Practical Handbook of Earth Science

摘要

When I first became involved in science, the reference book one went for was the Rubber Book or to give it the correct name the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. This was first published by the Chemical Rubber Company in 1913 (Veazey and Hodgman, 1913). From this have come the CRC Press and a vast range of scientific handbooks and textbooks. This appears to be their first, specifically, earth science title, although they have a long list in environmental science. The scope of this book is wider than I expected. It starts with a very full account of SI units and constants, which is useful in its own right. The handbook then starts with elements, their abundance and radioactivity. Then the solar system is considered. This is followed by global geophysics. The main parts of the earth from core to crust, water, both salt and fresh and the atmosphere follow. Restless earth covers tectonics, earthquakes and volcanism and geological time. Rocks and minerals are then described. The last section is on natural resources. The various sections consist of text explaining particular issues, topics and occurrences. There are lot of tables of data. (This is where I had a problem; the tables have a grey background which makes them difficult to read in poor light, and in the interest of fuel conservation, many of the places I sit to read are poorly lit). To help with using the book, some acronyms and abbreviations are listed and a Greek alphabet provided. There is a bibliography and a good index.