Encyclopedia of Geology vol 1 (Encyclopedia of Geology Series)

633 Pages·2004·34.13 MB·English

by  Richard C. Selley

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
GEOLOGY
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
GEOLOGY
EDITED BY
RICHARD C. SELLEY
L. ROBIN M. COCKS
IAN R. PLIMER
ELSEVIER
ACADEMIC
PRESS
Amsterdam Boston Heidelberg London New York Oxford
Paris San Diego San Francisco Singapore Sydney Tokyo
Elsevier Ltd., The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1GB, UK
© 2005 Elsevier Ltd.
The following articles are © 2005, The Natural History Museum, London, UK:
FOSSIL VERTEBRATES/Hominids
Palaeontology
PALAEOZOIC/Silurian
PRECAMBRIAN/Overview
Terranes, Overview
Conservation of Geological Specimens
MINERALS/Olivines
MINERALS/Sulphates
TERTIARY TO PRESENT/Pleistocene and The Ice Age
Environmental Geochemistry
Biological Radiations and Speciation
PALAEOZOIC/Ordovician
TERTIARY TO PRESENT/Eocene
TERTIARY TO PRESENT/Paleocene
FOSSIL PLANTS/Angiosperms
FOSSIL PLANTS/Gymnosperms
Biozones
MESOZOIC/Cretaceous
MESOZOIC/End Cretaceous Extinctions
Stratigraphical Principles
FOSSIL INVERTEBRATES/Molluscs Overview
FOSSIL INVERTEBRATES/Trilobites
FOSSIL INVERTEBRATES/Echinoderms (Other Than Echinoids)
FOSSIL INVERTEBRATES/Echinoids
TERTIARY TO PRESENT/Pliocene
FOSSIL INVERTEBRATES/Bryozoans
MINERALS/Feldspathoids
Russia
The following article is a US Government work in the public domain and not subject to copyright:
NORTH AMERICA/Atlantic Margin
"Earth from Space" endpaper figure reproduced with permission from Reto Stockli, Nazmi El Saleous,
and Marit Jentoft-Nilsen and NASA GSFC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier's Rights Department in Oxford, UK:
phone [phone], fax [phone], [email protected].
Requests may also be completed on-line via the homepage (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).
First edition 2005
Library of Congress Control Number: 2004104445
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0-12-636380-3 (set)
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Printed and bound in Spain
EDITORS v
Editors
EDITORS
Richard C. Selley
Imperial College
London, UK
L. Robin M. Cocks
Natural History Museum
London, UK
Ian R. Plimer
University of Melbourne
Melbourne, VA
Australia
CONSULTANT EDITOR
Joe McCall
Cirencester
Gloucestershire, UK
vi EDITORIALADVISORYBOARD
Editorial Advisory Board
Jaroslav Aichler Georg Hoinkes
Czech Geological Survey Universita¨t Graz
Jesenı´k, Czech Republic Universita¨tplatz 2
Graz, Austria
Andrew RArmour
Revus Energy A/S RA Howie
Royal Holloway, London University
Norway
London, UK
John Collinson
ShunshoIshihara
Delos, Beech
Geological Survey of Japan
Staffordshire, UK
Tsukuba, Japan
AlexanderM Davis GilbertKelling
Infoscape Solutions Ltd. Keele University
Guildford, UK Keele, UK
Ken Macdonald
PeterDoyle
University of California Santa Barbara
University College London
Santa Barbara, CA, USA
London, UK
Norman MacLeod
Wolfgang Franke The Natural History Museum
Institut fu¨r Geowissenschaften
London, UK
Giessen, Germany
Stuart Marsh
YvesFuchs British Geological Survey
Universite´ Marne la Valle Nottingham, UK
France
Joe McCall
Cirencester, Gloucestershire, UK
PaulGarrard
Formerly Imperial College
London, UK David ROldroyd
University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW, Australia
RO Greiling
Universita¨t Heidelberg
Heidelberg, Germany Rong Jia-yu
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology
Nanjing, China
Gwendy Hall
Natural Resources Canada
Mike Rosenbaum
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Twickenham, UK
Robert DHatcher, Jr. Peter Styles
University of Tennessee Keele University
Knoxville, TN, USA Keele, UK
EDITORIALADVISORYBOARD vii
HansDSues SHWhite
Carnegie Museum of Natural History Universiteit Utrecht
Pittsburgh, PA, USA Utrecht, The Netherlands
JohnVeevers
Macquarie University
Sydney, NSW, Australia

FOREWORD ix
Foreword
Fewareasofsciencecanhavechangedasfastasgeologyhasinthepastfortyyears.Inthefirsthalfofthelast
centurygeologistsweredivided,oftenbitterly,betweenthedriftersandthosewhobelievedthattheEarthand
its continents were static. Neither side of this debate foresaw that the application of methods from physics,
chemistry and mathematics to these speculations would revolutionize the study of all aspects of the Earth
Sciences,andwouldleadtoaccurateanddetailedreconstructionsofworldgeographyatformertimes,aswell
as to an understanding of the origin of the forces that maintain the continental movements. This change in
world-viewisnolongercontroversial,andisnowembeddedineveryaspectoftheEarthSciences.Itisareal
pleasure to see this change, which has revitalized so many classic areas of research, reflected in the articles
ofthisencyclopedia.Particularlyaffectedarethearticlesonlarge-scaleEarthprocesses,whichdiscussmany
of the new geological ideas that have come from geophysics and geochemistry. Forty years ago we had no
understanding of these topics, which are fundamental to so many aspects of the Earth Sciences. The editors
havedecided,andinmyviewquiterightly,nottoincludedetaileddiscussionofthepresenttechnologythatis
usedtomakegeophysicalandgeochemicalmeasurements.Suchinstrumentalaspectsarechangingrapidlyand
becomedatedveryquickly.Theycaneasilybefoundinmoretechnicalpublications.Insteadtheeditorshave
concentratedontheinfluencesuchstudieshavehadonourunderstandingoftheEarthanditsevolution,andin
sodoinghaveproducedanexcellentandaccessibleaccountofwhatisnowknown.
Anyencyclopediahastosatisfyawidevarietyofusers,andinparticularthosewhoknowthatsomesubject
likesedimentationormineralexplorationispartofgeology,andgotoanencyclopediaofgeologytofindout
more.Theeditorshavemadeaverythoroughattempttosatisfysuchusers,andhaveincludedsectionsonsuch
unexpected geological topics as the evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere, the geology of Jupiter, Saturn, and
their moons, aggregates, and creationism. I congratulate the editors and authors for producing such a fine
summaryofourpresentknowledge,andamparticularlypleasedthattheyintendtoproduceanonlineversion
oftheencyclopedia.ThoughIhavebecomeaddictedtousingtheInternetasmygeneralencyclopedia,Iwillbe
delightedtobeabletoaccesssomethingconcernedwithmyownfieldthatisasorganizedandscholarlyasare
thesevolumes.
DanMcKenzie
RoyalSocietyProfessorofEarthSciences
CambridgeUniversity,UK