Synopses & Reviews
Useful as both a self-instructional manual and a guide to the analysis of sediments in both the field and the laboratory, Analytical Sedimentology provides cookbook recipes for common analytical procedures dealing with sediments. It also serves as an introduction to the principles and reference sources for procedures that generally would be performed by specialist consultants or commercial laboratories. Using a minimum of mathematics and virtually no theory, the book introduces practitioners to easy, inexpensive options for sample collection and preparation, data acquisition, analytic protocols, result interpretation and verification techniques. This step-by-step guide considers the advantages and limitations of different procedures, discusses safety and troubleshooting, and explains the importance of such support skills as mapping, photography, and report writing. Designed as a supplemental text for students or as a reference manual for practitioners, Analytical Sedimentology will be an essential guide for students and professionals in the geosciences and environmental sciences. Readers will find Analytical Sedimentology a handy and regularly consulted reference, with a scope that ranges from fieldwork through laboratory analytical procedures to downhole geological techniques. Its practical orientation will make it particularly useful to geochemical laboratories, groups involved in environmental studies, and students. The companion volume by the same authors, Practical Sedimentology, Second Edition, gives an introduction and concise review of principles and interpretations related to sedimentary process, environments, and deposits, with an emphasis on applications over theory.
Review
...Highly useful, practical, and comprehensive. This book should be in every science library. - Choice.
Synopsis
The first edition of Practical Sedimentology contained dis- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS cussions of principles and techniques that could be applied to the analysis of sediments in the field and in laboratories sup- Colleagues at the University of Canterbury and the Univer- plied with inexpensive and commonly available equipment. sity of New England, Lismore, have helped with practical When considering a revised edition, we felt that it was inap- advice on their experiences with various methodologies dis- propriate to restrict consideration to the simple and common cussed in this volume. At the University of Canterbury, we techniques because so many modern analyses of sediments are particularly grateful to K. Swanson for advice on prepar- use sophisticated and often expensive equipment to examine ing materials for scanning electron microscopy and paleonto- sediments and sedimentary rocks. A review of the wide range logical specimens; to G. Coates (working at the university at of available techniques and equipment was not feasible in the the time of the first edition of Practical Sedimentology) for same volume as a review of principles. The original intent to compilation of, and additions to, the procedures for textural analysis and some tables and sketches; to Ted Montague for produce a concise summary of practical sediment studies in an inexpensive format was maintained, but now in the form the bulk of the chapter on borehole sedimentology; to Dr. J.
Table of Contents
Preface; Introduction: Safety considerations; Utilizing personal computers; Project design; Ethics; Selected bibliography; Aerial photography and maps: Aerial photographs and satellite imagery; Maps; Selected bibliography; Fieldwork: Field equipment; Field mapping; Photography; Base work--evenings and impossible weather; Chemical field analyses; Selected bibliography; Sampling: Sampling strategies; Sample collection; Sampling coal; Sample storage and transport; Peel samples; Selected bibliography; Sample treatment in the laboratory: Sample splitting; Water content and bulk density; Sediment disaggregation and dispersion; Removal of salts; Removal of sediment components by chemical means; Drying; Extraction of microfossils; Mounting loose grains for microscopy; Impregnation procedures; Embedding procedures; Thin-section preparation; Polished-section preparation; Pore stains; Streak prints; Acetate peels; Rock crushing and grinding; Preparation for chemical analysis; Liquid and plastic limits; Selected bibliography; Analysis of sedimentary structures: Enhancement of original structures; Collection of paleocurrent data; Collection of directional data for tectonic deformation; Evaluation of directional data; Presentation of results; Selected bibliography; Textures: Shapes; Methods for determining the size of detrital sediments; Treatment of size data; Texture of carbonate sediments; Grain surface textures; Fabric studies; Porosity and permeability; Selected bibliography; Mineralogy: Common rock-forming minerals of sand size; Optical microscopy; Cathodoluminescence; Reflected light microscopy; Coal microscopy; Heavy minerals; Electromagnetic separation; Miner's pan and superpanner; Mineral staining methods; Modal analysis of thin and polished sections and grain mounts; X-ray diffraction; Differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetric analysis; Infrared spectrophotometry; Raman spectroscopy; Mossbauer spectroscopy; Geological applications; Selected bibliography; Chemical composition: General considerations; Loss on ignition; Organic and inorganic carbon; Total sulfur; Total Kjeldahl nitrogen; Oils and grease; Ion chromatography; Electrochemical methods; X-ray fluorescence; Electron microprobe and EDAX; Atomic absorption; Flame photometry; ICP and ICP-MS; Spectrophotometry; Selected bibliography; Borehole sedimentology: The borehole environment; Lithological drilling logs; Geophysical logs; Correlation using geophysical logs; Selected bibliography.