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Abstracts of the 28th international geological congress
248
Abstracts of the 28th International Geological Congress, Washington, D.C., July 9-19, 1989. Three Vols., 624, 735 and 536 pp.
International geological congresses (IGC), taking place every four years in a differentplace on this Earth, are the Olympics of the international geoscientific community. There, the World is talking to you and an active participant has a wonderful opportunity to escape, for the period of ten days, from the tight cocoon of institutionalized geoscience at home and get loose in the sea of often conflictinguncensored pieces of knowledge, speculation and experience. A n IGC is probably now the only forum where one can present ideas departing from established standards enforced by peer groups and editors. Most of the out-of-the-way ideas presented at IGC will unfortunately fade into oblivion as has happened in the past--but who knows, there could be new Wegeners, Kuenens or Tuzo Wilsons just opening their show. Originally, extensive series of published IGC proceedings contained all the presented papers in full. This now seems to be a thing of the past. Sky-rocketing numbers of oral and poster presentations and increasing costs have been slowly eroding the capacity of the organizers to publish full proceedings ever since the Sydney (1976) congress. As a consequence, the presently reviewed Abstracts volumes have been (except for the Program) the only set of precongress publications handed out to the participants (the cost was included in the registration fee). The only other publication available before the 28 IGC has been the set of 126 individual field trip guides, or 25 combined volume guidebooks published by (and available from) the American Geophysical Union at prices ranging from $6 to $97. The three volumes of 28 IGC Abstracts contain close to 3000 of mostly extended abstracts. Each abstract, many of which have one or more graphs or pen drawings (e.g. maps, sections)
BOOK ]REVIEWS
occupies up to one densely printed, two-column page. All contributions have been typesetted from the original manuscript presented by the authors. This resulted in a uniform appearance superior to the mosaic of photo-reproduced typescripts increasingly common at national conferences, but, unfortunately, at the cost of numerous typographic errors (see later }. The abstracts are all arranged alphabetically by authors' names. In some cases first names have been substituted for surnames (e.g. "Miroslav, G. and V. Jaroslav" on page 2-444 should read "Gabriel, M. and J. Vacek). Unfortunately, no subject and geographic indexes are provided, so it is impossible to retrieve abstracts available, say, in the field of invertebrate paleontology or those dealing with Zambia, without the need to peruse the entire publication, page by page. The 28 IGC Program publication is of some help, because the various symposia and topical sessions list titles of the contributions included. Unfortunately, conference programs are considered throw-away materials by most librarians. The abstracts volumes contain a surprisingly high number of errors, some of serious nature. The errors are due both to the authors, and to the producers. The clear winners in the number of mispelled locality names are the Soviet authors (e.g. Mount-Humson = Mount Gunson; Kamfalda = Kambalda; Hemo = Hemlo, p. 2720; D a b a u n t - D u b a w n t , p. 3-462; Kulgardi= Coolgardie; Rio Dos Velijs= Rio das Velhas, p. 3-91). The Chinese tend to confuse carbonate, carbonatite and carbonaceous (e.g. p. 3-324). The producers are clearly responsible for misspellings, such as lacuine ( ---lacustrine, p. 3-369); Marare ( -~ Harare }; Sinran ( = SinJan; p. 3-321 ); Gagerstiitten ( = Lagers~tten ); Fe instead of Te (p. 3-99) and others. The responsibility for many remaining errors is unclear (e.g. Gondway=Gondwana, p. 3-252; chaosite = chamosite, p. 3-230; Kruile = Kurile, p. 3-227; Candaian= Canadian, p. 3-251; etc. I. Since most of the above-quoted misspellings appear in titles, we can expect many frequent
BOOK REVIEWS
reappearances in the future lists of references. Computerized searches will be impaired. The scientific editors (if there were any) have goofed substantially. Such abundant and substantial errors should not be tolerated in the scientific literature. The three volumes comprise the entire field of geosciences and more [i.e., water resources management, planetology (Venus and Mars are most popular), environmental sciences, health problems related to local geology, etc. ]. There is a fair number of contributions dealing with the history of various geoscientific subjects (including some quite recent ones, such as impact cratering), with geoscience education, and with the Third World assistance. The style of presentation ranges from a strict precise quantitative science through "geostandard" texts to highly philosophical pieces, such as the "Idea of Time" by Schneer (p. 3-52), or the Prasad's contributions influenced by the tradition of Sanskrit protoscience (p. 2-632, 633). The quality of abstracts ranges from A + (excellent) to F (failed). A number of out-ofdate, bland, poorly written or irrelevant contributions seem to have been submitted by various geopoliticians, and accepted on the grounds of membership in an official delegation (or on the grounds of charity). Some papers would need a John Playfair, to become understandeable. The disregard of many foreign speakers for their audiences expressed by presentation of slides labelled in their native languages and alphabets has been a substantial nuisance at the 28 IGC sessions, but has only a rare incidence in the Abstracts. What kind of a benefit can a student of metalliferous geoscience derive from the 28 IGC abstracts? Most importantly, they are a mirror of the present progress, a state-of-the-art of our and adjacent fields; the best and most comprehensive I can think about. One can clearly recognize and compare the type, quality and intensity of research, exploration and exploitation on the global basis. One could notice the surprising
249
correlation between political systems and society types and the geoscientific output. The latter ranges from the generally dynamic and individualistic, but expensive pieces of research from the (increasingly deficit-ridden) West, through the selection of several heavily bureaucratic Soviet contributions not yet showing the signs of perestroika, to the products of the determined Chinese who, however, still have a long way to perfection. The Third World geoscience, strongly represented, combines the rise of important and increasingly influential national geoscience schools (e.g. Brazil, India, South Korea) with a significant progress achieved through Western aid or cooperation (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Francophone African countries, Indonesia, etc. ). Although direct descriptions of ore deposits are relatively rare (less than 5% ), there is a wide spectrum of contributions reflecting on the various trends and frameworks of metallogeny. Several enigmatic giant ore deposits are touched and reinterpreted, sometimes too fanciful to my taste [e.g. Bayan Obo REE-Nb-Fe deposit, Nei Mongol, China (Drew et al., p. 1-416; Chao et al., p. 1-262); Almaden-Hg, Spain (Rytuba et al., p. 2-741); Olympic Dam Cu-U-Au, South Australia (Oreskes et al., p. 2-551)]. The subject of metallogeny as related to plate tectonics is alive, with rifting and accretion as the most hotly debated topics. The tide of orebody interpretation is now moving out from the stratiform and syndepositional end-member concept into the cross-cutting and epigenetic one. Hydrothermal-metamorphic models, as applied to the "greenstone/shear" Au and Mount Isa-like Cu deposits, are rapidly gaining adherents and sample localities. The scientific drilling in the Salton Sea geothermal system has received a fair exposure (Elders et al., p. 1-445; McKibben et al., p. 2-401 ). In conclusion, this is an important publication, although difficult to obtain (the IGC are temporary institutions, lacking permanent ofrices). Its greatest strength is the reflection of the present status of geosciences. This is going
250
BOOK REVIEWS
to change with time rendering many of the contributions obsolete, but there are several hundred of one-of-a-kind abstracts that are going to retain their value for some time. The publication is high in errors, but this has been outweighted by the very reasonable cost of the 28 IGC registration fee (around $200). This, in turn, is the fruit of the unpaid voluntary work of several hundred fellow geologists. P. L A Z N I C K A {Winnipeg, Man.. Canada )
Resources and World Development, by D.J. McLaren and B.J. Skinner (Editors). Report on the Dahlem Workshops on Resources and World Development. Wiley, New York, N.Y., 1987. £80.00, hardback, 940 pp., ISBN 0 417 91568 8. The development of natural resources is of fundamental importance for the well-being of the individual country in the short term and for the entire world in the long term. However, the problems which can be easily recognised are not always easily solved because few people in positions of authority have sufficient grasp of the very wide range of facts and events which contribute to or hinder the development of resources. This book should be required reading for almost everybody involved in the economic development of a country whether in the developed or in the developing world. It may not provide all the answers, but it will encourage and direct an intelligent assessment of the problems encountered in the processes involved. The inherent difficulty with development is the complexity of the problem and the absence of adequate data. Development is not one problem, but many interacting problems. To tackle the problems properly one must be knowledgeable in the natural sciences and in geology to appreciate the location of the potential mineral wealth, in zoology and botany to understand the impact of development on the environment, as well as in the applied physical sciences of en-
gineering. In addition one must have knowledge of economics, laws and politics,which are the key to understanding and harnessing the desires and demands determining the markets without which the resources are nothing but plants, earth, and stone of littlevalue. Most scientists involved in the work are specialists in their own field and have a limited grasp of the important details over the whole picture; other kinds of specialists are no different. Yet it is essential that within each active group some people understand the difficulties that other members of the community have to cope with, and appreciate the effects their own contribution will have on many diverse activities arising from or are dependent on the development of natural resources. The developers need to be provided with a broad overview. The account of the Dahlem Conference, held in January and April, 1986, provides all this. A small group of individuals, all acknowledged and expert practitioners in their own field of resource development, expound and discuss the problems concerning the development of resources on a world-wide scale over the next half century; results of these meetings are presented in this volume. The book contains 940 pages and can be divided into three parts: first there is an admirable introduction written by the editors McLaren and Skinner. It provides a survey of the entire problem. It is followed by six general background papers relating development to the social and scientific factors which determine the possible limits of development. They include accounts of population changes over the next 100 years, economic growth related to development, implications of developments in technology, as well as changes in climate, a n d a consideration of the nature of resources. The remainder of the volume is composed of two parts corresponding to the January and April meetings of the Dahlem Conference. The first pert deals with metals and energy without which technology can not exist. The second part deals with land and water, the resource of life
Abstracts of the 28th International Geological Congress, Washington, D.C., July 9-19, 1989. Three Vols., 624, 735 and 536 pp.
International geological congresses (IGC), taking place every four years in a differentplace on this Earth, are the Olympics of the international geoscientific community. There, the World is talking to you and an active participant has a wonderful opportunity to escape, for the period of ten days, from the tight cocoon of institutionalized geoscience at home and get loose in the sea of often conflictinguncensored pieces of knowledge, speculation and experience. A n IGC is probably now the only forum where one can present ideas departing from established standards enforced by peer groups and editors. Most of the out-of-the-way ideas presented at IGC will unfortunately fade into oblivion as has happened in the past--but who knows, there could be new Wegeners, Kuenens or Tuzo Wilsons just opening their show. Originally, extensive series of published IGC proceedings contained all the presented papers in full. This now seems to be a thing of the past. Sky-rocketing numbers of oral and poster presentations and increasing costs have been slowly eroding the capacity of the organizers to publish full proceedings ever since the Sydney (1976) congress. As a consequence, the presently reviewed Abstracts volumes have been (except for the Program) the only set of precongress publications handed out to the participants (the cost was included in the registration fee). The only other publication available before the 28 IGC has been the set of 126 individual field trip guides, or 25 combined volume guidebooks published by (and available from) the American Geophysical Union at prices ranging from $6 to $97. The three volumes of 28 IGC Abstracts contain close to 3000 of mostly extended abstracts. Each abstract, many of which have one or more graphs or pen drawings (e.g. maps, sections)
BOOK ]REVIEWS
occupies up to one densely printed, two-column page. All contributions have been typesetted from the original manuscript presented by the authors. This resulted in a uniform appearance superior to the mosaic of photo-reproduced typescripts increasingly common at national conferences, but, unfortunately, at the cost of numerous typographic errors (see later }. The abstracts are all arranged alphabetically by authors' names. In some cases first names have been substituted for surnames (e.g. "Miroslav, G. and V. Jaroslav" on page 2-444 should read "Gabriel, M. and J. Vacek). Unfortunately, no subject and geographic indexes are provided, so it is impossible to retrieve abstracts available, say, in the field of invertebrate paleontology or those dealing with Zambia, without the need to peruse the entire publication, page by page. The 28 IGC Program publication is of some help, because the various symposia and topical sessions list titles of the contributions included. Unfortunately, conference programs are considered throw-away materials by most librarians. The abstracts volumes contain a surprisingly high number of errors, some of serious nature. The errors are due both to the authors, and to the producers. The clear winners in the number of mispelled locality names are the Soviet authors (e.g. Mount-Humson = Mount Gunson; Kamfalda = Kambalda; Hemo = Hemlo, p. 2720; D a b a u n t - D u b a w n t , p. 3-462; Kulgardi= Coolgardie; Rio Dos Velijs= Rio das Velhas, p. 3-91). The Chinese tend to confuse carbonate, carbonatite and carbonaceous (e.g. p. 3-324). The producers are clearly responsible for misspellings, such as lacuine ( ---lacustrine, p. 3-369); Marare ( -~ Harare }; Sinran ( = SinJan; p. 3-321 ); Gagerstiitten ( = Lagers~tten ); Fe instead of Te (p. 3-99) and others. The responsibility for many remaining errors is unclear (e.g. Gondway=Gondwana, p. 3-252; chaosite = chamosite, p. 3-230; Kruile = Kurile, p. 3-227; Candaian= Canadian, p. 3-251; etc. I. Since most of the above-quoted misspellings appear in titles, we can expect many frequent
BOOK REVIEWS
reappearances in the future lists of references. Computerized searches will be impaired. The scientific editors (if there were any) have goofed substantially. Such abundant and substantial errors should not be tolerated in the scientific literature. The three volumes comprise the entire field of geosciences and more [i.e., water resources management, planetology (Venus and Mars are most popular), environmental sciences, health problems related to local geology, etc. ]. There is a fair number of contributions dealing with the history of various geoscientific subjects (including some quite recent ones, such as impact cratering), with geoscience education, and with the Third World assistance. The style of presentation ranges from a strict precise quantitative science through "geostandard" texts to highly philosophical pieces, such as the "Idea of Time" by Schneer (p. 3-52), or the Prasad's contributions influenced by the tradition of Sanskrit protoscience (p. 2-632, 633). The quality of abstracts ranges from A + (excellent) to F (failed). A number of out-ofdate, bland, poorly written or irrelevant contributions seem to have been submitted by various geopoliticians, and accepted on the grounds of membership in an official delegation (or on the grounds of charity). Some papers would need a John Playfair, to become understandeable. The disregard of many foreign speakers for their audiences expressed by presentation of slides labelled in their native languages and alphabets has been a substantial nuisance at the 28 IGC sessions, but has only a rare incidence in the Abstracts. What kind of a benefit can a student of metalliferous geoscience derive from the 28 IGC abstracts? Most importantly, they are a mirror of the present progress, a state-of-the-art of our and adjacent fields; the best and most comprehensive I can think about. One can clearly recognize and compare the type, quality and intensity of research, exploration and exploitation on the global basis. One could notice the surprising
249
correlation between political systems and society types and the geoscientific output. The latter ranges from the generally dynamic and individualistic, but expensive pieces of research from the (increasingly deficit-ridden) West, through the selection of several heavily bureaucratic Soviet contributions not yet showing the signs of perestroika, to the products of the determined Chinese who, however, still have a long way to perfection. The Third World geoscience, strongly represented, combines the rise of important and increasingly influential national geoscience schools (e.g. Brazil, India, South Korea) with a significant progress achieved through Western aid or cooperation (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Francophone African countries, Indonesia, etc. ). Although direct descriptions of ore deposits are relatively rare (less than 5% ), there is a wide spectrum of contributions reflecting on the various trends and frameworks of metallogeny. Several enigmatic giant ore deposits are touched and reinterpreted, sometimes too fanciful to my taste [e.g. Bayan Obo REE-Nb-Fe deposit, Nei Mongol, China (Drew et al., p. 1-416; Chao et al., p. 1-262); Almaden-Hg, Spain (Rytuba et al., p. 2-741); Olympic Dam Cu-U-Au, South Australia (Oreskes et al., p. 2-551)]. The subject of metallogeny as related to plate tectonics is alive, with rifting and accretion as the most hotly debated topics. The tide of orebody interpretation is now moving out from the stratiform and syndepositional end-member concept into the cross-cutting and epigenetic one. Hydrothermal-metamorphic models, as applied to the "greenstone/shear" Au and Mount Isa-like Cu deposits, are rapidly gaining adherents and sample localities. The scientific drilling in the Salton Sea geothermal system has received a fair exposure (Elders et al., p. 1-445; McKibben et al., p. 2-401 ). In conclusion, this is an important publication, although difficult to obtain (the IGC are temporary institutions, lacking permanent ofrices). Its greatest strength is the reflection of the present status of geosciences. This is going
250
BOOK REVIEWS
to change with time rendering many of the contributions obsolete, but there are several hundred of one-of-a-kind abstracts that are going to retain their value for some time. The publication is high in errors, but this has been outweighted by the very reasonable cost of the 28 IGC registration fee (around $200). This, in turn, is the fruit of the unpaid voluntary work of several hundred fellow geologists. P. L A Z N I C K A {Winnipeg, Man.. Canada )
Resources and World Development, by D.J. McLaren and B.J. Skinner (Editors). Report on the Dahlem Workshops on Resources and World Development. Wiley, New York, N.Y., 1987. £80.00, hardback, 940 pp., ISBN 0 417 91568 8. The development of natural resources is of fundamental importance for the well-being of the individual country in the short term and for the entire world in the long term. However, the problems which can be easily recognised are not always easily solved because few people in positions of authority have sufficient grasp of the very wide range of facts and events which contribute to or hinder the development of resources. This book should be required reading for almost everybody involved in the economic development of a country whether in the developed or in the developing world. It may not provide all the answers, but it will encourage and direct an intelligent assessment of the problems encountered in the processes involved. The inherent difficulty with development is the complexity of the problem and the absence of adequate data. Development is not one problem, but many interacting problems. To tackle the problems properly one must be knowledgeable in the natural sciences and in geology to appreciate the location of the potential mineral wealth, in zoology and botany to understand the impact of development on the environment, as well as in the applied physical sciences of en-
gineering. In addition one must have knowledge of economics, laws and politics,which are the key to understanding and harnessing the desires and demands determining the markets without which the resources are nothing but plants, earth, and stone of littlevalue. Most scientists involved in the work are specialists in their own field and have a limited grasp of the important details over the whole picture; other kinds of specialists are no different. Yet it is essential that within each active group some people understand the difficulties that other members of the community have to cope with, and appreciate the effects their own contribution will have on many diverse activities arising from or are dependent on the development of natural resources. The developers need to be provided with a broad overview. The account of the Dahlem Conference, held in January and April, 1986, provides all this. A small group of individuals, all acknowledged and expert practitioners in their own field of resource development, expound and discuss the problems concerning the development of resources on a world-wide scale over the next half century; results of these meetings are presented in this volume. The book contains 940 pages and can be divided into three parts: first there is an admirable introduction written by the editors McLaren and Skinner. It provides a survey of the entire problem. It is followed by six general background papers relating development to the social and scientific factors which determine the possible limits of development. They include accounts of population changes over the next 100 years, economic growth related to development, implications of developments in technology, as well as changes in climate, a n d a consideration of the nature of resources. The remainder of the volume is composed of two parts corresponding to the January and April meetings of the Dahlem Conference. The first pert deals with metals and energy without which technology can not exist. The second part deals with land and water, the resource of life