Encyclopedia of Geology, Five Volume Set (Encyclopedia of Geology Series) [Hardcover]

Richard C. Selley (Editor), Robin Cocks (Editor), Ian Plimer (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0126363803 | ISBN-13: 978-0126363807 | Publication Date: December 30, 2004 | Edition: 1

This unrivalled, five-volume reference work covers all aspects of geology including earth history, earth materials, surface processes, regional geology, economic geology, engineering geology, petroleum geology, geochemical and mineral exploration, and the history of geology. The techniques of remote sensing and other tools of investigation that have advanced rapidly over the last few decades are described in detail.

Encyclopedia of Geology is divided into 340 articles, each covering one aspect of geology. The concepts and theory are explained at a level that allows undergraduates and educated lay people to understand them. The reference has been planned and structured to provide the user with a comprehensive coverage of the core knowledge in each area. It will become the reference of choice for today's geologists and beyond.

Also available online via ScienceDirect - featuring extensive browsing, searching, and internal cross-referencing between articles in the work, plus dynamic linking to journal articles and abstract databases, making navigation flexible and easy. For more information, pricing options and availability visit www.info.sciencedirect.com.

*340 articles
*Over 2500 pages
*Full colour throughout
*Theory and applications of geology
*Extensive cross-referencing
*Further Reading lists accompany each article

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Not since the institution of encyclopedias such as the late 19th century British editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica have so many experts (some 320) collaborated to produce such an extensive and authoritative collection of essays (some 340)on every aspect of geology from Africa to weathering."
-Douglas Palmer, in GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

"...the editors, editorial advisory board, contributors and reviewers are to be congratulated and thanked for producing an amazing, user-friendly and extremely useful compilation of the information that relates to contemporary geology."
-GEOLOGY TODAY, VOL. 21, 2005

"...the high price is certainly not too high if many readers will have access to this work that, indeed, provides an excellent opportunity to learn 'a great deal about geology, both within and beyond [your] own specialities.' A must for geological libraries."
-A.J. van Loon, in EARTH SCIENCE REVIEWS 2006

"This is a scholarly, erudite and well-organised summary of the current status of the Earth Sciences in all its manifold parts...It is an achievement that should be acclaimed, and an enterprise that should be supported."
-PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH, VOLUME 145, ISSUES 3-4

"The three editors deserve praise indeed. They have done a superb job. Apparently, they laid out strict ground rules, and then assured that they were followed assiduously."
-Tomas Feininger, in THE CANADIAN MINERALOGIST

"Directed chiefly at the undergraduate level in geology, it is furthermore a useful tool for graduate students in other fields. No college or university with a program in Earth Sciences should be without Encyclopedia of Geology in its library."
-Tomas Feininger, in THE CANADIAN MINERALOGIST

"Where the price may be fairly high for private acquisition, it is certainly not too high for libraries. Librarians will find out that, as soon as people know about the presence of this work in an institute, too (?) many earth scientists will frequently want to use it. Stuff to become addicted to."
A.J. van Loon, JOURNAL OF SEDIMENTARY RESEARCH, 2005

"I have learnt a lot from reading selected subjects from these volumes, and often on subjects that I would not normally find myself reading. It is an achievement that should be acclaimed, and an enterprise that should be supported."
B. Windley, PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH, 2005

Over the past decade a number of print and online encylopedias have been published about the earth sciences. This title (currently in print but soon to be available online) focuses on geology rather than all the earth sciences.
Recommended. All levels.
C. Hebblethwaite, CHOICE, 2005

"The aim of this work is to provide an authoritative and comprehensive coverage of all aspects of geology, an objective that is most certainly achieved. ...this set is aimed at undergraduate and educated lay people - the audience as stated in the book are "academic libraries servicing earth and environmental science departments as well as industrial, government and public libraries, practising geologists, engineers and environmental scientists". I agree totally with this statement".
H. Ashton, Reference Reviews, 2005

Over the past decade a number of print and online encylopedias have been published about the earth sciences. This title (currently in print but soon to be available online) focuses on geology rather than all the earth sciences.
CHOICE, 2005

"This unrivaled, five-volume reference work covers all aspects of geology including earth history, earth materials, surface processes, regional geology, economic geology, engineering geology, petroleum geology, geochemical and mineral exploration, and the history of geology...The concepts and theory are explained at a level that allows undergraduates and educated laypeople to understand them. It will become the reference of choice for today's geologists and beyond."
-FIRST BREAK, April 2005

Book Description

An Authoritative Reference Work from Elsevier

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 2750 pages
• Publisher: Academic Press; 1 edition (December 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0126363803
• ISBN-13: 978-0126363807
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 9.7 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 28.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,159,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great , wonderful work of cooperation, February 6, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Encyclopedia of Geology, Five Volume Set (Encyclopedia of Geology Series) (Hardcover)

Back in 1970, I had a geology class given by a talented teacher; I then started to love that wonderful field for itself. Having now a work to do over the years to come, in which geology plays a significant part, I had the following choice for renewing and extending knowledge: buying this costly encyclopedia, or buying a book on tectonics, one on petrology... The second alternative would have been cheaper, but the encyclopedia gives a more rounded out view of the field, as relevant, and more importantly, as delocalized over the whole planet (this is no US-centered manual).
Geology has the privilege to peer deeply over our dual foundations:
-- physical, as the place we live on, has been shaped by a long, complex tectonic history, and as the rocks now present have been previously ejected, deposited, folded, metamorphosed, wheathered and perhaps re-deposited again...
-- biological, as life has unfolded from bacteria / cyanobacteria, all the way up to flowering plants and primates.
Geologists are admirably keen observers of natural evidences: this is exemplified on each page. They seek to integrate together the many dimensions of space, as they intercross with the multitude of temporal cycles concerning the 3 kingdoms in nature: mineral, vegetal, and animal (and now human as well). Therefore as physical, chemical, biological, and let us say also, geographical (even astronomical) processes are together at play, only a work of such wide inclusiveness and expertise as this encyclopedia can propose and give the proper food, to our astonished mind, in learning to build such a synthetic picture.
Of course the pursuit of such a vision demands quite a lot of work on our part, and the 5 volumes get moved quite a lot on more than one table! In this the comprehensive, detailed index of the 5th volume is invaluable: no geological dictionary that I know of, gives references to all the main tectonic formations of the world, and this can otherwise be quite painful for the non-professional. These names, that thus also refer to geographical locations, have an invaluable presence in this index.
In a future edition:
* the beautiful geological maps (mostly in color) of the continental (or national in some cases) configurations would definitely be heightened in value by showing on their margins, at no greater cost it seems, the rough locations of latitudes and longitudes, so that we may spontaneously use a geographical atlas for comparison with more accuracy.
* In mineralogy, it is simply a shame that the chart of the 32 three dimensional crystallographic point groups of symmetry is not displayed: this indeed depicts -excluding the exceptional chemicals capable of been built into crystals, while inhering the 5-fold symmetry-- the mathematical foundation upon which all minerals are ideally being structured into an absolute spatial order... The mineral kingdom is the only one for which such an essential order has been discovered, one that is shared by nearly all minerals on earth (and at least partly beyond).
With these books, I will marvel for the rest of my life....