The aim of this work is to provide an authoritative and comprehensive coverage of all aspects of geology, an objective that is most certainly achieved.
The material is arranged as a series of entries in alphabetical order and includes extensive cross‐references within and between articles (see also) and an index to help you find your way around the five volumes. There is also a contents list at the beginning of each volume with the volume number and page number, so there really is no excuse for getting lost. Additionally, there is a guide on how to use the encyclopaedia at the beginning of each volume. The 340 articles are spread over 3,200 pages, each article having a set of further reading which includes some Web links – perhaps there should be more. Articles have very clear diagrams and maps both in colour and black and white. Full colour is used throughout the work in numerous photographs, figures, tables and illustrations.
The index is 217 pages long but not easy to use. Bold page number locators are included, but bold is not used on any word and in an index this long it is not easy to find your way about. Missing from the top of the page are alphabetical locators, which makes the whole index very difficult to use. Geodiversity is a popular concept at the moment with many organizations in the UK producing geodiversity action plans. There is a section in Volume 3 on geological conservation that goes into this subject and yet if you look in the index the only mention of geodiversity is under geological conservation – it does not have an entry to itself. Very poor.
Although an encyclopaedia of geology with typical entries on earthquakes, fossils, famous geologists, sedimentary environments and tectonics, there are some interesting articles, for instance on biblical geology versus creationism, that might not have been expected. The biblical geology section includes references to the scriptures such as the location of the Garden of Eden and the flood. Other articles that must be read are the geology of beer, wine and whisky. The article on geological field mapping gives details of items of equipment required such as elastic bands and polythene bags!!! Very useful although anyone who has done any geological mapping would have these in their rucksack already along with their hammer.
An example of a section is that on Engineering Geology that is split into 17 articles over two volumes (not ideal!) and 170 pages. Delving deeper (no pun intended) there are sections on both engineering geology and geological engineering. This latter section explores the character of “geological engineering” in the context of engineering geology. The variety of articles is evident: an article on the Rift Valley is followed by one on aggregates and then one on fission track analysis. Many geographical areas are covered either as countries or larger areas. After the Royal Institution Christmas lectures and hearing about the couple crossing to the South Pole, it was very interesting to read the article on Antarctica that includes some excellent pictures of the break up of Gondwana.
The past 40 years have seen many changes in geological thinking, especially in geophysics and geochemistry, which are recognised in these five volumes. However, the technology used in both of these subjects is not discussed as obviously advances in technology change rapidly and therefore date a publication. The techniques of remote sensing and other tools of investigation that have advanced rapidly over the last few decades are, however, described in detail. The editors are keen that the encyclopaedia will be the standard reference work for geologists over the next decade along with Elsevier companion volumes such as the Encyclopaedia of Ocean Sciences and Encyclopaedia of Soils in the Environment. This encyclopaedia is very rock based and readers are referred to the above two works and Elsevier's Encyclopaedia of the Solar System and Encyclopaedia of Atmospheric Sciences for knowledge on other branches of earth sciences.
It is excellent that an online version of the encyclopedia is intended later in 2005. This will be available on ScienceDirect. The on‐line version will allow increased functionality and include internal and external links that will enable extensive internal cross‐referencing and dynamic linking from bibliographic references to primary source material, increasing the scope of research. All articles will be available as full text HTML files and as PDF files that can be viewed, downloaded or printed in their original print format including full colour illustrations.
The three editors are highly qualified geologists: Richard C Selley is Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College, London and has published many papers and books mainly on sedimentology and petroleum geology; L. Robin M. Cocks is currently President of the Geologists' Association after being Head of the Department of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum, London, and is the author of over 150 scientific publications; Ian R. Plimer is Professor of Geology at The University of Melbourne and again has published over 120 scientific papers and six books for the layperson. A total of 316 contributors from Australia to Brazil and China to Denmark along with a 26 person editorial advisory board helped write and arrange the articles.
I feel this set is aimed at undergraduates and educated lay people – the audience as stated in the book are “academic libraries servicing earth and environmental science departments as well as industrial, government and public libraries, practising geologists, engineers and environmental scientists”. I agree totally with this statement.
