GEOSCIENCE
BOOK REVIEWS
The objective of this web page is to provide brief reviews of books on geoscience topics that the Ammonite Associates believe would be of interest to fellow geoscientists.
We encourage website visitors to send in their own recommendations and reviews. Books reviewed do not have to be recent publications - just a book on a geoscience topic that might be educational, unusually interesting, or simply enjoyable reading.
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Book Review June 2004
Evidence from the Earth
Forensic Geology and Criminal Investigation
by David M.
Abbott, Jr., CPG-4570
TV
ratings tell us that Crime Scene
Investigation, CSI: Miami, and Crossing Jordan are among the most popular currently running shows.
These particular shows focus, at least to some degree, on the applications of
science to crime detection. Sherlock Holmes used various scientific observations
and tests in his detections. His friend, Dr. Watson, observed that Holmes’
knowledge of geology was “practical, but limited” to those areas most useful
to detection. More recently, Sarah Andrews and other geologist authors of murder
mysteries have applied their geological knowledge to solving the conundrums
faced by their respective sleuths. Forensic science thus demonstrates its appeal
to the public. Now Raymond C. Murray describes the real applications of forensic
geology to real cases in Evidence from the Earth: Forensic Geology and Criminal Investigation,
2004: Mountain Press Publishing Co., 240 p., ISBN 0-87842-498-9, www.mountain-press.com,
$20.
Dr. Murray has previously published books on forensic geology but Evidence from the Earth combines the case studies, the history, the basic geologic principles, the collection of appropriate samples, and the examination techniques used by forensic geologists in a single volume that provides useful guidance to both geologists and the public alike. As Murray notes in his first chapter, “Forensic geology is based on the principle, first stated by French criminologist Edmond Locard (1877-1966), that any time two objects touch, there is a transfer. You may not be able to detect it, it may be worn or washed away, but the transfer has taken place. So whatever people touch and whatever touches them leaves a trace. If you can find that trace, you can say where a person has been and possibly even what crime he or she has committed. Forensic geologists are interested in rocks, minerals, fossils, soils, and glass or other man-made materials or objects that have become incorporated in soil. Forensic geologists take samples of earth materials that have been transferred between objects and analyze them to determine their origins and sources. They then present the results as evidence in either criminal or civil legal proceedings.”
As suggested by the preceding quotation, the bulk of Evidence from the Earth focuses on the analysis of soils, sands, rocks, and materials that are made from geologic sources, like the fire-proofing in safes, cement, bricks, and plaster, collected in connection with various crimes. This focus reflects both the most commonly recognized use of forensic geology and Murray’s experiences. Throughout the book, Murray includes summaries of cases using the geologic materials involved: murders, kidnappings, rapes, assaults, cactus and fossil rustling from federal lands, and the substitution of rocks for shipments of valuable commodities like gold bullion.
Once chapter touches on mining and oil and gas frauds (to which I contributed), and on gem and mineral enhancement and fraud. The Bre-X gold salting case is summarized with some unfortunately misleading points that are in Murray’s cited information source. In the gem section, Murray notes that some gem enhancement such as heating to improve the color of sapphires has become generally accepted while other enhancements, substitutions, etc. are fraudulent.
“Forensic” is defined in my dictionaries as relating to or used in legal proceedings or courts of law. Unfortunately for a book on forensic geology whose goal is to “introduce you to the world of evidence locked in earth materials,” Murray fails to mention the most common varieties of geologic evidence in the legal system, the evidence and testimony regarding engineering geologic studies, hydrology, mineral property valuation, and other areas where “ordinary” geologic evidence and interpretations are critical to some aspect of regulatory proceedings or civil or criminal cases. Presentation of this type of geologic expert opinion is the focus of the expert witness short courses offered by AIPG and other professional societies and related publications. Such legal actions constitute for many of us with at least a portion of our practice, me included. But this is perhaps a minor quibble.
Murray provides an excellent introduction for those interested how geologic and related manmade materials provide critical evidence in various types of legal cases. For professional geologists, the chapter on the “Origin and Distribution of Earth Materials” can be skimmed for the included case histories. For others, such as attorneys interested in employing geologic evidence, this chapter provides an important introduction. Murray has included numerous references that will direct those interested to more detailed discussions of specific points. If forensic geology interests you at all, Evidence from the Earth is worth reading. Those of you teaching introductory earth science courses can find short case histories providing answers to the questions “Who cares about what type of igneous rock or soil this is?” and “What’s the use of all this?,” and may wish to include Evidence from the Earth in a supplemental reading list.
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David Abbott, Ammonite's Denver based mining expert is an avid reader of geological books. He has submitted the following reviews.
Barren Lands:
an epic search for diamonds in North America
by Kevin Krajick, 2001:
Times Books, 442 p., ISBN: 0-7167-4026-5.
Review by
David M. Abbott, Jr.
Denver, CO
Books about the Lac de Gras diamond rush in the Northwest Territories, now Nunavut, in the early 1990s are starting to appear. In Barren Lands: an epic search for diamonds in North America, Kevin Krajick tells more than just the colorful stories of the people involved and their equally colorful exploration programs, he covers the history of diamond exploration in Africa, South America, and North America as well, although the emphasis is on North America. This history adds a great deal to understanding the story of Chuck Fipke's search for diamonds that ultimately led to the Lac de Gras discoveries. The missing piece in the review of diamond exploration is the Australian discoveries in the 1980s.
The Barren Lands are not permanently settled. The Inuit live on the coast and forage south for migrating caribou during the summer. The Athapaskan Dene tribes live in trees and migrate north following the same caribou herds. Few whites ventured into this unforgiving and difficult to cross country of lakes and bogs. Barren Lands briefly covers the limited European exploration in the area and the little known of native history in the area. Although a subsidiary story, this portion of the book is interesting in its own right.
Diamonds were first found in alluvial deposits in India and only slowly trickled into Europe. Diamond's hardness was early recognized and early treatises also stated that diamonds couldn't be broken, a confusion of hardness and cleavage. In-situ diamond deposits were first discovered in South Africa on the farm owned by the two brothers, De Beer, whose name was adopted by the great diamond firm founded by Cecil Rhodes.
Scattered diamond finds have been made, often by children, over the years in the US and eventually in Canada in a large number of states and provinces. By and large these diamonds were alluvial and frequently, though not always, came from glacial deposits. Georgia, North Carolina, and California are among the exceptions. Although kimberlitic-like intrusions (diatremes) have been found in a number of states and provinces, only the Crater of Diamonds at Murfreesboro, Arkansas produced diamonds prior to 1990 and the Crater of Diamonds has only been commercially successful as tourist attraction where you can dig and keep anything you find. Diatremes were identified in Colorado in the mid-1960s but initial enthusiasm for them stemmed from the fact that xenoliths in the diatremes yielded the first Silurian fossils in Colorado indicating that Silurian rocks had been deposits and subsequently eroded.
Diamonds weren't found in the Colorado until 1975 when microscopic diamonds scratched thin sectioning equipment at the USGS. It wasn't until the 1990s that the Kelsey Lake deposit was discovered and placed into sporadic production. I remember the Prospectors and Developers Association meeting in Toronto in 1997 where many Canadian diamond ventures were being touted, but Howard Coopersmith of the Kelsey Lake Mine had macroscopic diamonds to show people.
No history of diamond exploration in North America would be complete without discussing the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872 exposed by Clarence King's 40th Parallel Survey geologists. The interesting footnote to this story is that chrome diopsides and pyrope garnets, recognized by the 1970's as diamond indicator minerals, were recovered from ant hills along the Colorado-Wyoming border in the southwestern Green River Basin. Tom McCandless, the geologist who pursued these anthills, deserves recognition because he lost the use of both his legs prior to entering a geology program at the University of Utah. McCandless didn't let his disability prevent him from doing field work. During McCandless's search for diamond deposits in the area he and his colleagues stumbled on the remains of the diggings for the Great Diamond Hoax.
The historical information is fascinating but the main focus of Barren Lands is on Chuck Fipke's and Stew Blusson's efforts to find diamonds and a colorful tale it is. They looked all over the US and Canada, including the Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas. Some of their more hair-raising exploits occurred in the mountains of British Columbia and the Yukon in the early 1980s. They found many diatremes but no diamonds. Eventually they started working east from the Yukon crossing the Mackenzie River. They were looking at indicator minerals in glacial deposits and realized that the up-glacier direction was to the east. So they scoured the Geological Survey of Canada's maps and photos of the Barren Lands, the great expanse of country between the edge fo the tree line and the Arctic coast looking for indications of which way the ice moved of the glacial center west of Hudson Bay and found complicated, confusing data. This didn't stop them.
The tale of Fipke's exploits and his efforts to keep ahead of rivals, including De Beers, along with raising the money to hire air support, drills, and other crucial items in exploration reads something like a thriller. But this isn't fiction. Krajick spent time interviewing all the players and develops the story well through the opening of the Ekati Mine at Lac de Gras. It is the story of an exploration rush with all the characters, successes, failures, happy, and sad endings found in any such tale.
In summary, Barren Lands is a good read with many aspects of history, geography, and geology combining with the story of the people involved into an excellent story. Regardless of one's geologic specialty, stories of exploration, like stories of the dinosaur hunters, are fascinating. Barren Lands is a welcome addition to the genre.
Reviewed July 2002
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The Map that Changed the World:
William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
By Simon Winchester, 2001, Harper Collins, 329 p.
Review by David M. Abbott, Jr.
Denver, CO
William "Strata" Smith's name occurs in introductory geology books and his name, probably because of his nickname, is remembered by most geologists. But until reading Simon Winchester's The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the birth of modern geology, I failed to really appreciate the singular contributions that Smith made to geology. He not only "invented" stratigraphy, he single-handedly created the first modern geological map-of England, Wales, and part of Scotland no less. This is the map that changed the world.
Smith, the orphaned son of an Oxfordshire blacksmith, became a self-educated surveyor. His first "professional" job involved surveying coal mines near Bath where the miners soon taught him the local succession of rock layers containing the coals. The word "stratigraphy" used to describe such successions would not be used until several decades later. In fact, Smith appears to have been one of the first to use the term "stratification" in its geological sense and was the first to use "stratigraphical" in 1817. While miners had long learned to recognize the individual characteristics of each coal seam and of the various rock layers in which they were found, Smith was the first to recognize that fossils could be used to differentiate between, and thus correlate, similar looking layers of limestone, sandstone, and other sedimentary rocks.
The italicized part of the last sentence summarizes Smith's initial, radical, and fundamental insight for the foundation of modern geology. As Smith put it on January 5, 1796, "Fossils have long been studied as great curiosities, collected with great pains, treasured with great care and at great expense, and showed and admired with as much pleasure as a child's rattle or hobby-horse is shown and admired by himself and his playfellows, because it is pretty; and this has been done by thousands who have never paid the least regard to that wonderful order and regularity which Nature has disposed of these singular productions, and assigned each class to its particular stratum" (underline in the original). Today this insight is an accepted world-view and seems obvious, even to those taking Geology 101. After all, most of us learned about dinosaurs, extinctions, the evolution life forms, and such in second grade. At the end of the Eighteenth Century this was not obvious. Genesis described the creation of the earth and all living things thereon and that was that. Only a few independent thinkers were beginning to have heretical thoughts that the 6 days of creation might be metaphorical rather than literal. Even 10-15 years later, when George Bellas Greenough, the first Chairman and later President of the Geological Society of London, began his project to create the first "accredited" geological map of England (plagiarizing Smith's work-there is much more on this in the book), Greenough wanted to create the map free of all theoretical concepts like using fossils to distinguish one layer from another. Without using Smith's insight, Greenough was unable to get anywhere.
Smith's first stratigraphic "publication" was a chart, "The Order of the STRATA and their embedded ORGANIC REMAINS, in the vicinity of BATH, examined and proved prior to 1799." Copies of this stratigraphic column were distributed to friends and by them to others, and soon became known around the world to those who were interested. Also in 1799, Smith produced the first modern geologic map, which showed the geology around Bath, then the second city of England-remember your Jane Austin. Two years later, Smith prepared a "General Map of STRATA in England and Wales," which although an early sketch contains remarkable insight and accuracy. This map was the first draft of Smith's greatest undertaking and publication, the "Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata illustrated in the most descriptive names," which was finally published August 1, 1815. The hand colored map is over 8 feet by 6 feet in size. Compared with modern maps, it is remarkably accurate-the book contains a color plate with Smith's map and a modern map on opposite sides to prove the point. (The unusual dust jacket on the book folds out into a smaller scale copy of the map, so get the hard copy version.) This map was the map that changed the world. Unlike other maps of large regions, let along countries (even European ones), it was the sole work of Smith. Its creation was a truly remarkable achievement.
The title of Smith's great map hints at what Smith had been doing for much of the past 20 years, draining bogs, marshes, and fens (and building canals). Fired from an early position with a canal company near Bath, possibly over a conflict of interest involving his purchase of a house along a proposed canal route, Smith became a consultant, essentially the world's first consulting engineering geologist. His extensive travels around England on these commissions provided first the confirmation of Smith's hypothesis about the utility of fossils in identifying rocks and then the field work required to make the map. Appropriately, the Geological Society's William Smith Medal is given for applied geology.
There is a great deal more to the story. Smith's lack of business sense resulted in a term in debtor's prison not long after his map was published. Smith's humble birth and lack of formal education caused Greenough and other early members of the Geological Society of London to blackball him from membership and to plagiarize Smith's map in preparing their own version. Fortunately, like J. Harlan Bretz, Smith lived long enough to see such shunning reversed. Sir Roderick Murchison, Adam Sedgwick, William Buckland, and other true field geologists rose to power in the Geological Society and displaced the dilettante Greenough and his cronies. Smith was awarded the first Wollaston Medal by the Geological Society in 1831 and the Geological Society's geologic map of England and Wales was amended to acknowledge that it was based on Smith's great map. These aspects of the story, and many others, are well-told by Winchester, whose previous book, The Professor and the Madman, the story of the Oxford English Dictionary's creation, was a best seller.
Reviewed August 2001
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A River Running West:
the Life of John Wesley Powell
by Donald Worster, 2001, Oxford University Press, 673 p.
Review by David M. Abbott, Jr.
A River Running West is the first biography of John Wesley Powell in almost 50 years. The Wes Powell who emerges from the pages of this book is a towering figure in American science, a worthy successor to Thomas Jefferson by being both scientist himself but, more importantly, a supporter of others doing science. This picture of Powell emerges despite defects in the presentation of Powell's life. Donald Worster, the author, is the Hall Distinguished Professor of history at the University of Kansas and has written prize-winning history works. This book should not receive similar awards due to either poor writing or poor editing, or both.
Early in the book, the US Public Lands Survey is described. A township is incorrectly described as being 6 miles on a side containing a total of "16" sections of 1 square mile each. "16" is either a mathematical error or an editing error as there are 36 sections per township. One wonders what other, less obvious errors occur in the book. Likewise, the text fails to distinguish whether the bias expressed against Ferdinand V. Hayden, who name is usually associated with words like "incompetent," and Clarence King, who purported preference for the women of color to be found in Mexico is frequently mentioned. Powell may have held these biases, or they may be Worster's. It isn't clear. If the biases are Worster's, their introduction, particularly without making this clear is certainly not acceptable historical writing. If the biases were Powell's, then the references to these gentlemen's character defects should be quotations from Powell's writing.
Another technical failure of the book is the failure to give year dates to various events. The month and day are given where appropriate but seldom the year. The absence of year designations is particularly important because the book is not a linear description of Powell's life. Worster has chosen to highlight various aspects of Powell's life and career in different chapters, a logical form of organization. There are chapters on Powell's exploration of the Colorado River, on his service as Director of the US Geological Survey, on his interest in Native American ethnography, and his vision for development of the American West and the importance of water and irrigation in that development. This organization helps focus the importance of Powell's work and vision in each area. But because Powell's pursuit of these subjects overlapped chronologically, the need for chronological markers is vital and missing.
Despite these shortcomings, A River Running West is a fairly good read. As noted in the opening sentence, Powell emerges as Jefferson's successor in the supporting the development of science in America. Powell's individual contributions as a scientist were modest. His administration of the US Geological Survey formed the foundation of this very important scientific institution. He provided administrative support for those like G.K. Gilbert, O.C. Marsh, and S.F. Emmons, who became eminent scientists. Powell was particularly interested in its work in topographic mapping as the basis on which other scientific mapping and the understanding of water resources could be built. In establishing the Bureau of Ethnography, Powell essentially established the sciences of anthropology and cultural studies in the US. Powell's recognition of the vital importance of water for irrigation in the development of the West forms the beginnings of the science of hydrology along with the Water Resources Division of the US Geological Survey.
Some of Powell's stature emerging from the pages may reflect Worster's biased writing. However, there appears to be enough underlying facts to support Powell's contributions regardless of Worster's writing and even the detractions of Powell expressed by his opponents like Hayden and King, who wanted the US Geological Survey Directorship-King actually preceded Powell in the position, but didn't retain it long. Or like that expressed by Edward Drinker Cope, who believed that he rather than his famous rival, Yale's Othniel C. Marsh, deserved more government support, or Senator William M. Stewart of Nevada, who became one of Powell's harshest Congressional critics.
Powell's views of how science should proceed and the West be developed were not necessarily adopted. Nevertheless, he raised the questions with sufficient authority and with sufficient insight that they had to be considered. For example, Powell was first to recognize the importance of irrigation in Western development. He pushed topographic mapping because it revealed the character of river basins and the best places for reservoirs and the lands most suitable for irrigation. Powell believed that local groups ought to be formed of small farmers who would control the water in individual basins and build and control the reservoirs. Powell did not believe the government should be involved. The Bureau of Reclamation and its extensive systems of dams and irrigation projects came after Powell left the Geological Survey and didn't follow Powell's dream. It did follow Powell's recognition of the importance of irrigation in Western development.
Reviewed August, 2001
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The Gilded Dinosaur, the Fossil War between E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh and the Rise of American Science,
by Mark Jaffe, 2000, Crown Publishers, 424 p.
Reviewed by David Abbott
The subtitle, "the Fossil War between E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh and the Rise of American Science," accurately summarizes the contents of this book. The careers of Cope and Marsh and their vicious rivalry are the main focus of the book. But their interactions with other scientists of the day, Dana, Leidy, Aggassi, Hayden, King, Powell, and Osborne also are part of the story, including the founding and early life of the USGS. Cope's and Marsh's numerous collections provided a rich source of support for Darwin's then new ideas on evolution. The rivalry also produced a multiplicity of names and other points of confusion for future generations of paleontologists.
I was interested in the views of Cope, Marsh, and others, that dinosaurs were pretty active animals, much more so than the slow, lumbering, idiots that became gospel in the early Twentieth Century; a perception that was not replaced until the last 20 years or so. This is not a point Jaffe chooses to particularly dwell on, but the information and references are there for those who are nterested in pursuing the idea further.
As interesting as the subject matter is, towards the end of the book, I frankly was coming to the point of "enough is enough." This actually reflects most of their contemporaries view of the Cope-Marsh war as well. Two Colossal egos get to be too much, even though both were brilliant and dedicated. Nevertheless, if you are interested in the history of vertebrate paleontology, this book is worth reading. The secondary theme about the rise of American science and its interaction with politics in the Nineteenth Century is explored in sufficient depth to warrant reading the book.
Reviewed July, 2000
A Book Review by Skip Hobbs:
NOAH'S FLOOD
By William Ryan and Walter Pitman, 1998; Published by Touchstone Books; 319p.
This may be viewed as heresy in some quarters, but the biblical story of Noah's Flood in the Book of Genesis was plagiarized by the ancient Hebrews. The story was handed down as an oral and then written tradition by the Assyrians, long before Genesis. The flood, however,was a very real event.
In their book Noah's Flood, Columbia University Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory geoscientists William Ryan and Walter Pitman, provide an exhaustively researched scientific account of the flooding of the Black Sea around 5600 B.C. This cataclysmic event is identified as the biblical "flood". In the same manner that these two distinguished scientists have researched and published so many papers on sea floor spreading and continental drift, they have focused their energies on bringing together the geological, archeological, ethnological, linguistic, and religious evidence, that documents how the flood profoundly changed the course of human history.
Shallow-water seismic and sediment core data, together with geochronological evidence, confirm that the barrier between the Mediterranean and then fresh-water Black Sea, now the Bosporus Strait, was breached about 5600 B.C. Ryan and Pitman estimate that the elevation difference between the Mediterranean and Black Sea was about 500 feet, and that once the "dam" burst, as much as 10 cubic miles of water per day flowed in a cataclysmic torrent into the Black Sea Lake. This flow was 200 times greater than that of Niagara Falls, and raised the level of the lake by six inches per day.
Seismic data confirm the existence of a 400-foot deep gorge, now filled by sediment, which was carved into the bedrock beneath the Bosporus Strait. Sparker data further confirm the presence of a large fan delta where the Bosporus breaks out into the Black Sea. Subsea core data indicate that the black marine ooze with saline flora and fauna, that presently floors the Black Sea, abruptly overlies light gray Ice Age clays with fresh-water fauna. Oceanographer Bob Ballard, using a remote submersible, has recently discovered in hundreds of feet of water, submerged shorelines of the former fresh-water Black Sea Lake.
The authors document the human migrations of the Neolithic lakeside farming cultures caused by the abrupt flooding of the Blake Sea Lake. Proto-Indo-Europeans migrated up the Danube, Dneiper, and Don rivers; Semites and pre-Dynastic Egyptians crossed over the Anatolian Plateau into Mesopotamia, and along the Eastern Shore of the Mediterranean into the Levant and Egypt; others crossed the Caucasus into Asia. These migrations spread the "technology" of agriculture, new housing construction and pottery design to less advanced cultures.
Students of global climate change will love Noah's Flood. Ryan and Pitman provide geological and paleobotanical evidence that documents the significant climate changes of Asia Minor from the end of the last Ice Age to the present. Sea level in the Mediterranean and Black Sea were profoundly affected during periods of global cooling 12,500-11,400 ago (Younger Dryas) and during 6200-5800 B.C. Droughts during these periods forced human migrations, as evidenced by the abandonment of archeological sites. Many of these sites were then re-settled centuries later when warmer and more humid climatic conditions suitable for agriculture returned. It was during a humid period 7600 years ago that the Mediterranean sea level rose, and the Bosporus was breached.
In 1872 an Englishman named George Smith deciphered Assyrian cuneiform tablets at the British Museum that told a story very similar to that of Noah's flood in the Book of Genesis. Work by Smith and his mentor Henry Rawlinson, and others, resulted in the translation of the ancient Assyrian Myth of Atrahasis and the Legend of Gilgamesh. These oral legends, probably first recorded in the Third Millennium before Christ, tell the story of a devastating flood that Ryan and Pitman, very convincingly, tie to the Black Sea Crisis. The Israelites learned the flood story when they were held captive in Babylon.
I highly recommend Noah's Flood. It is so packed with geological, archeological and ethnological information, that reading it is like taking an advanced course in ancient Middle Eastern history. Ryan and Pitman write well. This is a "hard to put down" book. I found it to be absolutely fascinating.
Reviewed August, 2000