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Monteregian treasures: The minerals of Mont-Saint Hilaire, Quebec
3344
Book Reviews
required to understand and appreciate fully many of the schemes described. Yet the volume also includes some very basic (and sometimes seemingly irrelevant) material: the Mohs hardness scale, for instance, or tables of definitions and equivalents of simple units such as ppm and mm. However, the latter constitute a relatively minor proportion of the whole; the level, for the most part, is rather technical. The most serious shortcomings of this book relate to its production quality. The text would have benefited from closer editing: typographical, grammatical, and spelling errors are frequent enough to be distracting. The volume itself appears photocopied (poorly) from pages of near-letterquality dot-matrix print and black-and-white tine art. The technical drawings are reasonably clear, though many lines have reproduced thickly so that fine detail is lost; photocopies of
sketches, as of ore handsamples, are largely unintelligible. The quality of binding is dreadful, with glossy front and back cover sheets pasted onto a flat-finish paper spine. The author and the reader both deserved a much better-prepared volume. For the limited primary audience identified above, this should be a very useful reference work. It is less likely to have broad appeal among geochemical researchers, considering its quite specialized subject, physical quality, and price.
Monteregian Treasures: The Minerals of Mont-SaintHilaire, Quebec by J. A. Mandarin0 and V. Anderson. Cambridge University Press, 1989, 281p., US $85.00 (ISBN O-521-32632-X).
ronments together. Most of the errors, noticed during a limited random check of data tabulations, are typographical and should be obvious to the knowledgeable reader. There are a few inconsistencies between citations in the text and the List of References. Several excellent appendices complete the technical data offered in this volume. One appendix contains chemical analyses (most by electron microprobe) of 94 of the minerals. Another presents the six strongest diffraction lines of all species with known X-ray data and is complemented by a Hanawalt search index. Other appendices present data from the main body of the book arranged in new topical groupings. Two of the most useful of these tabulations summarize crystallographic axial ratios (“Donnay Tables”) and the particular mineral species found in each of ten geological environments at MontSaint Hilaire. Excellent illustrations, highlighted by Anderson’s 90 color photomicrographs of euhedral crystals, supplement the data tabulations. The absence of color photographs of museumquality large specimens, e.g., siderites, serandites, and analcimes, and illustrations of the geologic occurrences are minor shortcomings in an otherwise excellent book. The aforementioned omissions could have easily filled some of the abundant blank space found on most pages of this attractive over-size volume.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book to both advanced amateur and professional mineralogists who are interested in the 22 1 mineral species identified from the Mont Saint-Hilaire (MSH) alkaline igneous complex. This impressive annotated compilation of mineralogical data sets a very high standard for subsequent descriptive mineralogies. Mandarin0 has-woven informal narrative with rigorous quantitative data in a manner that will be useful to a wide audience in the mineralogical community. Presented in alphabetical order, the mineral descriptions include well-structured tabulations of common physical and optical properties, X-ray and morphological crystallography, geologic occurrences, and associated species. The authors state that “whenever possible, quantitative data were measured from MSH specimens.” Data taken from other workers are clearly acknowledged and referenced. Mandarino’s candid narrative about each species, under the headings “Introductory Remarks,” “ Distinguishing Features,” and “Occurrences and Associated Minerals,” reflects a thorough mastery of the material under discussion. Unfortunately, the alphabetical lists of associated minerals obscure information about relative abundances. Many of the 221 minerals occur in more than one of the ten geologic environments recognized at MSH. However, in the discussion of each species, the mineralogical differences between different assemblages of associated species are obscured by alphabetical listings that combine all envi-
The Behavior of the Earth: Continental and Seafloor Mobility by Claude All&e. Harvard University Press, 1988, 272p., US $35.00 (ISBN o-674-06457-7). THIS INTRODUCTION TO modern solid-earth science is written for
non-specialists and the general public by a world-class geochemist. It is presented in an informal, casual, engaging style, occasionally involving the author in the first person. Intertwined throughout the book is a discourse on the twin importances of scientific,discovery and persuasion of the scientific community. All&e has provided us with a comprehensive and a very personal review of the geologic revolution starting with, and centering about, Wegener’s imaginative concept of continental drift. He cites a large number of the major workers responsible for the incremental advances in geologic understanding since the 1930s of how the Earth works and builds logically towards our present genetic models-including statements of some of the unresolved questions. With perfect 20-20 hindsight, All&e repeatedly takes to task two generations of geologists and geophysicists who, virtually to a man, refused to accept the theory of continental drift. I think he overdoes it but, being among that multitude of benighted souls, perhaps I am too sensitive to such criticism. Moreover, since the great elucidation beginning in the mid 196Os,my experience has been that almost all Earth scientists embraced the new plate tectonic concepts with startling swiftness, whereas AIBgre’s perspective in this regard is quite different; his book continually refers to the
Departmentof Geology Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL 60115, U.S.A.
Departmentof Geology WittenbergUniversity Spring.field,OH 45501, U.S.A.
Carla W. Montgomery
Kenneth W. Bladh
fierce conflict waged by the proponents of stabilist geology and of the hesitancy and reluctance with which the new ideas ultimately won grudging acceptance. These are impressionistic contrasts, however, and should not detract from All&e’s masterful synthesis of the historical development of seafloor spreading, drifting continents, and the new global tectonics. Chapter 1 lays out Wegener’s bold hypothesis in the early part of the twentieth century and discusses the controversy it generated, as well as the reasons for rejection of the continental drift theory. Chapter 2 describes subsequent developments in geologic mapping, seismology and the Earth’s interior, oceanography, geochronology, experimental petrology, and terrestrial magnetism (the Earth’s field, mmanent rock magnetism, reversals, and polar wandering), and the revival of continental drift. Specialization resulted in these individual quantum jumps in compartmentalized knowledge, but in the author’s view probably delayed the arrival of a grand overview. The concept of seatloor spreading and the priority of ideas is discussed in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 introduces the principles of plate tectonics and of the new global geology, and chronicles incremental advancement of the ideas and controversies. Chapter 5 briefly summarizes sedimentation on the ocean floor, but fails to emphasize how spatial age relations and lack of excessively old deposits provided striking confirmation of the seatloor spreading hypothesis. Chapter 6 suggests that the detailed studies of divergent and transform plate boundaries led to no new advances once the paradigm had been proposed. In contrast,
Book Reviews
required to understand and appreciate fully many of the schemes described. Yet the volume also includes some very basic (and sometimes seemingly irrelevant) material: the Mohs hardness scale, for instance, or tables of definitions and equivalents of simple units such as ppm and mm. However, the latter constitute a relatively minor proportion of the whole; the level, for the most part, is rather technical. The most serious shortcomings of this book relate to its production quality. The text would have benefited from closer editing: typographical, grammatical, and spelling errors are frequent enough to be distracting. The volume itself appears photocopied (poorly) from pages of near-letterquality dot-matrix print and black-and-white tine art. The technical drawings are reasonably clear, though many lines have reproduced thickly so that fine detail is lost; photocopies of
sketches, as of ore handsamples, are largely unintelligible. The quality of binding is dreadful, with glossy front and back cover sheets pasted onto a flat-finish paper spine. The author and the reader both deserved a much better-prepared volume. For the limited primary audience identified above, this should be a very useful reference work. It is less likely to have broad appeal among geochemical researchers, considering its quite specialized subject, physical quality, and price.
Monteregian Treasures: The Minerals of Mont-SaintHilaire, Quebec by J. A. Mandarin0 and V. Anderson. Cambridge University Press, 1989, 281p., US $85.00 (ISBN O-521-32632-X).
ronments together. Most of the errors, noticed during a limited random check of data tabulations, are typographical and should be obvious to the knowledgeable reader. There are a few inconsistencies between citations in the text and the List of References. Several excellent appendices complete the technical data offered in this volume. One appendix contains chemical analyses (most by electron microprobe) of 94 of the minerals. Another presents the six strongest diffraction lines of all species with known X-ray data and is complemented by a Hanawalt search index. Other appendices present data from the main body of the book arranged in new topical groupings. Two of the most useful of these tabulations summarize crystallographic axial ratios (“Donnay Tables”) and the particular mineral species found in each of ten geological environments at MontSaint Hilaire. Excellent illustrations, highlighted by Anderson’s 90 color photomicrographs of euhedral crystals, supplement the data tabulations. The absence of color photographs of museumquality large specimens, e.g., siderites, serandites, and analcimes, and illustrations of the geologic occurrences are minor shortcomings in an otherwise excellent book. The aforementioned omissions could have easily filled some of the abundant blank space found on most pages of this attractive over-size volume.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book to both advanced amateur and professional mineralogists who are interested in the 22 1 mineral species identified from the Mont Saint-Hilaire (MSH) alkaline igneous complex. This impressive annotated compilation of mineralogical data sets a very high standard for subsequent descriptive mineralogies. Mandarin0 has-woven informal narrative with rigorous quantitative data in a manner that will be useful to a wide audience in the mineralogical community. Presented in alphabetical order, the mineral descriptions include well-structured tabulations of common physical and optical properties, X-ray and morphological crystallography, geologic occurrences, and associated species. The authors state that “whenever possible, quantitative data were measured from MSH specimens.” Data taken from other workers are clearly acknowledged and referenced. Mandarino’s candid narrative about each species, under the headings “Introductory Remarks,” “ Distinguishing Features,” and “Occurrences and Associated Minerals,” reflects a thorough mastery of the material under discussion. Unfortunately, the alphabetical lists of associated minerals obscure information about relative abundances. Many of the 221 minerals occur in more than one of the ten geologic environments recognized at MSH. However, in the discussion of each species, the mineralogical differences between different assemblages of associated species are obscured by alphabetical listings that combine all envi-
The Behavior of the Earth: Continental and Seafloor Mobility by Claude All&e. Harvard University Press, 1988, 272p., US $35.00 (ISBN o-674-06457-7). THIS INTRODUCTION TO modern solid-earth science is written for
non-specialists and the general public by a world-class geochemist. It is presented in an informal, casual, engaging style, occasionally involving the author in the first person. Intertwined throughout the book is a discourse on the twin importances of scientific,discovery and persuasion of the scientific community. All&e has provided us with a comprehensive and a very personal review of the geologic revolution starting with, and centering about, Wegener’s imaginative concept of continental drift. He cites a large number of the major workers responsible for the incremental advances in geologic understanding since the 1930s of how the Earth works and builds logically towards our present genetic models-including statements of some of the unresolved questions. With perfect 20-20 hindsight, All&e repeatedly takes to task two generations of geologists and geophysicists who, virtually to a man, refused to accept the theory of continental drift. I think he overdoes it but, being among that multitude of benighted souls, perhaps I am too sensitive to such criticism. Moreover, since the great elucidation beginning in the mid 196Os,my experience has been that almost all Earth scientists embraced the new plate tectonic concepts with startling swiftness, whereas AIBgre’s perspective in this regard is quite different; his book continually refers to the
Departmentof Geology Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL 60115, U.S.A.
Departmentof Geology WittenbergUniversity Spring.field,OH 45501, U.S.A.
Carla W. Montgomery
Kenneth W. Bladh
fierce conflict waged by the proponents of stabilist geology and of the hesitancy and reluctance with which the new ideas ultimately won grudging acceptance. These are impressionistic contrasts, however, and should not detract from All&e’s masterful synthesis of the historical development of seafloor spreading, drifting continents, and the new global tectonics. Chapter 1 lays out Wegener’s bold hypothesis in the early part of the twentieth century and discusses the controversy it generated, as well as the reasons for rejection of the continental drift theory. Chapter 2 describes subsequent developments in geologic mapping, seismology and the Earth’s interior, oceanography, geochronology, experimental petrology, and terrestrial magnetism (the Earth’s field, mmanent rock magnetism, reversals, and polar wandering), and the revival of continental drift. Specialization resulted in these individual quantum jumps in compartmentalized knowledge, but in the author’s view probably delayed the arrival of a grand overview. The concept of seatloor spreading and the priority of ideas is discussed in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 introduces the principles of plate tectonics and of the new global geology, and chronicles incremental advancement of the ideas and controversies. Chapter 5 briefly summarizes sedimentation on the ocean floor, but fails to emphasize how spatial age relations and lack of excessively old deposits provided striking confirmation of the seatloor spreading hypothesis. Chapter 6 suggests that the detailed studies of divergent and transform plate boundaries led to no new advances once the paradigm had been proposed. In contrast,