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Himalaya and Tibet: Mountain Roots to Mountain Tops
Tectonophysics 371 (2000) 187–188 www.elsevier.com/locate/tecto
Book review Himalaya to Tibet: Mountain Roots to Mountain tops A. MacFarlane, R.B. Sorkhabi and J. Quade; Geological Society of America, Boulder, USA, 1999, Paperback, IV + 330pp., Price $70.00, ISBN 0-8137-2328-0 The very first Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet workshop was held in Leicester in December 1985. In bringing together most of the European geoscientists then active in the India–Asia collision zone this workshop was so successful that it spawned a whole series of annual meetings. Since 1985, meetings have been held in Nancy, London, Lausanne, Milan, Grenoble, Oxford, Vienna, Kathmandu, Ascona (by Zurich), Flagstaff Arizona, Rome, Peshawar and Ettal in German Bavaria. One of the by-products of these meetings is that they have generated a sequence of conference volumes. The first of these, on the metamorphism of the Himalaya, edited by Barnicoat and Treloar (1989), included only invited papers, some of which were not given at the Nancy workshop. Others (Baud, 1989; Treloar and Searle 1993; Upreti and Dhital 1995; Burg 1996a, 1996b; Gaetani and Windley 1998) include papers given at the Lausanne, Oxford, Kathmandu, Ascona and Rome meetings respectively. This Geological Society of America Special Paper arises out of the 1996 Flagstaff meeting. The question that increasingly worries me is whether these specialist workshops should persist in generating conference volumes. I suppose that, as someone who is a co-editor of two and is currently co-editing a third, that arises out of the Peshawar meeting, I should believe that these volumes are valuable. However, I note increasing tendencies for both the quality of science to go downward, and for re-invention of the wheel. I am a firm believer in Thomas Kuhn’s scientific philosophy, in particular
the gestalt shift and the way that once a new concept is developed (extra-ordinary science), it is succeeded by a whole succession of secondary science. That there are some fundamental thinkers working in the Himalaya today is obvious. I refrain from mentioning names as I would doubtless offend some friends and colleagues by omission who I do not wish to offend. However, what is obvious is that increasingly few of these fundamental thinkers submit their papers to Himalayan specific volumes, unless those volumes have a specific theme. Part of this is doubtless the trend to pursue ‘impact factors’, but it does risk generating a series of bland volumes full of second rate science. I need to be careful here. There are some good papers in this volume and a useful new fold-out colour map of part of North Pakistan by DiPietro et al. but overall this is a disappointing book. Generally, the science is not ‘exciting’ or ‘cutting edge’. Other than a paper from the Open University group, none of the major players (individuals or research groups) have papers in here. I can empathise with the editors here as any special volume can only be as good as the papers submitted to it, but this volume is disappointing. Nevertheless, as an active Himalayan geoscientist, I am happy to have this book on my bookshelf as it is part of the burgeoning Himalayan literature. Sadly, though, the book is largely already out of date. The meeting from which it derived was held in April 1996. A publication schedule of three years is unrealistic and this is something that the Geological Society of America might wish to address. The proceedings of the Rome meeting held a year later were published six months before this volume, and the proceedings of the Peshawar meeting held two years later will appear in a Geological Society of London Special Publication within 12 months of this volume.
0040-1951/00/$ - see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0 04 0 - 1 95 1 ( 9 9 ) 00 2 6 8- 1
188
Book review / Tectonophysics 371 (2000) 187–188
My feeling about this book is that it is essentially out of date when it hits the book shops, is not cutting edge science, yet is probably required reading for Himalayan ‘wallahs’, but not for anybody else.
References Barnicoat, A.C., Treloar, P.J. ( Eds.), Himalayan metamorphism. Journal of Metamorphic Geology Vol. 7, part 1 1989. 149pp. Baud, A. (Ed.), Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae Vol. 82, part 2, 1989., 583–715. Burg, J-P. (Ed.), Uplift and exhumation of metamorphic rocks:
the Himalayan Tibet region. Tectonophysics Vol. 260 1996a. 226pp. Burg, J-P. ( Ed.), Geodinamica Acta Vol. 9, parts 2–3, 1996b. 233pp. Gaetani, M., Windley, B.F. ( Eds.), Journal of Asian Earth Sciences Vol. 16, parts 2–3, 1998, 107–346. Treloar, P.J., Searle, M.P. ( Eds.), Himalayan Tectonics Special Publication, Vol. 74. 1993. Geological Society of London, 630pp. Upreti, B.N., Dhital, M.R. ( Eds.), Nepal Geological Society Journal Vol. 11 1995. 298pp.
P.J. Treloar Kingston University School of Geological Sciences Penrhyn Road Kingston upon Thames KT1 2EE, UK E-mail address: [email protected]
Book review Himalaya to Tibet: Mountain Roots to Mountain tops A. MacFarlane, R.B. Sorkhabi and J. Quade; Geological Society of America, Boulder, USA, 1999, Paperback, IV + 330pp., Price $70.00, ISBN 0-8137-2328-0 The very first Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet workshop was held in Leicester in December 1985. In bringing together most of the European geoscientists then active in the India–Asia collision zone this workshop was so successful that it spawned a whole series of annual meetings. Since 1985, meetings have been held in Nancy, London, Lausanne, Milan, Grenoble, Oxford, Vienna, Kathmandu, Ascona (by Zurich), Flagstaff Arizona, Rome, Peshawar and Ettal in German Bavaria. One of the by-products of these meetings is that they have generated a sequence of conference volumes. The first of these, on the metamorphism of the Himalaya, edited by Barnicoat and Treloar (1989), included only invited papers, some of which were not given at the Nancy workshop. Others (Baud, 1989; Treloar and Searle 1993; Upreti and Dhital 1995; Burg 1996a, 1996b; Gaetani and Windley 1998) include papers given at the Lausanne, Oxford, Kathmandu, Ascona and Rome meetings respectively. This Geological Society of America Special Paper arises out of the 1996 Flagstaff meeting. The question that increasingly worries me is whether these specialist workshops should persist in generating conference volumes. I suppose that, as someone who is a co-editor of two and is currently co-editing a third, that arises out of the Peshawar meeting, I should believe that these volumes are valuable. However, I note increasing tendencies for both the quality of science to go downward, and for re-invention of the wheel. I am a firm believer in Thomas Kuhn’s scientific philosophy, in particular
the gestalt shift and the way that once a new concept is developed (extra-ordinary science), it is succeeded by a whole succession of secondary science. That there are some fundamental thinkers working in the Himalaya today is obvious. I refrain from mentioning names as I would doubtless offend some friends and colleagues by omission who I do not wish to offend. However, what is obvious is that increasingly few of these fundamental thinkers submit their papers to Himalayan specific volumes, unless those volumes have a specific theme. Part of this is doubtless the trend to pursue ‘impact factors’, but it does risk generating a series of bland volumes full of second rate science. I need to be careful here. There are some good papers in this volume and a useful new fold-out colour map of part of North Pakistan by DiPietro et al. but overall this is a disappointing book. Generally, the science is not ‘exciting’ or ‘cutting edge’. Other than a paper from the Open University group, none of the major players (individuals or research groups) have papers in here. I can empathise with the editors here as any special volume can only be as good as the papers submitted to it, but this volume is disappointing. Nevertheless, as an active Himalayan geoscientist, I am happy to have this book on my bookshelf as it is part of the burgeoning Himalayan literature. Sadly, though, the book is largely already out of date. The meeting from which it derived was held in April 1996. A publication schedule of three years is unrealistic and this is something that the Geological Society of America might wish to address. The proceedings of the Rome meeting held a year later were published six months before this volume, and the proceedings of the Peshawar meeting held two years later will appear in a Geological Society of London Special Publication within 12 months of this volume.
0040-1951/00/$ - see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0 04 0 - 1 95 1 ( 9 9 ) 00 2 6 8- 1
188
Book review / Tectonophysics 371 (2000) 187–188
My feeling about this book is that it is essentially out of date when it hits the book shops, is not cutting edge science, yet is probably required reading for Himalayan ‘wallahs’, but not for anybody else.
References Barnicoat, A.C., Treloar, P.J. ( Eds.), Himalayan metamorphism. Journal of Metamorphic Geology Vol. 7, part 1 1989. 149pp. Baud, A. (Ed.), Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae Vol. 82, part 2, 1989., 583–715. Burg, J-P. (Ed.), Uplift and exhumation of metamorphic rocks:
the Himalayan Tibet region. Tectonophysics Vol. 260 1996a. 226pp. Burg, J-P. ( Ed.), Geodinamica Acta Vol. 9, parts 2–3, 1996b. 233pp. Gaetani, M., Windley, B.F. ( Eds.), Journal of Asian Earth Sciences Vol. 16, parts 2–3, 1998, 107–346. Treloar, P.J., Searle, M.P. ( Eds.), Himalayan Tectonics Special Publication, Vol. 74. 1993. Geological Society of London, 630pp. Upreti, B.N., Dhital, M.R. ( Eds.), Nepal Geological Society Journal Vol. 11 1995. 298pp.
P.J. Treloar Kingston University School of Geological Sciences Penrhyn Road Kingston upon Thames KT1 2EE, UK E-mail address: [email protected]