Product Description

Warmly praised in its first edition, particularly for its careful balance between geology and geophysics, Global Tectonics is an even better textbook in its second edition.

Responding to reviews, comments from instructors and developments in the subject, the authors have significantly extended the book′s breadth and restructured some sections. Expanded sections include those on the formation of oceanic crust, the variety of passive continental margins and the nature of convection in the mantle, and a new chapter draws together the material on continental rifts and sedimentary basins.

• Written by very eminent authors. Fred Vine was one of the pioneers of plate tectonic theory.
  
• Careful balance between geology and geophysics.
  
• New section of full colour plates.
  
• Addition of a new chapter drawing together the coverage of continental rifts and sedimentary basins.
  
• Expanded coverage, particularly of deep seismic reflection, hot spots and petrogenesis.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #291225 in Books
• Published on: 1996-07-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 333 pages

Review
"...Global Tectonics is a fine book. It is excellent as a text for courses, as an overview for graduate students preparing for qualifier or preliminary exams, and as a review for active researchers. In short, it should be on every geoscientist′s bookshelf". Journal of Geological Education

From the Back Cover
It is no exaggeration to say that the theory of plate tectonics, developed in the 1960′s revolutionized the earth sciences. Its effects are still reverberating. In its first edition Kearey and Vine′s Global Tectonics gained an excellent reputation, reflected in reviews and sales, for providing a modern, up–to–date account of this pivotal subject at a level ideal for students majoring in geology. The authors strike the right balance between geology and geophysics. Basic concepts are emphasized but trends in modern research, and outstanding questions are highlighted

Customer Reviews

Seems somewhat dated in 2001. Hard to read.
This is one book given in a long preparatory reading list provided by the Open University for a course on "The Earth's Interior".
This is the 5th of the list which I have read. It has been the least readable. It muddles cause and effect. It jumps between sections of a subject without good signposting. It states categorically that full information can be found about a subject in a twenty-year-old paper. It often makes annoying statements that the research results affect geological processes, when it should say that the research affects the interpretation of geological processes.
There are a few topics in this book in which the explanations are better than in other books of similar topics.
It has been a most disappointing read, when I had expected that it would have been much more enlightening and clearer.
It is described as a "second edition", but is not as up-to-date as would be expected for a subject area in which there has been so much recent progress.