edited by Peter Doyle and Matthew R. Bennett, 1998. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0 471 97463 3. Price: £24.95 (paperback). viii + 532 pp.

I wish they had had books like this when I was an undergraduate (mind you, I wish they had had sequence stratigraphy then too!). A lot has changed in stratigraphy in the 20+ years since I graduated, and this volume is a useful compendium of many of these changes. The editors describe the volume as not so much an introduction to the subject, but rather as an exploration of “the advanced tools with which to order and interpret the stratigraphical record”. The volume comprises eighteen chapter written by twenty contributors, acknowledged experts in their specialities. After the Introduction, the chapters are divided into two parts: “Establishing the Sequence” (twelve chapters) and “Interpreting the Record” (five chapters). Part I covers the topics of lithostratigraphy, remote sensing, complex tectonic areas, evolutionary concepts, event stratigraphy, cyclostratigraphy, isotope stratigraphy, subsurface logging, seismic stratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, geochemistry and chronostratigraphy. Part II comprises facies analysis, sea levels, palaeoenvironments, palaeoclimates and orogenic belts. The construction of the book, and the examples used, betray the academic background of most contributors. This is entirely appropriate for the undergraduate market, but don’t expect to find many petroleum exploration and development case histories. I get the impression that this is a volume to dip into if you want to know something about remote sensing, for example. Some of the chapters are too wordy for my liking, and the use of more diagrams would have been helpful; I’m not quite sure how well the chapters on complex tectonic areas and interpreting orogenic belts fit in. From a personal perspective, I would have liked to see more on biostratigraphical techniques (in addition to evolutionary concepts), as well as a chapter on industrial applications. But the most glaring omission is quantitative stratigraphy in general and graphic correlation in particular (very important arenas in modern stratigraphical studies). There is a useful index at the back, but you wont find “micropalaeontology” listed, which tells you something. In summary, the volume reflects a broadly academic approach to advances in modern stratigraphy, and it’s admirable in this respect. There’s not much directly relevant to the industrial micropalaeontologist, but you may get some ideas from a few chapters. However, if you want to brush up on event stratigraphy, for example, then this would be as good a place as any to start. At £24.95, the paperback version looks like very good value.

James Powell
Dinosystems, UK