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Earth surface processes
Book Reviews/Sedimentaq
in Spain, Salin-de-Giroud in France, and Secovlje in Croatia) and Ojo de Liebre Lagoon and Salina Ometepee in USA. The aim is to show lateral evolution of facies with increasing salinity. In the European examples, “The evaporative sequence . . . is controlled by man, but it contains examples of sedimentation that may develop in the marginal setting of a natural evaporative coastal lagoon”. The amount and quality of original data in this paper will surely make it a fundamental reference for evaporite sedimentology. The following papers are grouped in two parts: the first one, dedicated to the French basins (Alsace or Southern Rhine Graben, Bresse, Valence, Southem Provence), is introduced by a comprehensive, clear and detailed article by Jean-Marie Rouchy who deals with regional structural geology - it is a pity that some seismic sections and maps are not well reproduced, this being the only exception to the overall good quality of figures in the whole volume. The basins are semi-grabens more or less aligned along faults crossing Hercynian Europe: normal faulting was activated in between two compressive phases, Late Mesozoic Pireneo-Provenal and Upper Miocene Jura-forming Alpine respectively, and was coeval with the opening of the Western Mediterranean. Hypersaline lakes formed in these rift basins, but it is not clear whether episodic seawater input occurred in some of them or continental water was enriched in salts by leaching of older evaporites or from hydrothermal springs. The second set of papers, concerning Spanish basins related to compression and thrust-loading, is introduced by two articles dealing separately with geology of Pyrenees chain and its southern foreland (by Pere Santanach), and evaporitic facies (Federico Orti). Six contributions are included in this section, authored in order by J.G. Veigas (Tremp Gypsum, representing the oldest continental evaporite or Garumn facies), Orti and Laura Rose11 (Eocene Beuda Gypsum, forming the first marine evaporitic phase in the Southern Pyrenean Foredeep), Rose11 and Pueyo (Priabonian Potash Basin, or Second marine Evaporitic Phase), Orti (continental evaporites of the eastern Ebro Basin), J.M. Salvany continental evaporites), and Salvany and Orti (Lower Miocene glauberite deposits). The thickness of Cenozoic sediments in these basins reaches up to 5000 m in two main depocenters, located in Navarra and Catalonia
Geology 00 (1998) 245-250
247
respectively. Marine evaporites accumulated in two main episodes during the Eocene. Continental evaporites have a more varied occurrence in space, time and facies. They were deposited in three main environments, i.e. marginal sulfatic lakes, basin center saline lakes (with halite and potash salts) and saline mudflats (sabkhas). Overall, this regional synthesis is highly signiticant: it provides a good amount of high quality data from both subsurface and outcrops, on both primary and diagenetic features, from two distinct types of basins of about the same age. All considered, it was certainly a good choice to shed light on deposits that are less famous than their Zechstein and Messinian marine equivalents but contain a lot of useful geological and sedimentological information. This information is presented in a clear way, with no major contrasts in style, and is well referenced. The high price of the volume will be the only impediment, in my opinion, to a well deserved wide circulation. F. RICCI-LUCCHI PII
(Bologna,
Italy)
0037-0738(98)000 18-9
Earth Surjixe Processes. P.A. Allen. Blackwell Science, Oxford, 1997, paperback, xi+404 pp., & 24.95, ISBN o-632-03507-2. Philip A. Allen is congratulated for his stunning new book on earth system science. The book heralds the demise of classic text books in earth science where descriptive ‘outcrop’ studies are separated from the more quantitative treatments of the depositional processes. Dr. Allen’s book transcends the traditional boundaries between sedimentology, physical geography, fluid mechanics, meteorology, and oceanography. With the decline of the pre-eminence of reductionism, holistic approaches such as this textbook offer an understanding of the links and feedbacks between different earth components through flux dynamics. Dr. Allen has concentrated on the physics of the global hydrological cycle within the world of environmental change, with an emphasis on fluid and sediment transport, I like the fact that the text provides the basic governing equations for each of the processes covered. Earth Surjace Processes is complementary to computational engi-
248
Book Reviews/Sedimentary
neering texts that take subsets of these governing equations and solves them with a fuller discussion of numerics and boundary conditions. Most impressive is the fact that the author has taken the time to translate these governing equations into the common language of physics. Earth Su$uce Processes is divided into two parts: the physics of the global earth, and the physics of the local scale. Part one covers the fundamentals of the Earth surface system (energy balance, hydrological cycle, biosphere, influence of topography and bathymetry), the time dependence of environmental change (from Quatemary processes to the effects of man), and the liberation and the flux of sediment. Part two covers fluid mechanics, sediment transport, hyperconcentrated and mass flows, jets and plumes emanating from rivers, tides and waves, ocean currents and storms, wind, and glaciers. Earth Su$ace Processes is a well put together text, covering the latest advances in the relevant fields of science. The text is not an exhaustive source of scholarly references. Rather the references often point to data sources. As a consequence, the flow of information is quite uninterrupted. Graphics and photographs are also splendid and insightful. Reproductions from other sources are often improved from the original. Earth Sur$ace Processes is intended for the senior undergraduate or graduate student. For the student there are excellent practical exercises throughout the text, including the final solution. A student would need to show the appropriate steps between problem and solution, following the hints provided by the author. Are there any negatives to Earth Surface Processes? Section 35.1 on the relation between a river’s sediment load and environmental factors is rather weak, both in generalities and specifics. Table 3.4 is a useful addition to the text, but is filled with many errors, particularly with respect to North American rivers. The table is supposed to provide environmental parameters for 97 of the largest rivers. Yet the table misses over 50 rivers that have larger basin areas, discharge or sediment loads. A student may surely become confused. The table also provides a skewed picture of river dynamics because its data under-represent the more numerous smaller, but higher-yield, rivers of the world, a fact that appears to confuse the author.
Geology 00 (1998) 245-250
My recommendation is that this is a serious text book, well worth its 225 price tag (I have ordered the book for my graduate class in Quantitative Dynamic Stratigraphy). Earth Suface Processes is a must for all professional sedimentologists and physical geographers. JAMES P.M. SYVITSKI (Boulder, CO, USA) PII 0037-0738(98)00005-X
Petroleum Geology of the Southern North Sea, K. Ziegler, P. Turner and S.R. Daines (Editors). Geological Society Special Publication, 123, London, 1997, hardcover, 209 pp., price &59, ISBN l897799-82-9. The recent Special Publication of The Geological Society which has been available since August 1997, follows similar thematic publications, such as those on the Brent Group (Vol. 61) and on the Central Graben and the Moray Firth Basin (Vol. 114). The present volume is the result of a conference on “The Petroleum Geology of the Southern North Sea: Future Potential” organized by the Petroleum Group of the Geological Society in April 1995. The book presents modem aspects and methodologies related to petroleum exploration and production with a strong focus on structural and tectonic characterization of the Southern North Sea Basin. This volume contains eleven individual original research articles. A detailed subject index at the end of the book is a very favourable element because it facilitates access to the wide range of objects dealt with in the individual contributions. This edition is, as are most of the other volumes of this series, richly illustrated with numerous informative figures, mostly in black and white (maps, graphs, sections, photographs), but also with some coloured sections and foldouts. The quality of the colour prints is very good, although some of the black and white figures are so small that the legibility is severely affected. The book emphasises mainly the Rotliegend Group (four papers) and Carboniferous beds (three papers). However, individual contributions focusing for example on the modelling of sandbody connectivity and sequence stratigraphy, are also presented. K. Glennie, with no doubt one of the pioneers of
in Spain, Salin-de-Giroud in France, and Secovlje in Croatia) and Ojo de Liebre Lagoon and Salina Ometepee in USA. The aim is to show lateral evolution of facies with increasing salinity. In the European examples, “The evaporative sequence . . . is controlled by man, but it contains examples of sedimentation that may develop in the marginal setting of a natural evaporative coastal lagoon”. The amount and quality of original data in this paper will surely make it a fundamental reference for evaporite sedimentology. The following papers are grouped in two parts: the first one, dedicated to the French basins (Alsace or Southern Rhine Graben, Bresse, Valence, Southem Provence), is introduced by a comprehensive, clear and detailed article by Jean-Marie Rouchy who deals with regional structural geology - it is a pity that some seismic sections and maps are not well reproduced, this being the only exception to the overall good quality of figures in the whole volume. The basins are semi-grabens more or less aligned along faults crossing Hercynian Europe: normal faulting was activated in between two compressive phases, Late Mesozoic Pireneo-Provenal and Upper Miocene Jura-forming Alpine respectively, and was coeval with the opening of the Western Mediterranean. Hypersaline lakes formed in these rift basins, but it is not clear whether episodic seawater input occurred in some of them or continental water was enriched in salts by leaching of older evaporites or from hydrothermal springs. The second set of papers, concerning Spanish basins related to compression and thrust-loading, is introduced by two articles dealing separately with geology of Pyrenees chain and its southern foreland (by Pere Santanach), and evaporitic facies (Federico Orti). Six contributions are included in this section, authored in order by J.G. Veigas (Tremp Gypsum, representing the oldest continental evaporite or Garumn facies), Orti and Laura Rose11 (Eocene Beuda Gypsum, forming the first marine evaporitic phase in the Southern Pyrenean Foredeep), Rose11 and Pueyo (Priabonian Potash Basin, or Second marine Evaporitic Phase), Orti (continental evaporites of the eastern Ebro Basin), J.M. Salvany continental evaporites), and Salvany and Orti (Lower Miocene glauberite deposits). The thickness of Cenozoic sediments in these basins reaches up to 5000 m in two main depocenters, located in Navarra and Catalonia
Geology 00 (1998) 245-250
247
respectively. Marine evaporites accumulated in two main episodes during the Eocene. Continental evaporites have a more varied occurrence in space, time and facies. They were deposited in three main environments, i.e. marginal sulfatic lakes, basin center saline lakes (with halite and potash salts) and saline mudflats (sabkhas). Overall, this regional synthesis is highly signiticant: it provides a good amount of high quality data from both subsurface and outcrops, on both primary and diagenetic features, from two distinct types of basins of about the same age. All considered, it was certainly a good choice to shed light on deposits that are less famous than their Zechstein and Messinian marine equivalents but contain a lot of useful geological and sedimentological information. This information is presented in a clear way, with no major contrasts in style, and is well referenced. The high price of the volume will be the only impediment, in my opinion, to a well deserved wide circulation. F. RICCI-LUCCHI PII
(Bologna,
Italy)
0037-0738(98)000 18-9
Earth Surjixe Processes. P.A. Allen. Blackwell Science, Oxford, 1997, paperback, xi+404 pp., & 24.95, ISBN o-632-03507-2. Philip A. Allen is congratulated for his stunning new book on earth system science. The book heralds the demise of classic text books in earth science where descriptive ‘outcrop’ studies are separated from the more quantitative treatments of the depositional processes. Dr. Allen’s book transcends the traditional boundaries between sedimentology, physical geography, fluid mechanics, meteorology, and oceanography. With the decline of the pre-eminence of reductionism, holistic approaches such as this textbook offer an understanding of the links and feedbacks between different earth components through flux dynamics. Dr. Allen has concentrated on the physics of the global hydrological cycle within the world of environmental change, with an emphasis on fluid and sediment transport, I like the fact that the text provides the basic governing equations for each of the processes covered. Earth Surjace Processes is complementary to computational engi-
248
Book Reviews/Sedimentary
neering texts that take subsets of these governing equations and solves them with a fuller discussion of numerics and boundary conditions. Most impressive is the fact that the author has taken the time to translate these governing equations into the common language of physics. Earth Su$uce Processes is divided into two parts: the physics of the global earth, and the physics of the local scale. Part one covers the fundamentals of the Earth surface system (energy balance, hydrological cycle, biosphere, influence of topography and bathymetry), the time dependence of environmental change (from Quatemary processes to the effects of man), and the liberation and the flux of sediment. Part two covers fluid mechanics, sediment transport, hyperconcentrated and mass flows, jets and plumes emanating from rivers, tides and waves, ocean currents and storms, wind, and glaciers. Earth Su$ace Processes is a well put together text, covering the latest advances in the relevant fields of science. The text is not an exhaustive source of scholarly references. Rather the references often point to data sources. As a consequence, the flow of information is quite uninterrupted. Graphics and photographs are also splendid and insightful. Reproductions from other sources are often improved from the original. Earth Sur$ace Processes is intended for the senior undergraduate or graduate student. For the student there are excellent practical exercises throughout the text, including the final solution. A student would need to show the appropriate steps between problem and solution, following the hints provided by the author. Are there any negatives to Earth Surface Processes? Section 35.1 on the relation between a river’s sediment load and environmental factors is rather weak, both in generalities and specifics. Table 3.4 is a useful addition to the text, but is filled with many errors, particularly with respect to North American rivers. The table is supposed to provide environmental parameters for 97 of the largest rivers. Yet the table misses over 50 rivers that have larger basin areas, discharge or sediment loads. A student may surely become confused. The table also provides a skewed picture of river dynamics because its data under-represent the more numerous smaller, but higher-yield, rivers of the world, a fact that appears to confuse the author.
Geology 00 (1998) 245-250
My recommendation is that this is a serious text book, well worth its 225 price tag (I have ordered the book for my graduate class in Quantitative Dynamic Stratigraphy). Earth Suface Processes is a must for all professional sedimentologists and physical geographers. JAMES P.M. SYVITSKI (Boulder, CO, USA) PII 0037-0738(98)00005-X
Petroleum Geology of the Southern North Sea, K. Ziegler, P. Turner and S.R. Daines (Editors). Geological Society Special Publication, 123, London, 1997, hardcover, 209 pp., price &59, ISBN l897799-82-9. The recent Special Publication of The Geological Society which has been available since August 1997, follows similar thematic publications, such as those on the Brent Group (Vol. 61) and on the Central Graben and the Moray Firth Basin (Vol. 114). The present volume is the result of a conference on “The Petroleum Geology of the Southern North Sea: Future Potential” organized by the Petroleum Group of the Geological Society in April 1995. The book presents modem aspects and methodologies related to petroleum exploration and production with a strong focus on structural and tectonic characterization of the Southern North Sea Basin. This volume contains eleven individual original research articles. A detailed subject index at the end of the book is a very favourable element because it facilitates access to the wide range of objects dealt with in the individual contributions. This edition is, as are most of the other volumes of this series, richly illustrated with numerous informative figures, mostly in black and white (maps, graphs, sections, photographs), but also with some coloured sections and foldouts. The quality of the colour prints is very good, although some of the black and white figures are so small that the legibility is severely affected. The book emphasises mainly the Rotliegend Group (four papers) and Carboniferous beds (three papers). However, individual contributions focusing for example on the modelling of sandbody connectivity and sequence stratigraphy, are also presented. K. Glennie, with no doubt one of the pioneers of