Download Petrology: The Study of Igneous, Sedimentary

Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
Petrology: The Study of Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic Rocks by Loren A.
Raymond
Review by: Don L. Anderson
American Scientist, Vol. 84, No. 4 (JULY-AUGUST 1996), pp. 398-400
Published by: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29775719 .
Accessed: 08/10/2012 17:46
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access
to American Scientist.
http://www.jstor.org
an advanced
text in, for
example,
course on the
undergraduate-level
Coper
nican
For that purpose,
revolution.
Olaf
the sole
Pedersen's Early Physics and Astronomy
provides substantial coverage of the de?
velopment of scientificthought,although
it sacrifices comment on technical issues
and unfortunately does not include Ke?
pler. For a truly inspiring account of the
pitfalls and triumphs of theCopernican
revolution, Julian Barbour's Absolute or
RelativeMotion?, Volume 1,provides a su?
perb and insightful explanation that
brings out the full richness of the subject.
Thurston's book is a useful complement
toBarbour and toPedersen, providing ex?
tra insighton some of the technical issues
and filling in gaps in our knowledge of
ancient astronomy thatare not treatedby
two authors.
the other
In summary, although EarlyAstronomy
is probably not a first choice for an
overview of the history of theories of ce?
lestialmotion, itprovides an excellent de?
scription ofmuch of the technicalmateri?
al. In that regard itwill be a valuable
resource forthose interestedinobtaining a
deeper understanding of early astronomy.
A.
?James
Rose,
Physics
and Astronomy,
UniversityofNorth Carolina at ChapelHill
Handbook of Optics. Volume I: Funda?
mentals, Techniques, & Design; Vol?
ume
II: Devices,
and
Measurements,
Properties. Second Edition. Michael
Bass, Editor inChief; EricW. Van Stry
land
et. ah, Assoc.
Eds.
1995. $99.50,
Graw-Hill,
1,400
each.
pp. Mc?
The field of optics is of great practical
importance for scientists and profession?
als, from astronomers
lication of the second
to
Pub?
zoologists.
edition of the Hand?
book ofOptics, sponsored by theOptical
Society ofAmerica, will thereforebe wel?
comed,
especially
since
it is a compre?
hensive and useful reference.The field of
topics are completely new, such as the
eight-chapter section on "Optical Design
Techniques."
There ismuch here to recommend this
handbook to a wider audience than the
firsthandbook might have served. For ex?
ample, in thefirst edition the chapter on
"The Eyes and Vision" primarily ad?
dressed ophthalmological subjects. The
new
edition
has
a
six-chapter
section
on
"Vision" which includes not only the op?
ticsof theeye but also detailed treatments
of visual performance and optical genera?
tionof thevisual stimulus, a discussion of
colormonitors and liquid-crystaldisplays,
and a chapter on psychophysical meth?
to be well
pears
overall.
produced
For ex?
ample, many of the tables and figuresare
very poorly printed and annotated.Many
are
from other works,
reproduced
but
that
isno excuse for lines that look as ifhalf of
the toner had fallen off the page before
theywere printed. The figures and tables
often
include
or
acronyms
re?
quantities
ferred to nowhere in the text,leaving the
reader puzzled. The text itselfshows signs
of having been spell-checked but not
"nobel
proofread:
where
"affected"
"effected"
metals,"
is meant,
"model"
in?
stead of "mode." A sampling of both vol?
umes
found
no more
two
than
or
three
such errors per chapter, and they do not
ods. This more
extensive
treatment would
obscure themeaning, but to a keen-eyed
appeal topeople concernedwith visual re? reader they can be irritating.
In sum, thisedition is a worthwhile ad?
sponse, either from the fundamental or
thepractical point of view. There are some
dition to the library of any institution
topics,however, onemight have hoped to where students and professionals deal
see covered that are given only very cur? with topics in optics.?Laurie E. McNeil
treatment or are omit?
sory and scattered
Physics andAstronomy,University ofNorth
ted entirely. This is particularly true of Carolina at ChapelHill
topics related to astronomy.Active optics
and wave
correction
are nowhere
men?
tioned, and many telescope designs im?
portant
satellite
to modern
astronomy
ground-based
are also
missing.
EARTH
s c i c n c c s
and
The point of view taken in each chap?
ter seems to depend on thenature of the
on the contributor.
In some cas?
topic and
on
es, such as the material
geometrical
an extensive
treatment
theoretical
optics,
is presented, but the application of the Petrology: The Study of Igneous, Sedi?
mathematics to real systems is omitted.
and Metamorphic
Rocks.
mentary,
In others, such as psychophysical meth?
Loren A. Raymond. 742 pp. William C.
ods and optical fabrication, the approach
Brown Publishers, 1995. $78.80.
ismore of a user's guide with practical
advice rather than analytical justification.
Petrology is thestudy of rocks,and there
aremany, many differentkinds of rocks.
This is particularly true in those sections
texts can
dealing with optical elements, instru? Middle-level
undergraduate
ments
and measurements,
which
make
up thebulk ofVolume II.
As is inevitable in an active field,some
have been
chapters
In "Semiconductor
overtaken
Lasers,"
by events.
re?
the most
or the
stress
principles,
descriptive
or the nomenclature.
Or they can
aspects
concen?
trate on the igneous or the sedimentary
rocks. A
complete
course
in
petrology,
as?
suming that crystallography,mineralogy
and basic geology have already been as?
similated, would cover crystal growth,
chemistry,thermodynamics,petrography,
an
ex?
cent referencegiven is from1993 and few
optics has undergone
astonishing
plosion in recent years, considering its are later than 1991,which is unfortunate
venerable history,and thenew edition re? given the especially rapid progress in the
some
flects thatoutburst. The doubling in size blue-green wavelength range. Similar
advanced
classification,
isotopes,
of the second edition over the first(pub? problems arise in chapters that refer to mineralogy and the rock environment,and
lished in 1978) has come about in three specific, commercially available instru? itwould include igneous, metamorphic
ways. Some basic topics originally cov? ments or software, and those sections of and sedimentary aspects, which are basi?
ered in one chapter are now dealt with
the handbook will date most quickly.
cally differentfieldsof inquiry.
in greater depth in several chapters. For Nevertheless,
treat the fac?
these
The classification of igneous rock has
chapters
an in?
tors one must
in
consider
had a controversial and often hilarious
example, "Image Formation: Geometrical
choosing
and Physical Optics" has become four strument fora particular application, and
history. Nearly every petrology book
sowill remainuseful afterparticularmod?
seems to feature a different scheme, and
chapters: "General Principles of Geomet?
ric Optics,"
"Diffraction"
els are superseded.
those thathave tried tohonor the logic in
"Interference,"
and "Coherence
The editors of thevolumes have taken petrologic by devising sensible classifica?
Some
Theory."
chapters
care tomake thepresentations of thechap?
tion schemes have failed tomake an im?
dealing with instrumentation have be?
comemultiple-chapter sections including
ters reasonably uniform. Each is prefaced pact. Classification implies an artificial
new kinds of devices.
For
many
example,
by a listof symbols and theirdefinitions, subdivision of a continuum and a forced
and effortshave been made to standardize marriage of diverse properties such as
"Optical Radiators and Sources" has be?
come a five-chaptersection covering light
theuse of symbols and sign conventions, color, texture,origin, chemistry and min?
emitting diodes, lasers and semiconduc? which are always problematic in thisfield. eralogy,which themselves are continua.
tor lasers, lamps and other incandescent
A fewminor annoyances appear,which Many common rockswere named before
arcs and more.
was
is all themore surprising in a set thatap
Some
sources, blackbodies,
any classification
attempted.
398
American
Scientist, Volume
84
S. J.Shand (1949) decried the "witless
practice of giving a new name to every
rock that is slightly different from any
rock seen before and thus to extend the
list of specific names that already in?
cludes more than 600 items and includes
as Katzenbuckelite
such
gems
fonteinite,
site...." He
and
leeuw
are
must
discussed,
review
or
can
be
generalities
discussed,
of structure,
one
must
be
ture,chemistryand mineralogy Then the
various
learned,
classification
even
schemes
the archaic
ones,
the current
tex?
because
thereare remnants of old terminology in
ple silicate systemsmust be understood.
All of this takes six chapters and 87 pages
in the present book, before one reaches
the simple igneous rocks, such as basalts
and
anabohitsite
Lobate
sviatoynos
a return to the lan?
advocated
literature.
Then
petrological
the phase
rule and sim?
thermodynamics,
forms
guage of babyhood and the coinage of
words by putting togetherunrelated syl?
lables,
as
such
olivine-pyroxene-biotite
nepheline-melilite rock to replace olpy
binemelite (petrobabble).
About 40 termshave been devised to
describe igneous rock textures, including
pilotaxitic, glomeropophyritic, spinifex,
poikilititic, symplectic, trachytoidal and
epitaxial. Texture is thebasis of classifica?
tion used by many petrologists, and de?
scriptors,such as porphyritic,phaneritic,
aphanitic and porphyriticwith phaneritic
ground mass, must be dutifully learned
by the apprentice petrologist.
There are about 300 igneous rock
names
and
numbers
comparable
Lenticularlinear
(Shoestring)
Lenticularlobate
(Elliptical)
Planar bedding
Wavy bedding
Lobatewedge
for sedi?
mentary and metamorphic rocks. There
are dozens of technical termsused to de?
scribe
colors,
textures,
fabrics,
associa?
tions and origins.A card-carryingpetrol?
ogist must expand her vocabulary
beyond thatnecessary inmost other dis?
ciplines, and a working knowledge of
Latin and Greek doesn't help much.
Petrology is a science but it is also a lan?
guage, and to some extent itmust be
taught
as a
language.
Loren Raymond subscribes to theview
that one must know the vocabulary of a
subject in order to effectivelycommuni?
cate in that subject. An effort ismade to
define large numbers of terms and to
gradually evolve frombaby talk to ad?
vanced petrological jargon. The trouble
with having specialized words forshades
of difference is thatpetrologists can com?
municate
with
precisely
one
another
Lenticular
bedding
but
notwith theirgeological and geochemical
colleagues.Most earth scientistscanmake
do with only a dozen rock names by de?
scribingvariations using common words
from theirnative language. Petrologists
and
interior
common:
tures and
decorators
a rich
language
colors.
have
much
in
for fabrics,
tex?
(Lenticular)
The solid part of the earth consists of
minerals, and rocks are assemblages of
minerals.
one must
In order
to understand
understand
processes
rocks,
on and in
the interiorof theearth.Rocks themselves
contain the history of the earth and are
the results of already performed natural
experiments. It is difficult to read a rock,
even if one knows the
language. One
must
understand
the culture,
the context,
the history ... just as is the case forordi?
nary books.
Raymond has the following philoso?
phy: Before the individual rock families
Five
plain views
and block
shapes;
of bed
diagrams
shapes
with
(a); three-dimensional
cross-sections
of beds
views
of formation
(and member)
(c). From Petrology.
1996
July-August 399
rocks. Similar background
and metamor
is given
for sedimentary
rocks: structures,
textures, mineralo?
phic
classifications,
processes
gy, chemistry,
and environments.
and ultramafic
The language (syntaxand word choice)
is taught in thisbook and taughtverywell.
The scope is breathtaking. But one learns
only very gradually why petrology is so
to earth
central
The
sciences.
shortest
chapter in thebook is the first,"Rocks and
Earth Structure."All of earth structureand
is covered
dynamics
in three pages,
main?
lyby defining 16 terms including petrog?
raphy,magma, Moho, lithosphere,plates
and triplejunctions.The book ends with a
three-page epilogue that attempts to tie
eveiytriing togetherby discussing petro
course, it isnot possible toprovide a very
(PCR)?has spawned a new subfield of ge?
a
netics
that is concerned with methods to
in
book
of
this
rigorous explanation
type, but the explanations given in the detect and analyze partially degraded
book would be sufficienttomotivate in? DNA frompreserved tissues.This book is
both a review of the systems and tissue
terested students to explore furtherde?
tails fromother,more specialized books.
types towhich thesemethods have been
As is usually the case with this type of applied, as well as a primer of techniques
book, ithas many tables that show the and protocols forworking with ancient
DNA (aDNA).
statistics of various hazards. Although
At firstone might consider ita novelty
these statistical data are important, they
toobtain a small piece of the genetic code
tend to be somewhat boring if they are
mammal
skin in a
from a long-since-dead
presented as numbers alone. In thisbook,
the data are often presented with some museum drawer or fromdried blood at a
anecdotal
which
accounts,
may
help
stu?
dents sustain their curiosity in the sub?
ject.Overall, the book has struck a good
its presentations
among
and
of phenomena
balance
of fact,
crime
but
scene,
using
applications
an?
cient DNA have already provided valu?
able evidence togenetic and evolutionary
research.
as
Portrayed
science
in
fiction
Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, these
methods have recentlymade itpossible
tions for futuremitigation efforts.
and plate
bound?
tectonic
assemblages
to view genetic variation locked in time
The impact of natural hazards on our
aries. This isnot enough context fora 742
lives is changing because our living envi? by preservation, verify the identity of a
page book. Even when the course is
ronments are growing rapidly and be? murderer and document genetic changes
completed, the studentwill not appreciate
more
in diseases diagnosed in patients long
For example,
thepower tounderstand theearth thatshe
coming
sophisticated.
dead before the advent ofmolecular biol?
now holds. But shewill be able to commu?
the effectsof earthquakes and floods near
centers are more
far
urban
modern
nicate verywell with otherpetrologists.
ogy. The amount of informationavailable
major
ever
because
of
the
forany given specimen will undoubtedly
before
than
into
is
book
the
reaching
organized
Fortunately,
remain small?probably precluding the
increased complexity of economical and
bite-size chapters,usually about 10 pages
structures
soci?
realization of anything likeCrichton's di?
of modern
environmental
long.A given rock type,such as andesite,
the
theme park?but
or
is intro?
carbonate
ety. It isbecoming increasingly important nosaur-reassembly
eclogite,
granite,
to train scientists who understand the ability to identify and use trace genetic
duced and defined, the composition and
material has now made accessible genetic
textureare discussed, and then theorigin physical causes of these natural hazards
once
that were
considered
to
their
are treated.
who
desire
Numerous
and
and
comparisons
knowledge
apply
examples
unattainable.
to achieve effectivemitigation work.
completely
photographs and line drawings are used
In the book's introduction, the editors
All the illustrations are in black and
effectively
The publisher provides several bind? white. Although theyare effectiveenough, define aDNA as "any bulk or trace of
DNA froma dead organism or parts of it,
theuse of a few color photographs would
ing options, including paperback sepa?
as well
as
encountered
attractive.
this book more
have made
rates of the threemajor sections. This will
extracorporeally
a living organism." This defini?
are some
trust that
DNA
but we
of
There
load
of
interclass
reduce
the
typos,
considerably
tion allows the term ancient DNA to be
a student backpack. Otherwise she must
theywill be corrected in futureeditions.?
to any sample thatmay have been
a three-centimeter
Hiroo
Kanamori,
thick,
Laboratory,
applied
Seismological
large
transport
coffee-table
format 1.4-kilogram,
size, but
subject todegradative processes occurring
CaliforniaInstituteofTechnology
at cell death or toDNA subject tovarious
a
across
Add
burden
attractive,
campus.
a few rocks.?Don
and
hammer
son, Seismological
Laboratory,
stituteofTechnology
L. Ander?
California
In?
explanations
sugges?
forms of preservation.
by oxidative
LIFE
Inc.,
Prentice-Hall,
1995.
$39.
realistic
Robert Kovach's book covers all kinds
of natural
hazards
earth?
(volcanoes,
quakes, landslides, drought, weather,
tsunamis and floods) concisely in a sim?
ple language; it ishighly recommendable
to a broad spectrum of studentswho are
anxious not only tounderstand the cause
of these dreadful natural hazards but also
to understand the physics of some spec?
tacular
natural
phenomena.
The
notable
featureof thisbook is that the author tries
toprovide a simple physical explanation
for the various
natural
cause
He
hazards.
that
phenomena
the mecha?
explains
nism of earthquakes, atmospheric circula?
tions, tornadoes and tsunamis at a level
thatcan be easily understood bymost un?
dergraduate and graduate students. Of
400
American
Scientist, Volume
84
is
material
pH,
stress, all of which
lead
tomu?
tation or degradation of thegenetic code.
The editors and authors are optimistic
about the power of new methods to ob?
tain and use aDNA, but nearly all are also
Earth's Fury:An Introduction toNatural
Hazards and Disasters. 214 pp. Robert
L. Kovach.
Genetic
agents, ultra-violet
moisture
and
temperature,
damaged
radiation,
mechanical
is
Ancient DNA: Recovery and Analysis of
Genetic Material from Paleontologi
cal, Archaeological,
ical, and Forensic
Herrmann
and
Museum,
Specimens.
Susanne
Hummel,
Med?
Bernd
eds.
263 pp. Springer-Verlag, 1994. $34.95.
The relatively recent development of
techniques fordetectingminute amounts
of genetic material from tissue remains,
bone fragments,samples of dried blood,
amber inclusionsand fossilshas created an
excitingnew tool formedicine, anthropol?
ogy, forensicsand evolutionary biology. In
an explosion
just thepast fiveyears or so,
of studies
of "ancient"
DNA?most
mak?
ing use of the polymerase chain reaction
about
required
its limitations.
to avoid
and
Extreme
detect
care
contami?
nation of samples frommodem sources of
DNA and to verify positive results as
such. These factorsmake finding aDNA
especially sensitive and occasionally sus?
pect. Commendably, most of the authors
in thisvolume describe themethods each
used to avoid or account for these prob?
lems.DNA degradation also places a se?
vere limit on the amount of information
attainable
from a given
source
tissue,
thus
limitingthe resolvingpower forany given
question. Despite these limitations,excit?
ing insights on genetics and evolution
have been made from remarkably small
amounts
of genetic
data.
This volume of contributed papers
chronicles thewide diversity of sources