Book review

摘要

Rarely does one find a book which truly examines in detail the subject of comparative planetology. This is just such a book. It investigates the planetary crusts of all bodies in the solar system, but specifically focuses on terrestrial planets. The book is structured such that the order in which these bodies are described corresponds to their crustal evolution. Thus, the Moon and Mercury, on which the bulk of crustal formation occurred soon after their formation, are the first bodies discussed, whereas the Earth with its plate tectonics is the last large body to be addressed.rnNaturally, since the authors deal with all planetary crusts in our solar system, the description of each is rather short and concentrates only on their main characteristics. The depth with which the authors tackle each planetary body is of course based on our current state of knowledge of these bodies. Thus, for example, the chapter on Venus is comparatively short while five chapters are dedicated to Earth alone. One particular drawback is that while controversies associated with different topics are mentioned they are not discussed in detail. This presumably is consistent with the authors' intention to provide a thorough survey of planetary crusts rather than a detailed description of a specific aspect. This drawback is, however, overcome by the fact that interested readers who wish to learn more about a certain topic, or even controversial issue, can find lots of references offering an excellent starting point to delve deeper into the specific subject.