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Book Review of "The Earth’s Mantle – Composition, Structure and Evolution" edited by Ian Jackson (Cambridge University Press, 1998) by Thorne Lay Professor A. E. (“Ted”) Ringwood (1930-1993) made numerous seminal contributions to our understanding of the chemical composition, origin and evolution of the Earth and Moon, and the ideal tribute would capture some flavor of his rare skills for experimentation, synthesis and inference. This volume comes admirably close to the ideal, bringing together synoptic review papers from Ringwood’s colleagues in the Research School of Earth Sciences of Australia National University (ANU) as well as their collaborators, in a highly accessible overview of the Earth’s mantle. The most remarkable achievement of the volume is the sustained pedagogic tone of the separate sections, clearly the result of a masterful editorial input by Ian Jackson and his editorial advisory board. The result is a modern, expansive and authoritative presentation of great value for beginning or advanced researchers interested in the deep Earth. The book also provides a fascinating window into a “world view” rather forcefully advocated by one of the world’s leading Earth science research institutions. The book is organized in three parts, with a total of 11 papers. The first part addresses Accretion and Differentiation of the Earth in three chapters that emphasize geochemical evidence for bulk chemistry of the Earth, the time scale of accretion and core formation, evolution of the crust, and origin of the atmosphere. The primary arguments underlying prevailing paradigms for notions of Earth composition and early history are thoroughly elaborated, with a presentation that is quite balanced and penetrating, but which proves easy to follow even for the non-expert. Indeed, all geophysicists would enjoy and benefit from reading this part of the book, as it makes the geochemical observations and arguments more accessible than most of the associated literature. It is particularly fascinating to harken back to Ringwood’s two famous books Composition and Petrology of the Earth’s Mantle (1975) and Origin of the Earth and Moon (1979) to attain a perspective of what advances in understanding and new lines of evidence have emerged over the past quarter century. This exercise also imparts a keen appreciation for Ringwood’s early contributions and how many of his ideas have endured. The second part of the book is Dynamics and Evolution of the Earth’s Mantle, with chapters addressing laboratory experiments on boundary layer flows, a general discussion of mantle convection and evolution, chemistry of the mantle inferred from plumes and associated melting processes, and a review of the pyrolite model and the genesis of basalts (perhaps Ringwood’s area of greatest contribution). This section lays out many of the key ANU contributions to ideas about mantle dynamics, with particularly thorough discussion of the dynamics and chemistry of mantle plumes from a variety of perspectives. Attention is also paid to downwellings, and the relative roles of internal heating versus boundary layer instabilities. A persistent theme of the entire volume emerges most clearly here; the notion of a unified model of whole mantle convection, albeit one with entrained chemical heterogeneities. It is likely that these chapters will also stimulate the most argument, and the referencing is rather ANU-centric for such sweeping topics, but this has the merit of defining the institutional perspectives with great clarity. Some of the controversial nature of the topics is lost, but instructors can readily complement this volume with other reviews to provide students with the full range of ideas about mantle dynamics and evolution. The third part of the book emphasizes the Structure and Mechanical Behaviour of the Modern Mantle. One chapter summarizes seismological models of the mantle, albeit from a rather narrow perspective of studies in some way connected to ANU. This suffices to touch upon many aspects of seismological contributions to our knowledge of the mantle’s structure, but falls short of the pedagogic thrust of earlier chapters. The next chapter provides a satisfying overview of interpretation of seismic models in terms of experimental and petrological constraints on composition and temperature. The treatment of deep mantle chemistry is particularly interesting, as most available surveys emphasize upper mantle conditions. Glacial rebound is exploited to place constraints on mantle viscosity in the next paper, with both theory and observation being addressed. The final chapter explores the topics of mantle rheology and phase transitions by summarizing results of laboratory studies. The composite portrayal of the mantle provided by The Earth’s Mantle is rich and diverse, and of broad interest to all students of the deep interior. While not all perspectives are represented, the complexity and non-uniqueness of the inferential process is well presented, and there is no danger of completing the book and feeling that all questions about the mantle have been resolved. Yet there is clearly a sense of tremendous progress in deep Earth research. The interdisciplinary nature of the effort to understand the Earth is aptly conveyed, and the great advances that have been made are established as the results of a broadly based effort spanning many disciplines and analytic procedures. There is also the underlying attribute of creativity and intellectual integration that makes the achievements of the Earth science community and its luminaries such as Ted Ringwood so impressive. While new discoveries and ideas about the deep mantle continue to emerge at a feverish pace, this tribute to Ringwood will have lasting value as a synoptic overview of mantle processes for long to come. Thorne Lay is Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz