Download The Ocean Basins and Margins, Volume 7A, the Pacific Ocean

REVIEWS
171
included in the book, only a few chapters directly provide detailed information
on how to build artificial reefs. Interestingly, not all the papers come out in support
of particular artificial reef projects and caution is often recommended.
I found the book rather expensive especially considering that the text was not
typeset but was photocopied from camera-ready typing. In my copy some figures
were difficult to read. Although the book leaves many more questions unanswered
than are answered, it is an essential reference for any manager, builder, or researcher dealing with artificial reefs.-J. A. Bohnsack, NOAA/Southeast Fisheries
Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, 75 Virginia Beach Drive, Miami, Florida 33149.
(Editor's Note-Volume
37, No.1 of the Bulletin of Marine Science [1985]
presented the results of the Third International Artificial Reef Conference. This
issue is 402 pages comprising 31 papers and 26 additional abstracts. Issues are
available at $35.00, plus mailing.)
BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, 40(1): 171-172, 1987
THE OCEAN BASINS AND MARGINS, VOLUME 7A, THE PACIFIC OCEAN. Alan E. M.
Nairn, Francis G. Stehli, and Seiya Uyeda, eds. Plenum Press, New York. 1985.
733 pp. $95.00.
This volume is the second to last in a series of volumes of papers on the ocean
basins of the world. The last volume will cover other aspects of the Pacific Ocean
basin and its margins. This volume concentrates on three things. Firstly, there is
a section consisting of two chapters which deal with sedimentation in the deep
ocean. A second section consisting of one chapter discusses the record of Pacific
plate motion as recorded by the linear volcanic chains produced by hot spots.
The third portion, comprising 83% of this volume, tackles various parts of the
margin of the Pacific ocean basin. One presumes that the second volume will
cover the rest of the margins and also the plate tectonic history, geology and
geophysics of the deep water areas. This therefore represents a peculiar juxtaposition of subjects, because both the margin areas and the deep water areas will
be discussed in each volume. One may speculate that this arrangement has been
caused by the tardiness of some of the authors.
The most interesting aspect of the current volume is the contrast between the
eastern margins of the Pacific (covered in four chapters and running geographically
from Southern Mexico to the extreme southern Andes) and the portions of the
western margins covered in the remaining six chapters. Without island arcs and
back arc basins, the geological history of the eastern margin is to be found almost
exclusively in continental areas, where the classical geological techniques and
prejudices are in operation. For most of the western regions, in contrast, the
techniques are those of marine geology and geophysics, including seismic reflection
and refraction measurements, and the identification of magnetic anomalies. This
has resulted in less detailed information than that available for the Andean regions,
but at the same time, information which could be fitted into a regional analysis
with greater ease.
My main criticism of this volume is in fact the lack of much attempt to place
each local area into a regional picture. For instance, it is possible to predict the
relative motion of the oceanic areas to the west of South America with that
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BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, VOL. 40, NO.1, 1987
continent for much of the Cenozoic. This information would be of use in studying
the geology of the continental margin. Does the geology confirm or refute information that we have on relative motion? If the latter, then the relative motion
models may be in error. In talking about the past sedimentation history of the
deep basin, why not plot the data on paleoceanographic maps to see if the sedimentary history, as determined from cores recovered by the Deep Sea Drilling
Project, can aid in a better understanding of paleogeography.
Although almost all geologists now believe in plate tectonics and use it in their
local interpretations of geology, they still often do not make use of the global
nature of plate tectonics, which allows one to relate happenings in one's own area
of interest to that which is happening in adjacent areas. It is to be hoped that this
aspect of plate tectonics will be used more frequently in the years to come. - C.
G. A. Harrison, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University
of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, Florida 33149-1098.