The Oxford Companion to the Earth

"The Oxford Companion to the Earth" is one of the more recent titles to be published by Oxford University Press (copyright 2000). One of the defining characteristics of the "Companion" series is comprehensiveness and this volume is no exception. In 1,174 pages, closeto one thousand entries appear, from "Acid Rain" to "Zoogeomorphology." All the topics one would expect to find in an encyclopedia of the earth sciences are here: volcanoes, plate tectonics, earthquakes, glaciers, the weather and other such standard fare are represented. A pleasant surprise is the unanticipated subject matter, such as "Art and the Earth Sciences," "Geoscience and the Media" and "Wine and Geology." Think of it as a rounding up of the unusual suspects. This kind of inclusiveness is a double-edged sword. While many topics are touched on, many are given only superficial treatment. "History of Geochemistry," for example, is not particularly helpful, as it is litle more than an enumeration of dates and events, without any analysis or context. To be sure, this shortcoming is due partly out of necessity, as an in-depth discussion of every topic would result in an unwieldly tome. I found the longer articles more informative, such as "Mantle and Core Composition," which takes up better than four pages. On the whole, this book presents an overview of a particular topic, rather than an examination of it. While well illustrated,l the majority of visual material consists of line drawings. Photographs, what few there are, have been printed n black and white only and generally are quite small. One of the features of this series that I particularly like are the "extras" presented to the reader. In the case of "Earth," they include paleogeographic maps printed on the end papers and a number of appendices covering the gelogic times scales, comparatative data on the earth and other planets of the solar system, the periodic table of the elements and several pages of scientific units, conversion tables an abbreviations of scientific terms. All in all, I regard this as a worhty addition to the library of anyone who desires a "just the facts, ma'am" approach to topics in the earth sciences.