Plate Tectonics - GEOSCIENTIST (original) (raw)

Right from the start, let’s be clear: Plate Tectonics is a truly exceptional and excellent textbook. The authors cover territory that is wide-ranging and will likely exceed the expectations of teachers and students. Given the diversity of tectonic knowledge that has been acquired over the decades, simply putting together the material for this book required monumental effort and dedication from the authors. If you’re reading this review and graduated say, twenty years ago, dip into this book to see how much more has been discovered! This is a tour de force.

The conventional and effective layout of Plate Tectonics begins with a brief outline of why plate tectonics as a concept is fundamental to modern understanding of the Earth system, and its historical roots. Subsequent chapters establish broad principles: rheology and stress, geophysical properties, Earth structure, the Earth heat engine and kinematics. These provide a foundation to consider individual elements of the Wilson Cycle – with plate boundary types, their geology and processes taken in turn. The book builds up to hot topics in tectonic research as the concluding chapters deal with early Earth via zircon geochemistry, planetary evolution from accretion to the development of plate tectonics, and comparative tectonic planetology. Each chapter opens with a summary on a contested area of science. For tutorial debates, the final chapters in Plate Tectonics could be read alongside Hamilton’s (2019) last paper (other dissenters are also available).

Many readers will be familiar with Fossen’s Structural Geology (2010). Plate Tectonics, co-authored with Teyssier, has the same attention to detail, manifest in the clear and engaging text, exquisite illustrations, and rich array of supporting online resources. The two books are complementary, together developing into a progressive narrative of our understanding of deformation across our planet.

Plate Tectonics is a text that draws from communities such as the Tectonophysics section of the American Geophysical Union. While disciplines such as geodesy, seismology, and igneous geochemistry are integrated in this book, the balance of content and approaches reflect the heritage and experience of the authors. The book is likely to be widely adopted as a teaching resource, dependent on how individual teachers balance content in their courses. But for those building from physical and geological aspects of Earth sciences and showing how knowledge of tectonic processes and evolution relies on diverse information and approaches – Plate Tectonics is ideal and also just a damn good read.

Reviewed by Rob Butler

Details:

BY: Haakon Fossen and Christian Teyssier (2024). Cambridge University Press. 462 pp. (hbk)

ISBN: 9781108476232

PRICE: £52.99 www.cambridge.org

References:

Hamilton, W.B. (2019). Toward a myth-free geodynamic history of Earth and its neighbours. Earth-Science Reviews,198, p.102905. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.102905