Global Tectonics » (33rd Edition)

Phil Kearey was Senior Lecturer in Applied Geophysics in the Department of Earth Sciences at Bristol University, U.K. prior to his premature death in 2003. In his research he used various types of geophysical data, but gravity and magnetic data in particular, to elucidate crustal structure in the eastern Caribbean, Canadian shield and southern England.

Keith Klepeis is a Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Vermont, U.S.A. He specializes in the areas of structural geology and continental tectonics and has worked extensively on the evolution of orogenic belts and fault systems in New Zealand, Patagonia, West Antarctica, Australia, British Columbia and southeast Alaska.

Fred Vine is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and has received numerous awards for work on the interpretation of oceanic magnetic anomalies and ophiolites, fragments of oceanic crust thrust up on land, in terms of sea floor spreading.

The third edition of this widely acclaimed textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of global tectonics. Revisions to this new edition reflect the most significant recent advances in the field, providing a thorough, accessible, and up-to-date text. Combining a historical approach with process science, Global Tectonics provides a careful balance between geological and geophysical material in both continental and oceanic regimes.

New and expanded chapters in this third edition include Precambrian tectonics and the supercontinent cycle; mantle processes, including mantle plumes; the implications of plate tectonics for environmental change; large igneous provinces; rifted continental margins; ocean ridges; continental transforms; subduction zones; and numerous orogenic examples.

Written in an engaging style, this important text is an essential reference for undergraduates and graduate students who have a basic introduction in the geosciences.

1 Historical perspective

2 The interior of the Earth

3 Continental drift

4 Sea floor spreading and transform faults

5 The framework of plate tectonics

6 Ocean ridges

7 Continental rifts and rifted margins

8 Continental transforms and strike-slip faults

9 Subduction zones

10 Orogenic belts

11 Precambrian tectonics and the supercontinent cycle

12 The mechanism of plate tectonics

13 Implications of plate tectonics

Review questions

References

Index

Color plates appear between pages 244 and 245