- Email: [email protected]
Palaeomagnetic database
386
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 54 (1989) 386-393 Elsevier Science Publishers B .V., Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands
Book Reviews Palaeomagneric Database. John D.A . Piper. Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1988, 264 pp ., ISBN 0-335-15211-2. Over the past. few decades palaeomagnetic results have provided an invaluable basis for dealing with a wide range of problems in the earth sciences, and its importance for theorizing on the large-scale evolution of the Earth's crust has become fundamental. In previous years various initiatives were taken to keep the earth science community currently informed about the growing body of palaeomagnetic data, but the last listing of such results was published in the Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1980 . Dr. Piper's book, compiling results acquired from the mid 1950s to the beginning of 1987 for each crustal plate and arranged in order of age, represents therefore a highly needed addition to the existing literature in this field. It is only in the past decade or so that the multi-component nature of the . palaeomagnetic record has become generally appreciated, but the varied information extracted from many palaeomagnetic studies in recent years has been well accommodated in this book . On the whole, the format of the data presentations is simple and easy to follow . As the author correctly states in the introduction : "a database should be a straight listing of all the available results and should not make subjective or objective assessments of the data". Therefore, this book contains both highly unreliable as well as very detailed and precise information, so only the qualified workers in the field will be able to appreciate its various assets and to use the information correctly for adequate research purposes . Users of the database will have to consult the original publications for experimental and analytical information, so easy access to journal/book references is important. For data published after 1980 or so the author has used a fully satisfactory reference system, but for older data references are made to the earlier data listings using various numbering systems. This means
that the user must have access to these older lists in order to obtain references to original papers . This will certainly be felt to be quite annoying because a book of this kind ought to be self-contained with respect to such vital information. Also, in the "Definition of the files", statements on tectonic boundaries and relative movements of crustal plates are sometimes unnecessarily blunt and categoric; after all, the palaeomagnetic database will be used for current updates of present "facts", and no doubt we will see major revisions in the future. However, these few shortcomings do not detract from the value of the book, and my forecast is that it will find its way to all palaeomagnetic laboratories in the world. It is to be hoped that the author's invitation to the palaeomagnetic community, to submit to him corrections to the present data file as well as information on new results, will be widely accepted, so the database can be updated at regular intervals. Palaeomagnetists throughout the world should be very grateful to Dr . Piper for having undertaken to do this very important but time-consuming work . K.M . STORETVEDT (Bergen, Norway)
The Ocean of Truth. A Personal History of Global Tectonics, H.W. Menard, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, U.S.A .,1986, 353 pp ., £16.60, ISBN 0 69108414 9. This is another account of the so-called revolution in the Earth Sciences of the 1960s following works such as A. Cox (1973), Ursula Manvin (1973), W. Wertenbaker (1974) and W. Glen (1982) . It is different in being very much a personal record of a marine geologist who is remembered mostly for his pioneering work exploring the Pacific Ocean, especially the East Pacific Rise and its associated fracture zones.
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 54 (1989) 386-393 Elsevier Science Publishers B .V., Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands
Book Reviews Palaeomagneric Database. John D.A . Piper. Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1988, 264 pp ., ISBN 0-335-15211-2. Over the past. few decades palaeomagnetic results have provided an invaluable basis for dealing with a wide range of problems in the earth sciences, and its importance for theorizing on the large-scale evolution of the Earth's crust has become fundamental. In previous years various initiatives were taken to keep the earth science community currently informed about the growing body of palaeomagnetic data, but the last listing of such results was published in the Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1980 . Dr. Piper's book, compiling results acquired from the mid 1950s to the beginning of 1987 for each crustal plate and arranged in order of age, represents therefore a highly needed addition to the existing literature in this field. It is only in the past decade or so that the multi-component nature of the . palaeomagnetic record has become generally appreciated, but the varied information extracted from many palaeomagnetic studies in recent years has been well accommodated in this book . On the whole, the format of the data presentations is simple and easy to follow . As the author correctly states in the introduction : "a database should be a straight listing of all the available results and should not make subjective or objective assessments of the data". Therefore, this book contains both highly unreliable as well as very detailed and precise information, so only the qualified workers in the field will be able to appreciate its various assets and to use the information correctly for adequate research purposes . Users of the database will have to consult the original publications for experimental and analytical information, so easy access to journal/book references is important. For data published after 1980 or so the author has used a fully satisfactory reference system, but for older data references are made to the earlier data listings using various numbering systems. This means
that the user must have access to these older lists in order to obtain references to original papers . This will certainly be felt to be quite annoying because a book of this kind ought to be self-contained with respect to such vital information. Also, in the "Definition of the files", statements on tectonic boundaries and relative movements of crustal plates are sometimes unnecessarily blunt and categoric; after all, the palaeomagnetic database will be used for current updates of present "facts", and no doubt we will see major revisions in the future. However, these few shortcomings do not detract from the value of the book, and my forecast is that it will find its way to all palaeomagnetic laboratories in the world. It is to be hoped that the author's invitation to the palaeomagnetic community, to submit to him corrections to the present data file as well as information on new results, will be widely accepted, so the database can be updated at regular intervals. Palaeomagnetists throughout the world should be very grateful to Dr . Piper for having undertaken to do this very important but time-consuming work . K.M . STORETVEDT (Bergen, Norway)
The Ocean of Truth. A Personal History of Global Tectonics, H.W. Menard, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, U.S.A .,1986, 353 pp ., £16.60, ISBN 0 69108414 9. This is another account of the so-called revolution in the Earth Sciences of the 1960s following works such as A. Cox (1973), Ursula Manvin (1973), W. Wertenbaker (1974) and W. Glen (1982) . It is different in being very much a personal record of a marine geologist who is remembered mostly for his pioneering work exploring the Pacific Ocean, especially the East Pacific Rise and its associated fracture zones.