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Petroleum and the Continental Shelf of North West Europe
Geoexploration, 15 (1977) 67-7 2 o Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands
67
Book Reviews
Petroleumand the Cont~~e~ta~Shelf of forth West Europe. A. Woodl~d. Applied Science Publ., Barking, 1975, 501 pp., bE16.00. The broadening
flood of new and usually expensive
books on geology,
imposing great pressure on libraries and individuals with their ever dwindling budgets, invites caution and increases selectivity. Fortunately, however, with Petroleummai the Conti~e~t~~Shelf of forth West Europe, I no such caution
is required for as was stated at the Conference which this book reports, “never has there been such an unparalleled release of significant and hitherto unpublished data”. Anyone even remotely interested in European geology cannot fail to require this Volume. There are 38 papers with accompanying discussions, the texts of all are pungently brief and well illus~ated. Re~ettably there is very little that is new in the first 7 papers, 6 of which deal with the geology to the west and north west of the British Isles. Understandably the Oil Companies have released no new data for these areas which are still, if only just, commercially sensitive. Many areas are not economically attractive such that the only data available comes from University and Government institutions. This first part of the Volume serves as a useful introduction to those who have no specialised knowledge of the area. The remaining 31 papers are in quite a separate category. They deal exclusively with the North Sea area and the relevant part of Northern Europe offering a stimulating blend of broad regional analyses, detailed gas and oil field geology interspersed with papers on selectei parts of the geological column as they are developed in the region. All the major gas fields in the Southern North Sea and the oil fields associated with the Central North Sea Graben, with even one from the Viking Graben, are dealt with in detail. The two major papers in the Volume, major in terms of length, new data released and literature consulted and which deal with the regional setting, are spoilt by the occasional inaccuracies presented in the palaeogeographic reconstructions for the western side of the British Isles such that many are in reality subcrop maps, but this apart they will rapidly become classic works of reference.
68
Although it is invidious to select papers for particular praise the two that deal with the Triassic and the Chalk must be mentioned for in their way they best illustrate the enormous sums of money that information of this quality represent. Indeed if anything this volume is a remarkable synthesis of data derived largely from the mental energies of dozens of unnamed oil company geophysisists and geologists. It will be especially valuable for the teaching institutions if only to correct the still lingering imbalance of outcrop versus subcrop stratigraphy. The organizers of the conference ensured rapid publication by having the drafts of the papers before the meeting, and by this means have also produced a book with remarkably few typo~aphic~ errors. Whilst brevity has allowed wide coverage of the subject in one Volume subsequent papers in the Journals giving greater detail of particular oilfields for example, will not detract from this collection. It is indeed refreshing to pick up a book, and particularly one devoted to Conference papers that is so full of hard geological data, with only the barest minimum of speculation and with hardly a hint of extemporization. M.R. DOBSON (Aberystwyth)
E~r~~~~a~~ reduction and Rock ~ecka~~cs. Cont~bution to Current Research in Geophysics (CCRG). Max Wyss (Editor). BirkhEiuser Verlag, Basel/Stuttgart, 1975. Reprinted from Pure and Applied Geophysics, Vol. 113 (1975). 33Opp., S.Fr. 78.00. According to the data issued by UNESCO, between 1926 and 1950 about 350,000 persons lost their lives during earthquakes. On the 1st September, 1923 more than 130,000 people died on the occasion of the Tokyo earthquake, In 1556 the great Chinese earthquake killed 830,000 persons. As a consequence of earthquakes during the period mentioned above, the damage in human products and settlements amounted to ten billion U.S. dollars. These shocking figures demonstrate clearly how ~po~nt and indispensable is theoretical and experimental research devoted to the cause of earthquake-prediction. Recently a new, and comprehensive volume had been published which contains first of all up-to-date results of laboratory experiments on the behaviour of rocks under different physical loadings, as well as about some remarkable observations made in the field concerning the precursors of tectonic shocks. In addition, there are papers concerning the theoretical explanation and models of earthquake-precursory phenomena. The volume in question is Earthquake Prediction and Rock Mechanics; it contains altogether 28 papers. Within the framework of a short book-review, it is naturally not possible to take account of all the 28 papers of the volume. Therefore the reviewer
67
Book Reviews
Petroleumand the Cont~~e~ta~Shelf of forth West Europe. A. Woodl~d. Applied Science Publ., Barking, 1975, 501 pp., bE16.00. The broadening
flood of new and usually expensive
books on geology,
imposing great pressure on libraries and individuals with their ever dwindling budgets, invites caution and increases selectivity. Fortunately, however, with Petroleummai the Conti~e~t~~Shelf of forth West Europe, I no such caution
is required for as was stated at the Conference which this book reports, “never has there been such an unparalleled release of significant and hitherto unpublished data”. Anyone even remotely interested in European geology cannot fail to require this Volume. There are 38 papers with accompanying discussions, the texts of all are pungently brief and well illus~ated. Re~ettably there is very little that is new in the first 7 papers, 6 of which deal with the geology to the west and north west of the British Isles. Understandably the Oil Companies have released no new data for these areas which are still, if only just, commercially sensitive. Many areas are not economically attractive such that the only data available comes from University and Government institutions. This first part of the Volume serves as a useful introduction to those who have no specialised knowledge of the area. The remaining 31 papers are in quite a separate category. They deal exclusively with the North Sea area and the relevant part of Northern Europe offering a stimulating blend of broad regional analyses, detailed gas and oil field geology interspersed with papers on selectei parts of the geological column as they are developed in the region. All the major gas fields in the Southern North Sea and the oil fields associated with the Central North Sea Graben, with even one from the Viking Graben, are dealt with in detail. The two major papers in the Volume, major in terms of length, new data released and literature consulted and which deal with the regional setting, are spoilt by the occasional inaccuracies presented in the palaeogeographic reconstructions for the western side of the British Isles such that many are in reality subcrop maps, but this apart they will rapidly become classic works of reference.
68
Although it is invidious to select papers for particular praise the two that deal with the Triassic and the Chalk must be mentioned for in their way they best illustrate the enormous sums of money that information of this quality represent. Indeed if anything this volume is a remarkable synthesis of data derived largely from the mental energies of dozens of unnamed oil company geophysisists and geologists. It will be especially valuable for the teaching institutions if only to correct the still lingering imbalance of outcrop versus subcrop stratigraphy. The organizers of the conference ensured rapid publication by having the drafts of the papers before the meeting, and by this means have also produced a book with remarkably few typo~aphic~ errors. Whilst brevity has allowed wide coverage of the subject in one Volume subsequent papers in the Journals giving greater detail of particular oilfields for example, will not detract from this collection. It is indeed refreshing to pick up a book, and particularly one devoted to Conference papers that is so full of hard geological data, with only the barest minimum of speculation and with hardly a hint of extemporization. M.R. DOBSON (Aberystwyth)
E~r~~~~a~~ reduction and Rock ~ecka~~cs. Cont~bution to Current Research in Geophysics (CCRG). Max Wyss (Editor). BirkhEiuser Verlag, Basel/Stuttgart, 1975. Reprinted from Pure and Applied Geophysics, Vol. 113 (1975). 33Opp., S.Fr. 78.00. According to the data issued by UNESCO, between 1926 and 1950 about 350,000 persons lost their lives during earthquakes. On the 1st September, 1923 more than 130,000 people died on the occasion of the Tokyo earthquake, In 1556 the great Chinese earthquake killed 830,000 persons. As a consequence of earthquakes during the period mentioned above, the damage in human products and settlements amounted to ten billion U.S. dollars. These shocking figures demonstrate clearly how ~po~nt and indispensable is theoretical and experimental research devoted to the cause of earthquake-prediction. Recently a new, and comprehensive volume had been published which contains first of all up-to-date results of laboratory experiments on the behaviour of rocks under different physical loadings, as well as about some remarkable observations made in the field concerning the precursors of tectonic shocks. In addition, there are papers concerning the theoretical explanation and models of earthquake-precursory phenomena. The volume in question is Earthquake Prediction and Rock Mechanics; it contains altogether 28 papers. Within the framework of a short book-review, it is naturally not possible to take account of all the 28 papers of the volume. Therefore the reviewer