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Géologie des marges continentales (geology of the continental margins)
Tectonophysics, 68 (1980) 161-165 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company,
161 Amsterdam
-
Printed
in The Netherlands
Book Reviews Ge’ologie des Marges Continentales (Geology of the Continental Margins). G. Boillot. Masson, Paris, 1979, VIII + 139 pp., 86 figs in text, chapter bibliographies, supplementary reference list, subject index with 195 entries, soft cover; US $ 24.90. This thin, inexpensive, and copiously illustrated book may be the first of its kind: a textbook of basin geology in which the geodynamic earth model is treated as physical background and not as a newsworthy subject. The author has achieved this by blending conventional descriptive geology with many of the mechanical models of basin fill and crustal subsidence (in nonmathematical form), with petrology and with solid-earth geophysics. Its clear, rigid organization, its simple, technical, and impersonal language, and its up-to-date coverage, however, are offset by insufficient referencing. This has the unfortunate effect of reducing a potentially thorough review of a key field for any reader to a beginner’s compendium of academic exam topics to be memorized, used, and forgotten. References are complete for the illustrative material, and key papers of a good selection are included in a “bibliographic orientation” given at the end of each chapter, but the normal rigid rules of referencing ideas and data support for statements are not followed in the text. The organization of this book is that of a good course outline. Each chapter is preceded by a brief abstract or list of topics covered. Each chapter starts with a well organized summary of the topics covered, followed by about three subchapters. The chapters include (1) an introductory survey of physical oceanography, global tectonics, and plate tectonics, (2) a very impressive review of the mechanics of crustal subsidence and basin formation, (3) an evolutionary model of Atlantic-type margins, (4) an introduction to convergent plate movements, (5) a review of arc-related magmatism and metamorphism, and (6) a discussion of collision and a confrontation of modern geodynamics with the geosynclinal model. Omissions or grounds for disagreement are few, if we make allowance for the introductory character of the book. Neither triple junctions, nor poles of rotation nor the geometric conditions of changing instantaneous rotations are discussed. This entails an uncertainty in the next two chapters, since the mappable rift architecture below the sediment prism at Atlantic-type margins, admittedly of great economic importance, commonly reflects early changes in the pattern of plate motion. The evolutionary model of the third chapter includes a persistence of normal faulting through some 100 m.y. of margin evolution. Published and unpublished data, however, suggest that normally, the faulting is greatly reduced with the beginning of sea-floor spreading, and that the non-brittle mechanisms discussed in the second chapter gain predominance.
162
The illustrations are of varied quality. A bathymetric map on the cover of the book is impressively well reproduced. Most of the graphs and simple line drawings are of acceptable quality, but many of the block diagrams, in particular the stylized sea-floor maps taken from the Heezen-Tharp series of oceanic morphology are annoyingly blurry. A potential shortcoming for English-speaking readers is the French language of this book. However, the style is so precise and the topics are so well treated that non-francophonic readers can actually update their French by reading this book. I recommend the book to anyone who explores or describes or teaches sedimentary basins at continental margins. DIETRICH
ROEDER
(Knoxville,
Tenn.)
Technical Bulletin, V dume 12. Published
by the Committee for Co-ordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in Asian Offshore areas (CCOP) of the United National Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, 1978,108 pp.
This slender volume in the series of CCOP Technical Bulletins contains five articles which deal with various aspects of the geology, geophysics, and mineral resources of three island-arc systems in Southeast Asia, namely, Japan, Sumatra-Java, and Sulawesi. The Notes by the Editor advise the reader of the scope of the various contributions, two of which deal with the structure of Japan and Sumatra, one article deals with heat flow and geothermal gradients in northern Thailand, while two articles dwell mainly on the mineral resources. The five articles are arranged in a logical sequence and are fairly representative of some of the salient features of the geology of the west Pacific island arcs. The first article by Hoshino, Hase, and Kinugasa is an interpretation of the structure of Japan using LANDSAT imagery. Two contrasting transects of the Japan island arc are analyzed, one crosses the northern part of Honshu where Mesozoic granite intrusives are exposed together with Quatemary volcanoes, while the second crosses the paired metamorphic belts of southwestern Japan. The authors demonstrate that major regional tectonic lineaments, such as faults, folds, and alignments of volcanoes, can be readily and economically delineated from LANDSAT images, while other geologic features such as basement rocks, latest folds, and alluvial plains are also easily decipherable. The zonal arrangement of the tectonic features which characterize island arcs are revealed by LANDSAT images. By combining this interpretation with a brief review of the tectonic features of Japan, including two representative geological and geophysical profiles, the authors provide the geologic background of Japan at a glance. In the second article Thienprasert, Galoung, Matsubayashi, Uyeda, and
161 Amsterdam
-
Printed
in The Netherlands
Book Reviews Ge’ologie des Marges Continentales (Geology of the Continental Margins). G. Boillot. Masson, Paris, 1979, VIII + 139 pp., 86 figs in text, chapter bibliographies, supplementary reference list, subject index with 195 entries, soft cover; US $ 24.90. This thin, inexpensive, and copiously illustrated book may be the first of its kind: a textbook of basin geology in which the geodynamic earth model is treated as physical background and not as a newsworthy subject. The author has achieved this by blending conventional descriptive geology with many of the mechanical models of basin fill and crustal subsidence (in nonmathematical form), with petrology and with solid-earth geophysics. Its clear, rigid organization, its simple, technical, and impersonal language, and its up-to-date coverage, however, are offset by insufficient referencing. This has the unfortunate effect of reducing a potentially thorough review of a key field for any reader to a beginner’s compendium of academic exam topics to be memorized, used, and forgotten. References are complete for the illustrative material, and key papers of a good selection are included in a “bibliographic orientation” given at the end of each chapter, but the normal rigid rules of referencing ideas and data support for statements are not followed in the text. The organization of this book is that of a good course outline. Each chapter is preceded by a brief abstract or list of topics covered. Each chapter starts with a well organized summary of the topics covered, followed by about three subchapters. The chapters include (1) an introductory survey of physical oceanography, global tectonics, and plate tectonics, (2) a very impressive review of the mechanics of crustal subsidence and basin formation, (3) an evolutionary model of Atlantic-type margins, (4) an introduction to convergent plate movements, (5) a review of arc-related magmatism and metamorphism, and (6) a discussion of collision and a confrontation of modern geodynamics with the geosynclinal model. Omissions or grounds for disagreement are few, if we make allowance for the introductory character of the book. Neither triple junctions, nor poles of rotation nor the geometric conditions of changing instantaneous rotations are discussed. This entails an uncertainty in the next two chapters, since the mappable rift architecture below the sediment prism at Atlantic-type margins, admittedly of great economic importance, commonly reflects early changes in the pattern of plate motion. The evolutionary model of the third chapter includes a persistence of normal faulting through some 100 m.y. of margin evolution. Published and unpublished data, however, suggest that normally, the faulting is greatly reduced with the beginning of sea-floor spreading, and that the non-brittle mechanisms discussed in the second chapter gain predominance.
162
The illustrations are of varied quality. A bathymetric map on the cover of the book is impressively well reproduced. Most of the graphs and simple line drawings are of acceptable quality, but many of the block diagrams, in particular the stylized sea-floor maps taken from the Heezen-Tharp series of oceanic morphology are annoyingly blurry. A potential shortcoming for English-speaking readers is the French language of this book. However, the style is so precise and the topics are so well treated that non-francophonic readers can actually update their French by reading this book. I recommend the book to anyone who explores or describes or teaches sedimentary basins at continental margins. DIETRICH
ROEDER
(Knoxville,
Tenn.)
Technical Bulletin, V dume 12. Published
by the Committee for Co-ordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in Asian Offshore areas (CCOP) of the United National Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, 1978,108 pp.
This slender volume in the series of CCOP Technical Bulletins contains five articles which deal with various aspects of the geology, geophysics, and mineral resources of three island-arc systems in Southeast Asia, namely, Japan, Sumatra-Java, and Sulawesi. The Notes by the Editor advise the reader of the scope of the various contributions, two of which deal with the structure of Japan and Sumatra, one article deals with heat flow and geothermal gradients in northern Thailand, while two articles dwell mainly on the mineral resources. The five articles are arranged in a logical sequence and are fairly representative of some of the salient features of the geology of the west Pacific island arcs. The first article by Hoshino, Hase, and Kinugasa is an interpretation of the structure of Japan using LANDSAT imagery. Two contrasting transects of the Japan island arc are analyzed, one crosses the northern part of Honshu where Mesozoic granite intrusives are exposed together with Quatemary volcanoes, while the second crosses the paired metamorphic belts of southwestern Japan. The authors demonstrate that major regional tectonic lineaments, such as faults, folds, and alignments of volcanoes, can be readily and economically delineated from LANDSAT images, while other geologic features such as basement rocks, latest folds, and alluvial plains are also easily decipherable. The zonal arrangement of the tectonic features which characterize island arcs are revealed by LANDSAT images. By combining this interpretation with a brief review of the tectonic features of Japan, including two representative geological and geophysical profiles, the authors provide the geologic background of Japan at a glance. In the second article Thienprasert, Galoung, Matsubayashi, Uyeda, and