List of important publications in geology

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This is a list of important publications in geology, organized by field.

Some reasons why a particular publication might be regarded as important:

• Topic creator – A publication that created a new topic
• Breakthrough – A publication that changed scientific knowledge significantly
• Influence – A publication which has significantly influenced the world or has had a massive impact on the teaching of geology.

Compilations of important publications can be found in Further reading.

Foundations

Hutton's Theory of the Earth was the first publication to clearly articulate the principle of deep time, and to recognize that rocks record the evidence of the past action of processes which still operate today. These ideas were to grow into the idea of Uniformitarianism. Hutton is widely regarded as the "Father of Modern Geology".

Hutton's book is widely regarded as unreadable, and may have remained obscure if not for this work by the brilliant prose stylist John Playfair.

The work's subtitle was "An Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface by Reference to Causes now in Operation", and this explains Lyell's impact on science: he was, along with the earlier John Playfair, the major advocate of the then-controversial idea of uniformitarianism, that the Earth was shaped entirely by slow-moving forces acting over a very long period of time. This was in contrast to catastrophism, a geologic idea that went hand-in-hand with the age of the Earth suggested by biblical chronology. In various revised editions (twelve in all, through 1872), Principles of Geology was the most influential geological work in the middle of the 19th century, and did much to put geology on a modern footing. Charles Darwin frequently acknowledged his deep debt to this book.

Economic geology

Descriptions of major ore deposits in USA. Updates the earlier Lindgren volume. A basic reference work for economic geologists

Geochemistry

A highly cited guide to the use of isotope geochemistry in solving geological problems, and the methods involved. Has been cited more than 3200 times. A second edition was published in 1986. A third edition, with Teresa M. Mensing, was published in 2005, under the title Isotopes: Principles and Applications.

Geochronology

The speech recorded by this volume of Transactions represents the final version of the theory of the age of the Earth which Thomson has been refining since 1862. In it, he proposed that the age of the Earth was "more than 20 and less than 40 million year old, and probably much nearer 20 than 40". His analysis was based on the time it would take the Earth to cool from a completely molten state, and his estimate was consistent with a number of other physical estimates from, amongst others, George Darwin, Hermann von Helmholtz, and Simon Newcomb. This strikingly young age put Thomson in direct conflict with both Uniformitarian geologists and evolutionary biologists, both of whose theories required much longer spans of time to take effect. This paradox of the age of the Earth was resolved only by fuller understanding of the roles of convection and radioactivity in the planet's interior in the early 20th century, and it required understanding of thermonuclear fusion in the Sun developed only in the 1930s to fully explain the stability of the whole solar system over multi-billion year timescales.

Geomorphology

In 1837, Agassiz was the first to scientifically propose that the Earth had been subject to a past ice age. This book lays out his theories in print. It represents his theories that vast areas of northern Europe had in the past been covered in ice, extending down to the Caspian and Mediterranean seas. The book represents the birth of the fields of glaciology and glacial geomorphology.

G. K. Gilbert lays the groundwork for many ideas in modern geomorphology, such as the diffusive profiles of hillslopes and the formation of pediments. In addition to its geomorphic significance, it is a description of the last major mountain range to be mapped by Europeans in the contiguous United States (the Henry Mountains being located in a remote part of Utah) and a description of its formation as a laccolith.

Laid the foundations of the scientific investigation of the transport of sand by wind.

Geophysics

A classic reference on the Earth's magnetic field and related topics in meteorology, solar and lunar physics, the aurora, techniques of spherical harmonic analysis and treatment of periodicities in geophysical data. Its comprehensive summaries made it the standard reference on geomagnetism and the ionosphere for at least 2 decades.

Mineralogy and petrology

De Natura Fossilium

Author: Georg Frederick Agricola, translated from Latin by Mark Chance Bandy and Jean Bandy

Year: 1564

Republished by the Geological Society of America

Description: Systematic treatise of then known minerals and gemstones as well as other rocks.

Importance: The first systematic mineralogical treatise since Pliny's Natural History.

URL: http://www.farlang.com/gemstones/agricola_textbook_of_mineralogy/page_001

The Evolution of the Igneous Rocks

Author: Norman L. Bowen

Year: 1928

Description:

Importance: Breakthrough, influence

Rock-Forming Minerals

Author: W. A. Deer, R. A. Howie and J. Zussman

Year: 1962–63; 1978- (2nd ed.)

Description: A 5 volume comprehensive treatise of the physical, chemical, mineralogical, petrological and optical properties of essentially all minerals with nontrivial abundances to be found in terrestrial rocks. Also presents information regarding common origins and associations of each mineral, as well as a practical commentary on how to distinguish each mineral from others which may appear similar. It is the complete work from which the much beloved, student-friendly version, An Introduction to the Rock-Forming Minerals by the same authors, is based.

Importance: Influence, advanced reference.

Metamorphic Phase Equilibria and Pressure-Temperature-Time Paths

Author: Frank S. Spear

Year: 1993

Description: Presents the thermodynamic basis for modern, quantitative petrology and systematically reviews metamorphism for most rock types. Popularly also known as the "big blue book".

Importance: Influence, advanced reference.

Petroleum geology

Original work on seismic sequence stratigraphy.

Plate tectonics

The Playbook of Metals

Author: John Henry Pepper

Year: 1861

Description: It was the first book to marshall considerable geological evidence that the continents are mobile relative to each other around the North Atlantic (mainly). It uses Evan Hopkins booklet (On the connection of geology with terrestrial magnetism, 1844), but adapts its data to a plutonist point-of-view.

Importance: Breakthrough

The Face of the Earth

Author: Eduard Suess

Year: 1883 - 1901

Description: Das Antlitz der Erde was the first book to show geological evidence that some continents were linked with each other: Suess set out his belief that across geologic time, the rise and fall of sea levels were mappable across the earth—that is, that the periods of ocean transgression and regression were correlateable from one continent to another. His theory was based upon glossopteris fern fossils occurring in South America, Africa, and India. His explanation was that the three lands were once connected in a supercontinent, which he named Gondwána-Land (nowadays usually written Gondwanaland). However Suess mistakenly believed that the oceans flooded the spaces currently between those lands.

Moreover, Suess expressed views in this book on the connection between Africa and Europe. Eventually, he concluded that the Alps to the north were once at the bottom of an ocean, of which the Mediterranean was a remnant. Suess was not correct in his analysis, which was predicated upon the notion of "contractionism"—the idea that the Earth is cooling down and, therefore, contracting. Nevertheless, he is credited with postulating the earlier existence of the Tethys Ocean, which he named in 1893.

Suess also introduced in this book the concept of the biosphere, which was later extended by Vladimir I. Vernadsky in 1926.

Importance: Breakthrough, Influence

The Origin of Continents and Oceans

Author: Alfred Wegener

Year: 1915

Description: Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane was the second book to marshall considerable geological evidence that the continents are mobile relative to each other on the surface of the Earth. His theory was based upon numerous matches between the topography, paleontology and past climate of continents now separated by oceans. At the time of publication his ideas were not taken seriously by most of the geological community as he could not provide a mechanism for continental motion, but his ideas form the foundations of the modern theory of plate tectonics.

Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence

Sedimentology and stratigraphy

First statement of three fundamental laws of geology: the law of superposition, the principle of original horizontality, and the principle of cross-cutting relationships.

The basis for the widely used folk classification for clastic and carbonate rocks

Structural geology

Began a whole school of structural geology that used the techniques of continuum mechanics to understand rock structures.

Paleontology

Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology

Founder/1st Editor: Raymond C. Moore

Geological Society of America/University of Kansas Press, 1953 onwards

Description: A definitive multi-authored work of some 50 volumes, written by more than 300 paleontologists, and still a work-in-progress. It covers every phylum, class, order, family, and genus of fossil and extant (still living) invertebrate animals.

Importance: Influence. A standard reference work in paleontology.

Seismology

Quantitative Seismology

Author: Keiiti Aki, Paul G. Richards Year: 1980

Description: Chapters outline basic theorems in dynamic elasticity, representation of seismic sources, elastic waves from a point dislocation, plane waves in homogeneous media and their reflection and transmission at a plane boundary, reflection and refraction of spherical waves; Lamb's problem, surface waves in a vertically heterogeneous medium, free oscillations of the Earth, body waves in media with depth-dependent properties, the seismic source: kinematics, the seismic source: dynamics, and principles of seismometry

Importance: This is the basic textbook used by theoretical seismologists

Weak elastic anisotropy

Author: Leon Thomsen

Geophysics, 51(10), 1954–1966, 1986

Description: In his paper, Thomsen defined a version of elastic anisotropy using transversely istoropic media that could be analyzed through the use of his Thomsen parameters. Importance: Influential. Most cited paper in the history of geophysics.

Tectonics

The Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting

Author: Christopher Scholz

2002, Cambridge University Press, 496 p.

Description: An influential review of fault properties, dynamics and growth, how they fail, and how this links to seismology. Highly cited (>2700 citations).

Importance: Influence

Some remarks on the development of sedimentary basins

Author: Dan McKenzie

1978, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 40(1), p. 25-32.

Description: The first paper to lay out the now widely accepted model for formation of sedimentary basins by tectonic stretching of the lithosphere (mechanical thinning), followed by lowering of the basin by the cooling of upwelled, hot asthenosphere at depth below it (isostatic deepening). Highly cited (>2200 citations).

Importance: Breakthrough, influence.

Volcanology

Letters of Pliny the Younger to the Historian Tacitus, 6th Book, Letter 16

Author: Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Pliny the Younger

Year: 79 CE

Description: This letter contains the first detailed description of a volcanic eruption in western culture – the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in what is now known as a plinian eruption in 79 CE.

Importance: Topic creator

URL: http://www.smatch-international.org/PlinyLetters.html

The 1980 Eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Washington

Author: Peter W. Lipman and Donal R. Mullineaux (editors)

USGS Professional Paper 1250, Washington D.C., 1981

Description: The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state, USA, allowed volcanologists to document first hand a large number of volcanic processes which hitherto had been only inferred. It spurred a revitalization of the whole discipline of volcanology. This anthology of papers was amongst the first to present new data gained during the eruption.

Importance: Breakthrough

See also

• Category:Geology books
• Mineral collecting
• List of mineralogists
• Geology
• Paleontology