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Pelagic Sediments: on Land and under the Sea
Deep-Sea Research, 1976, Vol. 23, p. 127. Pergamon Press. Printed in Great Britain.
BOOK REVIEW
Pelagic Sediments: on Land and under the Sea, edited by K. J. Hs/3 and H. C. JENKYNS, 1974. International Association of Sedimentologists. Special Publication No. 1. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, vi + 447 pp., £8. PUBLISHED in commendably quick time, exactly 15 months after the symposium which generated it, this is a wellproduced volume bringing together the views of geologists studying both land- and ocean-based occurrences of pelagic sediments. The result enshrines a fruitful exchange of ideas, evidence and opinions. The papers fall naturally into a number of groups, drawn about equally from land and ocean occurrences, and helpfully introduced by the editors in a scene-setting first chapter. Berger and Winterer provide a veritable pelagic rain of new ideas and ways of looking at pelagic carbonates through space and time, and Schlager, Schlanger and Douglas, Neugebauer, Scholle, and Hhkansson, Bromley and Perch-Nielsen follow with a series of papers concerned with the compositional and diagenetic aspects of pelagic carbonates, particularly of deep-sea and epicontinental chalks, which appreciably increase our understanding of the mode of accumulation and subsequent modification of these rocks. Siliceous sediments are given equivalent treatment, commencing with a balanced and comprehensive review of silica and its diagenesis in the oceans by Calvert, which is followed by more specific consideration of chert formation by Wise and Weaver, and von Rad and R~Ssch. Nisbet and Price discuss the occurrence of re-deposited, i.e. turbiditic, biosiliceous deposits in Greece, and radiolarian cherts are again included within a more comprehensive
review of eugeosynclinal associations of igneous and pelagic sediments by Garrison. Again, this series of papers on siliceous pelagic sediments appreciably increases our understanding of the ways in which these sediments are accumulated and modified. Other topics treated are perhaps less general in their interest and application, but are nonetheless welcome additions to our understanding of different aspects of pelagic sedimentation. Miiller and Fabricus deal with the formation of magnesian-calcite nodules in the Ionian Sea, Jenkyns with the nodular 'Ammonitico Rosso' of the Mediterranean Jurassic, and Wendt with the occurrence of encrusting organisms as an integral part of manganese nodules. Sequences of pelagic sediments from Cyprus, and from the Palaeozoic of France and Germany, and the Austrian Alps, are described and interpreted by Robertson and Hudson, Tucker, and Bandel, respectively. All in all this volume is a successful compilation which may be profitably referred to by anyone working on, or interested in, pelagic sediments of any kind. My chief criticism is that many of the papers have been allowed to become appreciably longer than they need have been. There is considerable reiteration of similar opinions, and repeated reference to the same original papers by different authors contributing to this symposium, so that the repetition may become a little tedious. This, together with the inclusion of a number of indifferent or unnecessary illustrations, amongst the otherwise excellent figures, has probably made the volume 50 to 100% longer (and presumably more expensive) than it need have been.
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England.
127
B. M. FUNNELL
BOOK REVIEW
Pelagic Sediments: on Land and under the Sea, edited by K. J. Hs/3 and H. C. JENKYNS, 1974. International Association of Sedimentologists. Special Publication No. 1. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, vi + 447 pp., £8. PUBLISHED in commendably quick time, exactly 15 months after the symposium which generated it, this is a wellproduced volume bringing together the views of geologists studying both land- and ocean-based occurrences of pelagic sediments. The result enshrines a fruitful exchange of ideas, evidence and opinions. The papers fall naturally into a number of groups, drawn about equally from land and ocean occurrences, and helpfully introduced by the editors in a scene-setting first chapter. Berger and Winterer provide a veritable pelagic rain of new ideas and ways of looking at pelagic carbonates through space and time, and Schlager, Schlanger and Douglas, Neugebauer, Scholle, and Hhkansson, Bromley and Perch-Nielsen follow with a series of papers concerned with the compositional and diagenetic aspects of pelagic carbonates, particularly of deep-sea and epicontinental chalks, which appreciably increase our understanding of the mode of accumulation and subsequent modification of these rocks. Siliceous sediments are given equivalent treatment, commencing with a balanced and comprehensive review of silica and its diagenesis in the oceans by Calvert, which is followed by more specific consideration of chert formation by Wise and Weaver, and von Rad and R~Ssch. Nisbet and Price discuss the occurrence of re-deposited, i.e. turbiditic, biosiliceous deposits in Greece, and radiolarian cherts are again included within a more comprehensive
review of eugeosynclinal associations of igneous and pelagic sediments by Garrison. Again, this series of papers on siliceous pelagic sediments appreciably increases our understanding of the ways in which these sediments are accumulated and modified. Other topics treated are perhaps less general in their interest and application, but are nonetheless welcome additions to our understanding of different aspects of pelagic sedimentation. Miiller and Fabricus deal with the formation of magnesian-calcite nodules in the Ionian Sea, Jenkyns with the nodular 'Ammonitico Rosso' of the Mediterranean Jurassic, and Wendt with the occurrence of encrusting organisms as an integral part of manganese nodules. Sequences of pelagic sediments from Cyprus, and from the Palaeozoic of France and Germany, and the Austrian Alps, are described and interpreted by Robertson and Hudson, Tucker, and Bandel, respectively. All in all this volume is a successful compilation which may be profitably referred to by anyone working on, or interested in, pelagic sediments of any kind. My chief criticism is that many of the papers have been allowed to become appreciably longer than they need have been. There is considerable reiteration of similar opinions, and repeated reference to the same original papers by different authors contributing to this symposium, so that the repetition may become a little tedious. This, together with the inclusion of a number of indifferent or unnecessary illustrations, amongst the otherwise excellent figures, has probably made the volume 50 to 100% longer (and presumably more expensive) than it need have been.
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England.
127
B. M. FUNNELL