Customer Reviews

Folding and Fracturing of Rocks (International Series in the Earth and Planetary Sciences)

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This is a reprint of the 1967 volume that effectively changed Structural Geology from a purely (almost) descriptive science to an analytical science. Ramsey introduced into the geology mainstream concepts and techniques that had been previously found to be necessary in analysis of deformed materials in the fields of metallurgy and engineering, but which had not made it into the textbooks of structural geology and hardly into the literature. Prior to Ramsey's research, much of which was summarized in that effort, few studies had been undertaken with sufficient attention to detail and quality/quantity of measurements. (A notable exception in America is the study of deformed oolites in the Appalachians by Earnst Cloos, a study to which all students of structural geology should be exposed.)

Ramsey begins with discussion of stress and strain via the respective tensors. From these he derives the stress and strain ellipsoids, concepts that have baffled generations of geology students. He then proceeds systematically to demonstrate how to use these concepts to determine the strains recorded in the rocks.

In the mid 1970's I found this book to be ideal for a graduate level course in which the emphasis was the measurement of strain in deformed rocks. The biggest problem I encountered there was student weakness in mathematics. However, when they saw how the general stress and strain tensors (nine components) can be resolved to three components by a rotation of the reference axes students joyfully embraced the formerly "difficult" ellipsoids. I have been a fan of that book since. Now, after a hiatus of three decades I again find myself teaching structural geology. Hence the necessity for my purchase of this replacement for my unlocatable original copy.

If you are familiar with the original printing you'll probably already have a copy. For graduate students in structural geology this is a "must-have" book. The book is, as I indicated above, suitable for a graduate course. However, in my opinion it is not the best choice for an introductory undergraduate course. But teachers of undergraduate courses should have a copy within easy reach.

Ramsey has published three volumes of a sequence that is the obvious update to this volume. These are titled "The Techniques of Modern Structural Geology Volume 1: Strain Analysis", "..... Volume 2 Folds and Fractures", and "... Volume 3: Application of Continuum Mechanics in Structural Geology". Unfortunately these appear to all be out of print and all to be rather expensive. Only the first of these three volumes has an Amazon review, and that only one. I'm saving my pennies and will buy copies of all three because I know the quality of the product without having to see it. However, unless you are already deeply enmeshed in study of deformed rocks or computer modeling of the deformation processes you'll probably find your needs satisfied by this reprint of the 1967 book.

DISCLAIMER - I met John Ramsey in the early 1970's and was privileged to spend a semester working with and being instructed by him. I had previously taken three different courses in structural geology from three different professors at three different universities. All of these courses were, and still are in my mind, excellent; but it was John Ramsey who showed me how to extract the most information from the deformed rocks.