. When summarizing papers from such a variety of authors, some duplications and conflicts are unavoidable: For example, after the fantastic introductory chapter, Žwhere the so often abused terms exhumation, erosion and denudation are well-defined., already in Chapter 2, there is lengthy Žand again excellent. introduction on exhumation processes, which is largely a repeat from Chapter 1. Some spelling mistakes occur, including some of those dangerous ones that are not found by a spelling checker and that change the meaning of the text. The first one of those I found on page 15 where Acloser temperatureB and Aclosure temperatureB are changed — obviously by a spelling mistake. Overall, however, there were no more than about 1 mistake every 10 to 20 pages, which is minimal as I know from painful personal experience . . . . In summary, when viewed not as a textbook but as something like a hard-cover special issue of a top international journal, the book is certainly a most successful achievement and well-presented contribution to hard rock geology that belongs in the bookshelf of all of us that work on exhumation-related topics in the widest sense. The book contains chapters from a very wide range of topics using a wide range of methods and can therefore be used as a reference volume for just about any topic related to exhumation of rocks. The editors are to be congratulated for their work. Kurt Stuwe ¨ Institut fur UniÕersitat ¨ Geologie und Palaontologie, ¨ ¨ Graz, Heinrichstr. 26, A-8010 Graz, Austria E-mail address:
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3-D Structural Geology R.H. Groshong, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1999, hardcover, XV q 324 pp., ISBN 3-540-65422-4 Groshong has written a clear and straightforward book about the three-dimensional interpretation of
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Book reÕiews
geological structures with the use of maps, well-logs and seismic profiles. The book fills an interesting niche, being about three-dimensional problem-solving and interpretation in structural geology; there is little on the theoretical background to structures that is dealt with by various other text-books. It is stated in the Introduction that the book is aimed at geoscience professionals, but I believe it would also be ideal for geology undergraduates. Good reference lists are provided, enabling further study beyond the introductory level of this book. The text is refreshingly free of verbiage, the figures are generally simple and clear in spite of the small size of the pages Ž155 = 235 mm., and the questions are linked well with the text. Chapter 1 gives an introduction to the elements of stratigraphic and structural geometries that are used to interpret geological maps. It provides an ideal introduction to the geometries of folds and faults for non-specialists. Chapter 2 is largely about trigonometry, discussing methods for locating points in threedimensions, and for determining the dip of planes, orientations of lines and thicknesses of units from maps and wells. Contouring of beds and the use of structure contours are discussed in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 is about how dips of bedding may be used to interpret the three-dimensional geometry of folds. Chapter 5 deals with faults, fault displacements and unconformities, showing how they may be recognised and their geometries characterised from a wide range of data-types. A range of fault-related subjects are dealt with in Chapter 6, including the more complicated geometries of cross-cutting and interacting faults. Chapter 7 gives guidelines for cross-section construction, and shows how cross-sections may be used to illustrate and interpret structures. Chapter 8 is a short discussion of validating three-dimensional interpretations of geological structures, and in particular of the use of restoration to the original, pre-deformation geometry. Throughout the book, the effects of measurement errors are discussed and emphasised. Although I believe this book is useful, well-written and well-illustrated, I do have some minor com-
plaints. First, some important subjects are not dealt with. Relay ramps are described, but other types of transfer zones are not Že.g. Morley et al., 1990, Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists 74, 1234–1253.. There is discussion of the length to maximum displacement relationships of faults, but nothing else on fault scaling relationships, an important subject through the 1990s. Second, although I enjoy the economy of writing, brevity does lead to confusion in places. Again taking the section on relay ramps, there is an apparently selfcontradictory passage that reads AFaults exhibiting a relay pattern may appear to be unrelated on a map because a single fault will have the displacement pattern of an isolated fault that dies out along strike ŽFig. 5.31, 5.32a.. The sympathetic variation of displacement on the two faults reveals their relationship to be that of displacement transfer . . . B So, does the displacement profile of a fault indicate transfer of displacement onto another fault via a relay ramp or not? Third, it is a shame that non-S.I. units are still being used in science around the start of the new millennium. Most figures do have a scale bar in S.I. units as well as non-S.I. units, but some only have non-S.I. units Že.g. Fig. 1.47.. What are AdecifeetB ŽFig. 4.31.? Fourth, although the questions are clear and fairly simple, it is a shame that answers are not given. Readers may have benefited from worked examples. David Peacock ) Department of Geology, State UniÕersity of New York at Buffalo, 876 Natural Science Complex, Buffalo, NY 14260-3050, USA E-mail address:
[email protected] 17 November 1999
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Tel.: q1-716-645-3999; fax: q1-716-645-3989.
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