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Island Arcs. Japan and its Environs
226 ISLAND ARCS A. Sugimura and S. Uyeda, 1973. Island Arcs. Japan and its Environs. Developments in Geotectonics 3. Elsevier, Amsterdam, viii + 247 pp., 11 tables, 134 illus., Dfl. 67.00. This is a book relating the geophysics and geology of Japan to its neighbouring deep sea trench and general structure o f the western Pacific. In Japanese mythology, there is supposed to be a catfish under Japan and when the catfish is angry, the earth doth quake. In modern jargon, the catfish is a "descending lithospheric plate" moving at 9 cm per year. This primary movement together with numerous second order effects are supposed to be responsible for the earthquakes which are so numerous that they are hardly noticed by the Japanese people. The descending plate is the recurring theme of this book which isa magnificent piece of teamwork by a geologist Dr. Sugimura and a geophysicist Dr. Uyeda, both of the University of T o k y o . The book contains just three long chapters. Chapter 1 (90 pp.) is entitled "Geophysical and Geological Features of Island Arcs". Chapter 2 (53 pp.) is on the "History of Island Arcs" and Chapter 3 (65 pp.) is on "Processes under Island Arcs". The authors being Japanese, quite naturally nearly all the discussions are about the Japanese island arc. Chapter 1 is mainly geophysical with reviews of gravity, seismic refraction (including Soviet work), mantle velocity and Qdistributions, earthquake mechanisms, precise levelling, heat f l o w , magnetic anomalies, electrical conductivity and palaeomagnetism. Where possible, these are related to the topography, crustal deformation, geological structure, distributions of volcanoes and hot springs. Most sections are written with a sense of history, for example, in gravity, there is a fascinating discussion of the classical isostatic w o r k of Vening Meinesz. Many of the features discussed are found to be arranged in zones parallel to the arcs and the chapter ends with a section on other island arcs showing the arrangements seem general. The chapter has 62 t e x t figures providing a rich compendium of data ranging f r o m sea depths greater than 6 km in the Pacific to seismic travel time corrections for Japanese stations.
Chapter 2 is about the geology of Japan. Since the arcs are thought to be recent, there is much emphasis on Quaternary tectonics. Many of the discussions are related to plate tectonics and there is a section on marine geology including some Deep Sea Drilling. The last chapter is a discussion of processes under island arcs and is almost entirely devoted to mantle convection. Topics discussed include the viscosity of the mantle, creep processes, temperatures in the crust and upper mantle and thermal and mechanical processes associated with descending lithospheric slabs. It is a little disappointing to find the book ending with no conclusions but with a discussion of magnetic lineations in the North Pacific. The preface states that the synthesis was conceived in March 1964, a few years before the advent of plate tectonics. Even so, plate tectonics is a recurring theme and papers through 1972 are referred to. A wealth of beautiful illustrations are reproduced but curiously, the basic maps of the Pacific showing the plates and slip vectors from the now classic 1967 paper of McKenzie and Parker on the " N o r t h Pacific: an example of tectonics on a sphere" are omitted. The reader would find these helpful for the numerous discussions of plates. I t would also be helpful to find a basic discussion of Pacific plates and poles of rotation so that all the details can be appreciated in the framework of the major plates and their relative vectors. With these minor reservations, this is a beautiful book, full of useful data and illustrations, and a delight to read. I t will surely become a standard reference w o r k on the geophysics and geology of Japan and its environs for many years to come. R.W. Girdler, Newcastle upon Tyne
EXPLORATION OF THE UNIVERSE George Abetl, 1973. Exploration o f the Universe. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New Y o r k , N.Y., brief edition, 496 pp., £ 6.75. A t e x t b o o k for use in science courses for university arts students must meet rather different criteria from texts aimed at specialist
Chapter 2 is about the geology of Japan. Since the arcs are thought to be recent, there is much emphasis on Quaternary tectonics. Many of the discussions are related to plate tectonics and there is a section on marine geology including some Deep Sea Drilling. The last chapter is a discussion of processes under island arcs and is almost entirely devoted to mantle convection. Topics discussed include the viscosity of the mantle, creep processes, temperatures in the crust and upper mantle and thermal and mechanical processes associated with descending lithospheric slabs. It is a little disappointing to find the book ending with no conclusions but with a discussion of magnetic lineations in the North Pacific. The preface states that the synthesis was conceived in March 1964, a few years before the advent of plate tectonics. Even so, plate tectonics is a recurring theme and papers through 1972 are referred to. A wealth of beautiful illustrations are reproduced but curiously, the basic maps of the Pacific showing the plates and slip vectors from the now classic 1967 paper of McKenzie and Parker on the " N o r t h Pacific: an example of tectonics on a sphere" are omitted. The reader would find these helpful for the numerous discussions of plates. I t would also be helpful to find a basic discussion of Pacific plates and poles of rotation so that all the details can be appreciated in the framework of the major plates and their relative vectors. With these minor reservations, this is a beautiful book, full of useful data and illustrations, and a delight to read. I t will surely become a standard reference w o r k on the geophysics and geology of Japan and its environs for many years to come. R.W. Girdler, Newcastle upon Tyne
EXPLORATION OF THE UNIVERSE George Abetl, 1973. Exploration o f the Universe. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New Y o r k , N.Y., brief edition, 496 pp., £ 6.75. A t e x t b o o k for use in science courses for university arts students must meet rather different criteria from texts aimed at specialist