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Book review |
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The authors’ Preface states that Mud and Mudstone has been written for a broad audience. It has succeeded in reaching out across the many potential specialisms of geology, covering the production of mud, its presence within the environment (ancient and modern), and the practical implications of its characteristics.
A particularly useful touch has been the inclusion of a summary towards the end of each chapter, followed by a section covering the challenges (essentially a list of research themes for the future). The references have been supplemented by a brief bibliography with notes, enabling the reader to delve deeper into the subject. As such, the presentation should particularly appeal to research students.
The figures and illustrations are very clear. Indeed, the clarity of the monochrome photographs is excellent by comparison with many other recently published works having a similar market. This is all the more remarkable given the difficulty many of us have encountered when trying to photograph fine grained sediments! A particularly strong aspect is the clarity of the schematic cross sections, enabling the reader to quickly assimilate the character of the depositional basin under consideration. Although not reducing the appeal of the book, readers may wish to know that the majority of examples have been taken from North American situations.
Although this is a most interesting book for the student of mudstones, engineering geologists may find the attention paid to the civil engineering aspects somewhat limited. The industrial implications are restricted to one chapter (‘Practicalities’) wherein just one (9.6:
