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Book review |
Reynolds Geo-Sciences Ltd, 2 Long Barn, Pistyll Farm, Nercwys, Mold, Flintshire, CH7 4EW, UK. e-mail: rgsl@geologyuk.com.
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At last! After over 2
years of being ‘about to be published’ Geophysics in engineering applications is finally available! Was it worth the wait? We shall see ...
The ‘Report’ (not ‘Book’) is the culmination of work from the Working Party on Engineering Geophysics from the Engineering Group of the Geological Society, who had produced the previous equivalent report (QJEG, 21(3):207–271, 1988), in conjunction with several authors commissioned by CIRIA. As tends to happen with publications produced by committee the standard is highly variable and ranges from the very basic to the advanced specialist, from good current thinking to being patently way out of date.
The Report is made up of eleven chapters of which the first describes what the report is, at whom it is aimed, and an explanation of its structure. Chapters 2 to 6 purport to explain geophysics as an investigative tool; procurement, management and reporting; the conceptual ground model; description of geophysical methods; and data acquisition, processing and presentation. Interpretation, arguably the most important facet of geophysics, is barely mentioned. Chapters 7 to 10 describe a variety of applications in geological, geotechnical, geo-environmental, and structural engineering investigations, respectively. The Report's scope includes land-based, over-water and borehole geophysics. The Report concludes (Chapter 11) with recommendations for good practice.
The best parts of the Report are the discussions on procurement of geophysical services (Chapter 3) that emphasize the use of an Engineering Geophysical Adviser and provide basic information about the contractual settings to produce the
