Download the Scanned

Amefican Mineralogist, Volume 59, pages 876-881, 1974 BOOKREVIEWS STUDIES IN EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCES; A Under petrology and mineralogy there are seven articles '3Alrv-Sirv MEMOIR IN HONOR OF HARRY HAMMOND HESS, ranging from a discussion of disorder in sillima- 1906-1969. Edited by Reginald Shagam and others. Geo- nite and its effect on phase relations of the aluminum silicate logical Society of America Memoir 132, 1972. vii { 683 minerals," by Hugh Greenwood, to "Differentiation trends quartz pages. $22.0O. and parental magmas for anorthositic and mangerite series, Adirondacks, New York," by A. F. Buddington. A Harry Hess would have been pleased with this volume. review of pigeonitic pyroxenes by G. Malcolm Brown con- From mineralogy to lunar geology it spans the full range of firms through structural and experimental thermal studies his own efforts, as well it might be expected to, considering some of Hess's predictions on the processes of subsolidus his influence on its authors. Dynamic and imaginative inter- exsolution and inversion. An article by G. B. Hess discusses pretations of data, his hallmark in life, becorne his legacy "Heat and mass transport during crystallization of the here. It is an exciting book with broad appeal. Stillwater lgneous Complex," a result of collaboration with Tho volume begins with 17 articles on geotectonics. Harry Hess that began many years ago. Topics discussedinclude plate motions and mantle convec- Several articles on deformation of materials and environ- tion, poles of rotation and paleopoles, the origin of litho- mental geology are included. An article by David B' Mac- sphere behind island arcs and the genesisof oceanic crust' the Kenzie dealing with "Peridotite fabrics and velocity ani- origins of active continental margins, continental fracture stropy in the earth's mantle" follows up a line of research zones and majo,r rifts, possible uncoupled convection and initiated by Hess in 1964. Such studies may have the po- the generation of orogenic belts. Most are excellent articles, tential for an interesting new look at the composition and but one that particularly appeals to this writer is "Free- variability of the upper mantle. board of continents through time", by D. U. Wise, describing Finally, four articles on space science explore "Crystalli- a model of the earth that accounts for the nearly constant zation histories of two Apollo 12 basalts" (L. S. Hollister fine adjustment between the volume of ocean basins and and others), "Calcium in chondritic olivine" (R. T. Dodd)' the volume of ocean waters. and the question, "Are lunar rilles inverted eskers?" (C. E' The section on ultrabasic rocks contains eight articles. Top- Helsley). The last note describes the Hess Lunar Crater, ics include dynamic interpretations of the petrology, distri- formally named at the 1970 International Astronomical bution, and emplacement of ultrabasic rocks. There is a Union meeting at Brighton, England. comparison of the Troodos massif with the seismically determined model of oceanic crust, which may yet be found Lvr.rN Gr,ovsn III to consist of partially serpentized peridotite, as Hess sug- Virginia Polytechnic Institute gested. In an elegant summary of the genesis of St. Paul's and State Unioersity Rocks, Melson, Hart, and Thompson conclude that it is an largely upper mantle-derived ultrabasic complex intruded METEORITES AND THEIR ORIGINS. By G. I. H. Mc- m.y. K-Ar apparent age on in the solid state. An 835 Call. John Wiley and Sons, New Yort'. l/73. 352 pages. from these rocks is inconsistent with their near- hornblende $12.95. ness to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the current model of sea- floor spreading. On the continents, some remarkable occur- The author has tried "to condense the vast spectrum of rences of explosively generated se4rentine breccia deposits meteoritics into a single readable volume divided described by Lockwood are perhaps more common than the into 23 chapters, and states that this book is intended as a literature suggests.Deformation and metamorphism would text for university students, professional and amateur sci' easily mask their essentially sedimentary nature. In other entists alike. This is indeed a worthwhile intention and, articles a primary peridotite magma is described, and knowing McCall's reputation as a scientist who, over the Alaskan type zoned ultramafic complexes are postulated to years, has contributed extensively to meteoritics, largely by originate by fractional crystallization and flow difterentiation the description of new Australian meteorites, made me read of basaltic magma in the feeder pipes of volcanoes. the book eagerly and with great expectations. Unfortunately, Eleven articles on Caribbean geology continue Hess's pro- the book is a great disappointment and has many serious gram of studies that inspired graduate students at Princeton shortcomings. for nearly a generation. This section includes regional syn- (1) The author's heavy reliance on older textbooks and thesesof the Puerto Rico Trench and negative anomaly belt, review articles rather than on the original literature results crustal evolution, several articles on the southern Carib- in many serious shortcomings and, in particular, in a num- bean region, and an excellent sufirmary by Donnelly on the ber of chapters being sadly out-of-date. For example, Table progression from deep water to subaerial volcanism in the 11 on elemental abundances in meteorites lists data from Virgin Islands. An interesting report on the Venezuelan Levin (1956), who in turn draws heavily from the Nod- Andes provides new data supporting a link between the dacks! Table 15 is similarly out of date. Since those data Appalachian mobile belt and an orogenic sequence under- were obtained, a generation of cosmochemistshas obtained lying the Andean system. new, better numbers with new, improved analytical tech- 876 BOOK REVIEWS 877 pothesis of derivation of mesosiderites by spalling of a silicate material by the agency of iron meteorites from the lunar surface has been given surprising credence in Amer- ica" does not at all reflect the true state of the matter in ths U.S. post-Apollo era. p. 127: Amphoterites are not viewed as part of the hypersthene chondrites (i.e., L-group (2) The author's personal biases and prejudices are very chondrites) any more, but form a separate group, the apparent in the text. This is unfortunate in the case of a Ll-group chondrites. p. 129: Olivine is not absent from beginner's textbook, where the student is supposed to be enstatite chondrites. Important minerals such as sinoite, presented with a balanced account, points with all of view perryite, schreibersite, niningerite, are not listed. There are represented. The author's biases particularly are apparenr other enstatite chondrites besides St. Mark's with good when discussing the origin of lunar and terrestrial craters chondritic texture, p. 13j, 172, 319: Jarosewich (not (chapter 20): his efforts to deny the impact origin of Jaresowich) is consistentlymisspelled. p. 136, 137: Sulfates Caion Diablo-for example, on the basis of its relative are not mentioned. p. I39: It was shown years ago (Keil, 1968) that Pesyanoe does not contain magnesium sulfide (MgS) but ferroan alabandite (Fe,Mn)S. In fact, MgS does not exist as a meteoritic mineral. p. 157: Carbonaceous chondrites do not display comparable metal contents to common chondrites (they have comparable total iron con_ tents). p. 158: New data show no major discrepancybe- tween chondritic and solar iron abundances. primordial meteoritic iron as evidence for impact origin of terrestrial rare gases are not ". virtually absent from the common impact features, are unjustified. In fact, the entire chapter 20 chondrites" (e.g., Pantar, Tabor). p. 162, 163; The pioneer_ is a very biased account, including the quoted (or not ing work of Wasson and coworkers on Ga-Ge groups is quoted) references. further A bias towards neglect of modern not referred to in the text (although there is a reference physico-chemical measurements appears in the much too in the list of references), p. lB2: The light inclusions in brief treatment of trace element, major element, cosmic Allende are exotic in the sense that they formed under ray-produced nuclide, and other data. different physico-chemical conditions than the host. p. 1gg: (3) The book indicates poor familiarity of the author The statement "Never do we find the olivines and pyrox- with the original literature, which has resulted in many enes of the common chondrites, which contain mineral false, half-true, or warped statements of facts, as well as in species containing 20-30 percent of the Fe ion . ." (in the neglect of many important new results. For example, carbonaceouschondrites type II) is wrong. p. 191: No when discussing where meteorites originate (chapter 3), the mention is made of the constrained equilibrium theory of important orbital Monte Carlo type calculations by Arnold, Blander and Adel Gawad (1969) nor of the lightning hy- Anders, Wetherill, and others are not mentioned. One of pothesis of Whipple (1966). p. 206: Olivine-bronzite and the most irnportant recent advances in iron meteorite re- olivine-hypersthene chondrites arc identical to H- and L- search, namely the determination of cooling rates and gro'np chondrites, respectively. p. 209: The statement speculations parent on sizes of meteorite bodies (Goldstein) ". there is some doubt about the validity of probe results are not discussed.p. 55: When discussingmelting crusrs, no of this kind at the present time . .,' (referring to electron reference is made to the classical paper by Ramdohr (1967). microprobe analyses of silicates) is unjustified and not in p. 88: No meteorite has enstatite entirely composed of tune with results published in the modern literature. p. 29O: MgSiOe; there is always some substitution of Fe and Mn von Engelhardt (not von Englehart). for Mg. p. ,,. 89: The statementthat . amphibole, horn- In addition, the book appears hastily written and poorly blende, are not ,'in found at atl .

Load more