Re: Phanerozoic Geology, or, Where's the Sequel?
From: Joe Bernstein (joe_at_sfbooks.com)
Date: 08/05/04
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Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 19:56:10 +0000 (UTC)
In article <T0iQc.1426$zJ4.274@bignews1.bellsouth.net>, George
<George@george.net> wrote:
> "Joe Bernstein" <joe@sfbooks.com> wrote in message
> news:cervgm$9g4$1@reader1.panix.com...
> > I'm trying to research the history of the continents and life
> > thereon for a moderately, well, trivial purpose. So I'm trying
> > to pick up some geology, but without spending months on it.
> >
> > Alan Goodwin's <Precambrian Geology> appears to be a wonderful
> > book, full of detailed information about its title subject everywhere
> > in the world, and with summaries of that information at several
> > different levels of sophistication, so that one can, as best I
> > can tell, just dip into it as much as one needs and walk away
> > happy. I say "as best I can tell" because I did observe that I
> > would need some vocabulary to read it, and so have been reading
> > a physical geology textbook prior to starting.
> >
> > Anyway, now I'm spoiled. If the Archean and Proterozoic can be
> > so comprehensively and handsomely treated, surely the Phanerozoic
> > can too? But if it can, I don't know where it *is* so treated.
> > Should I go hunting for <Phanerozoic Geology of the World> at some
> > other library, because there really are summaries in the B volumes?
> > Are there less one-continent-obsessed historical geology books in
> > the world? Am I just *stuck* with <Phanerozoic Geology of the
> > World> because nobody has *ever* done anything better since plate
> > tectonics won? (And if so, what do I do about the Cenozoic, whose
> > volumes are apparently unpublished?) Is there some other option?
It is now clear to me that I should clarify my purpose, and why
Goodwin looks ideal for that purpose, but historical geology texts
don't.
I'm trying to write "a short history of visible life on land",
including (hence Goodwin) a prologue on "life and land before they
met". (At risk of over-indulging the speculative, I'm using the
Schopf biosphere volumes to cover the "life" half of the prologue.)
I'm trying to get various information, especially chronological
information, as responsibly right as I can without spending years
on the task; I am, for example, deeply disappointed at the
chronological slapdashness I've already found in volume 1 of
<Atlas of the Evolving Earth> (volume by Richard T. J. Moody and
Andrey Yu. Zhuravlev) on the Archean.
Hence I've chosen a largely chronological approach, and this means
*I need dates*. I want to know what happened when, and in more
detail than "these two continents collided during the Early
Devonian". In addition, it will be extremely helpful for my
purposes if I can trace the wheres, so that (in particular) I
can relate fossils of particular periods not just to their modern
locations, but to the landmasses that actually existed at those
periods. I'm particularly concerned about this for post-Pangaean
times, which is one reason I need a reference or references about
the Cenozoic.
Basically, Goodwin's level of detail is helpful to me not because
I consider it likely that I need to read *all* of it (though for
more recent periods I might), but because summaries almost
invariably omit or soften the kind of nitty-gritty detail I'm
looking for.
It will perhaps be helpful to know that for the palaeontological
side of my work, one of the worst difficulties I'm seeing is the
lack of <Treatise of Invertebrate Palaeontology> volume J, which
would have covered three of the four extant monophyletic groupings
of land snails.
I admit I'm not a geologist, and I admit I'm fairly ignorant, but
nevertheless, I'm not looking for elementary sources. They
*consistently* lack what I want.
If anyone cares, my reasons for writing what I'm writing are two:
1) I had intended to do a more comprehensive "history of nature"
as a children's book, as my second book out of maybe three I'll
have time to do in my life. What <Treatise>, on arachnids
especially, showed me was that much of my intent was hopeless,
that the kind of distorted treatment of the fossil record typical
in children's and general-interest palaeontology book is not due
solely to teleological stupidity, but also to real holes in the
record. I'm now writing, largely for my own satisfaction, what
strikes me as most interesting and doable of the larger, abandoned,
goal.
1a) The book in question was meant to be dedicated to my mother,
who died just over a month ago. To some extent, I'm doing this
in her memory.
2) A friend of mine has asked for my help doing historical and
palaeontological research to provide him a basis for inventing
changes in said history and palaeontology, toward the larger goal
of a setting for a role-playing game. This is the "frivolous"
aspect of my purpose: not simply that there's a connection to
a game, but that my only confirmed reader is using what I'm
writing for nothing more. This is also why I'm doing this right
*now*, interrupting my work on book #1 (though Mom's death also
has something to do with that).
I'll throw my treatment of the Hadean (which I'm calling an eon in
defiance of the ICS) onto my website today, which may clarify things
further.
> Try these references, and see if they are what you are looking for.
I have written a detailed set of questions about these references,
but did not want to post them churlishly without first explaining
why I had them.
The list you wrote includes, for example, an item about three billion
years of evolution in which no life forms had hard shells. Aside from
the issue of acritarchs, I don't see how those three billion years can
include more than a token sliver of the Cambrian, and I have real
doubts even about that sliver. (Weren't there already trilobites when
the Cambrian began?) So I infer from that item that you did not screen
your standard reference list to list only items that focus on the
Phanerozoic, or that at least cover the whole Phanerozoic.
Similarly, the list includes *numerous* items whose titles indicate
that they focus on the history of life; so I'm wondering if you
screened the list to include only items that have substantial
information on the history of the Earth's crust.
The list includes several items that you describe as lecture notes.
It is not clear to me that lecture notes are likely to offer detail
anywhere near what Goodwin offers; I'd appreciate it if you could
note cases where they do (though in those cases, I pity the
lecturees...).
The list you wrote at least *appears* to consist overwhelmingly
of websites. However, at least the version presented to me by
my text-only browser (trn v. 4) offered no URLs. If this is because
you prefer to encourage those you help to learn to use search
engines, OK, but I'm wondering if something important got lost
in transmission instead.
Also, it's not clear to me that websites even *exist* with the
kind of every-continent information I'm after. Such sites didn't
turn up in my casual searching. Admittedly, checking a lot of
websites is much quicker than requesting a lot of books from
inter-library loan, but still, I'm wondering how productively
the time would be spent.
Finally, the list includes several titles in German, in encodings
that render poorly in trn 4. In at least one case, the result was
that I couldn't read the main words in the title at all.
I do intend to consult some if not all of these references based
on what you say, but at this point, I consider them lower priorities
than the references other answers provided. And yet you clearly
have more comprehensive bibliographic resources than the other
replies indicated, and I did not want to put your work to waste,
when perhaps if I asked for clarification all would be explained?
Thanks.
Joe Bernstein
-- Joe Bernstein, bookseller and writer joe@sfbooks.com <http://www.panix.com/~josephb/>
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