Book Reviews /Sedimentary Geology 106 (I 996) 299-304
described in terms of the history of research, lithos-
tratigraphy, geological setting and the GCR sites
covered. These sites are then described in detail.
Most of the areas have an accompanying geologi-
cal map or outcrop map and stratigraphic section,
and many of the individual sites within these ar-
eas are illustrated by sections and black and white
photographs. However, maps of individual sites are
few and the quality of photographic reproduction is
variable. Several of the sections included need more
information on them if they are to be really useful
and not simply a waste of space. It seems point-
less to include a section taking up half a page of a
large A4 format book like this, showing interbedded
sandstone-mudstone couplets with no other useful
information on it whatsoever! It would also have
been helpful to the reader if the sites had been
located on the area geological/outcrop map at the
beginning of each chapter, or alternatively include a
general locality map of all the sites within a specific
area. A further disappointment is the inclusion of
only three depositional models to illustrate parts of
the text, especially as many non-specialists would
probably find such diagrams particularly useful.
The publication date on the book is 1996, yet only
8 out of 819 references cited (apart from those of the
authors) are later than 1990, and as a result parts of
it are out of date, including some of the photographs
and diagrams. The chapter on Northern England,
for example, includes two photographs: one of Crag
Point (called Hartley Cliff) and another of Charley’s
Garden Sandstone. A large part of Crag Point is
now obscured by a major rock fall that occurred
more than seven years ago and one of Charley’s
Garden Sandstone stacks has long since disappeared
into the sea, and bears no resemblance to what
the book shows! This lack of up to date material
is similarly reflected in the accompanying text and
some of the correlations which is a pity because
the book contains some useful information for the
specialist and non-specialist alike. I was particularly
interested to read how little work has been done on
some of the sections described in the book, such as
the Newbiggin section in Northumberland and the
Inninmore Bay section in West Scotland, and the
potential that these areas offer for research.
Britain has some of the best exposures of Up-
per Carboniferous rocks in Europe, and a review of
301
localities of special scientific interest is to be wel-
comed. The book is well organised and written in
a clear and concise style, but it does have a few
minor typographic errors. Despite my reservations
about the book I am sure it will prove useful to
all those interested in Upper Carboniferous rocks in
Great Britain. Unfortunately my review copy did not
include the price of the book, but on enquiring I was
quoted a price by my local bookshop of about & 89.
This is far too expensive for a book of this kind and
at this price I doubt whether very many individual
copies will be sold.
B.R. TURNER(Durham)
PZZ SOO37-0738(96)00026-7
Tectonics of Sedimentary Basins. Cathy J. Busby
and Raymond V. Ingersoll (Editors). Blackwell
Science, Oxford, U.K., 1995, 579 pp., E49.50,
ISBN O-86542-245- 1.
Sedimentary basins are largely a consequence of
the processes peculiar to tectonic plates. As such,
they reflect the full gamut of possibilities that may
occur there, difficult as many of these are to in-
terpret. By their nature, some plate boundaries are
constructive, while others are highly destructive and
enormously under-represented in the ancient record.
Stratigraphy is also biased towards those settings
which favour preservation. Sedimentary basins of
various types may be linked tectonically on a re-
gional scale, and may change from one basin type
to another as stress fields evolve. They are com-
plex, and frequently composite depositories in which
the stratigraphy and its intervening unconformities
record the dynamics of basin evolution. Basin mod-
els and their tectonic framework are characterised
by different structural styles and various scales of
sedimentological response to subsidence and defor-
mation. It is an interdisciplinary science.
There are various ways in which sedimentary
basins may be classified (e.g. Dickinson, Klemme,
Bally and Snelson . ..). each serving a particular need.
The present book is structured round the Dickinson
scheme as modified by Ingersoll. Tectonics of Sed-
imentary Basins is a collection of 13 papers which
systematically address the various types of sedimen-
302 Book Reviews /Sedimentary
tat-y basins. Approximately one third of the book is
devoted to those basin types spanning the trench to
backarc spectrum. The style of presentation varies
between those papers which largely synthesise their
subject, sometimes overemphasizing classification,
and others which attempt to make a new contribu-
tion. Theoretical models of basin formation are gen-
erally given fairly short shrift, but this does not de-
tract from the book. In fact, quantitative models are
really only well established for extensional-passive
margin basins and foreland basins. (Modellers tend
not to acknowledge that other basin types exist.)
An introductory chapter serves as a general
overview and fills some of the gaps in succeed-
ing papers. This is a comprehensive review of basins
and basin-forming processes. They introduce a use-
ful new concept or basin type, namely that of the
‘dormant ocean basin’ such as the Gulf of Mexico,
the Black Sea, and South Caspian. It is a concept
that deserves further research because many dormant
ocean basins are associated with vast accumulations
of petroleum. Aulacogens and successor basins are
two basin types which would have benefitted from
critical analysis. ‘Aulacogen’ has probably outlived
its usefulness as a separate basin type, and is too
often used as a repository for interpretations which
are less secure. The Mesozoic rifts of Argentina and
South Africa (Chapter 2) are not aulacogens! ‘Suc-
cessor’ is a useful word that has been given a very
restrictive meaning. There are many of us who would
like to use this word to describe those basins which
evolve from a precursor by structural reactivation,
such as the evolution from Mesozoic rift to Ter-
tiary tilt-block basin in northwestern Argentina. ‘In
a sense, all basins are successor basins because they
form following some erogenic or taphrogenic event
represented in the basement of the basin’ (p. 50).
The three chapters covering extensional basins
and post-rift passive margins complement each other
well, from the global approach to fossil rifts, a
conventional discussion of continental rifts, and a
model-driven account of continental terraces. The
discussion on ‘passive’ and ‘active’ rifting and their
descriptions in terms of closed and open systems
needed review. However, I am less than enthusias-
tic about distinguishing between ‘rift’ and ‘graben’
depending on whether or not a particular feature pen-
etrates the lithosphere. This definition just does not
Geology 106 (1996) 299-304
work, even for areas where deep reflection seismic
should make a difference.
Four chapters cover the arc-trench system. They
are well presented and informative. The paper on in-
terarc and backarc basins is a welcome contribution
because these basins are so little understood, and
not well synthesized in the literature. Likewise, the
account of retroarc foreland basins is a refreshing
synthesis, although overlapping somewhat with the
discussion of collision-related foreland basins. Like
passive margins, the fills of these foreland basins
lend themselves to sequence-stratigraphic interpre-
tation. A provocative use of sequence stratigraphy
would have benefitted other basin accounts as well,
because stratigraphic sequences and their bounding
unconformities should retain the essential tectonic
record of the basin, besides allowing one to compare
a tectonically linked suite of basins.
Strike-slip or pull-apart basins are complex and
generally composite in form. Chapter 12 reviews
this collection of basins in terms of fault-bend,
stepover, transrotational, transpressional, polyge-
netic, and polyhistory origins. However they are
pigeon-holed, strike-slip basins are an important cat-
egory and may coexist along strike with either com-
pressional or extensional basins. Many strike-slip
basins will alternate between strike slip and regional
extension, say, depending on the interaction between
structural fabrics and prevailing stress fields. The
authors have presented a good description of these
basins, although more space could perhaps have been
devoted to the consequences of rapid subsidence on
sediment accumulation. For example, some strike-
slip basins have conspicuous shale diapiric structures
associated with their principal displacement zones
(e.g. East Venezuela basin, South Caspian, etc.).
I had thought of starting this review with the final
chapter on intracratonic basins because the author
highlights so well a common failing in basin inter-
pretation: viz., if we don’t understand it, attribute it
to something else intangible, rather like Dobzhan-
sky’s ‘Gods of the Gaps’. Eleven hypotheses have
been proposed for the formation of intracratonic
basins, such as ‘increase in density of the crust by an
eclogite phase transformation, . . . rifting associated
with impingement of a thermal plume at the base
of the lithosphere’, etc. This paper presents an ob-
jective and new analysis of intracratonic basins and
 Book Reviews/Sedimenmy
presents a more tangible explanation of their origin
than is generally encountered. This may not be the
final word, but it is a worthwhile contribution.
In conversation with Raymond Ingersoll, I learnt
that Tectonics of Sedimentary Basins represents a six
year effort. It was conceived by field-oriented geol-
ogists to fill an obvious void in the literature, and is
meant to complement treatments such as Basin Anal-
ysis by Allen and Allen (1990) which addresses sub-
sidence mechanisms and quantitative models more
thoroughly. It is written as an advanced level text for
universities, for structural geologists, and for anyone
who is interested. I believe that Cathy Busby and
Raymond Ingersoll have succeeded in their endeav-
our. This is an authoritative collection of papers!
What would I have done differently? As most basin
analysis is based on subsurface work, I would have
made more extensive use of reflection seismic to
show the structural styles and stratigraphic patterns,
have attempted a rigorous integration of sequence
stratigraphy in a basin/tectonic sense, and, perhaps,
indulged in a more comprehensive discussion of
the habitats of minerals and hydrocarbons. Tecton-
ics of Sedimentary Basins is a worthwhile book and
achieves its goals.
A. TANKARD (Calgary, Alta.)
PZZ SOO37-0738(96)00004-S
Backarc Basins, Tectonics and Magmatism. B. Taylor
(Editor). Plenum Press, New York, U.S.A., 1995,
xiii + 524 pp., $ 95.00 (hardcover), ISBN 0-306-
44937-4.
Backarc basins are located behind the convergent
zones of the major oceanic plates, and are associated
with an arc-trench system. Yet, they are surprisingly
the location of extensive stresses, linear structural
features, yielding a thin oceanic crust and associ-
ated magmatism, recent magnetic anomalies, high
heat flow, and sometimes hydrothermal occurrences.
Most of them are at present actively spreading.
This book, 524 pages, is focused on backarc tec-
tonism and volcanism, and reviews the main knowl-
edge that has been accumulated over the last ten years.
Fourteen articles describe the geology of marginal
basins in the light of the most recent technical devel-
Geology 106 (1996) 299-304 303
opments with a multidisciplinary approach, including
geomorphology, geophysics, mineralogy, geochemi-
cal data and hydrothermal occurrences through the
backarc context.
Original data are presented through tables (es-
pecially for the New Hebrides trough) and in high
quality figures. Colour bathymetric maps clearly re-
veal the particular bathymetric crescent-shaped and
the intra-arc position of the marginal basins (e.g.
Mariana, Lau basin, Okinawa trough, Scotia Sea,
etc.), sometimes accompanied by structural schemes
and tectonic models. Most of the articles are highly
documented with a structural study (bathymetry,
magnetic anomalies, heat flow, hydrothermal occur-
rences, seismic reflexion and side scan mapping),
and a geochemical approach (major and trace ele-
ments, isotopes).
Some backarc basins are young, with a charac-
teristic stage of rifting. For instance, the Taupo-
Hikurangi system (New Zealand), a rare backarc
basin that is not covered by the ocean, has been
rapidly opening since around 2 m.y. The New He-
brides trough, the Bransfield strait as well as the
Okinawa trough also represent the very first stage of
crustal extension. The geochemical composition of
the lavas of these young backarc basins are complex,
usually close to those of island arc lavas. A com-
mon feature is the presence of a slightly subducted
component contamination.
Some other backarc basins are slightly older. This
is the case of the Havre-Lau basin complex, whose
tectonic evolution may be defined either as a rifting
stage or a recent stage of crustal extension, depend-
ing on the location of the studied area. Geochemical
characteristics of their lavas vary in a wide range
of values, which reflect complex volcanism pro-
cesses and mantle heterogeneities, and also a possi-
ble contribution of subducted sediments. Maybe due
to their location between two major tectonic plates,
and probably because of their surprising complexity,
these basins arouse the interest of many authors.
Most of the backarc basins have undergone not
only crustal extension, but also have one or several
spreading axis that resemble mid-ocean ridges. For
instance, the North Fiji basin owes its interest to
its mature stage of evolution. Precise mapping and
dredging have allowed the description of a well es-
tablished spreading axis, whose structure and volcan-