Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Volume 13 (1985) — Cosmic Dust, Lunar Magma Ocean & Ancient Earth

The original 1985 thirteenth volume of the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, collecting authoritative review articles across geology, geophysics, geochemistry, paleontology, and planetary science.

Published during a period when planetary geology was rapidly expanding beyond the legacy of Apollo, Volume 13 brings together research on cosmic dust, lunar evolution, the early continental crust, Earth’s mantle, ancient rift systems, fossil insects, geophysical logging, and paleogeography.

Notable articles include:

• “Cosmic Dust: Collection and Research” — D. E. Brownlee
• “The Magma Ocean Concept and Lunar Evolution” — Paul H. Warren
• “Evolution of the Archean Continental Crust” — Alfred Kröner
• “Oxidation Status of the Mantle: Past and Present” — Richard J. Arculus
• “The Geological Significance of the Geoid” — Clement G. Chase
• “Amino Acid Racemization Dating of Fossil Bones” — Jeffrey L. Bada
• “The Geological Record of Insects” — F. M. Carpenter & L. Burnham
• “Downhole Geophysical Logging” — A. Timur & M. N. Toksöz
• “The Midcontinent Rift System” — W. R. Van Schmus & W. J. Hinze
• “Paleogeographic Interpretation: With an Example From the Mid-Cretaceous” — A. M. Ziegler and collaborators

The cosmic-dust chapter is particularly notable historically. Its author, University of Washington astronomer Donald Brownlee, was already a leading researcher in the collection and analysis of extraterrestrial dust. Brownlee later became principal investigator of NASA’s Stardust mission, which returned the first samples collected directly from a comet to Earth in 2006. His 1985 review therefore documents the state of cosmic-dust research well before spacecraft sample-return missions made direct cometary material available to laboratories.

Paul Warren’s extensive review of the lunar magma-ocean hypothesis likewise captures a major stage in the interpretation of Apollo-era lunar samples. The model proposed that the Moon’s earliest crust developed through differentiation and crystallization of a deep, largely molten early Moon—an idea that remains fundamental to research on the Moon’s formation and early evolution.

Other chapters preserve contemporary thinking about the development of Earth’s earliest continental crust, mantle chemistry, the billion-year-old Midcontinent Rift beneath central North America, fossil chronology, and the application of increasingly sophisticated geophysical instruments to subsurface geology.

As an Annual Review, the volume is especially useful as a historical scientific document: its chapters were commissioned to summarize the best contemporary understanding of entire research areas rather than report a single experiment, effectively preserving a cross-section of what earth and planetary scientists knew in 1985.

This copy has additional institutional provenance from the Cities Service Oil & Gas Corporation E&P Library in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with dated library stamps and catalog markings. The provenance connects the volume to the corporate geological research libraries that were major users of professional geophysical and earth-science literature during the period.

Editor: George W. Wetherill
Associate Editors: Arden L. Albee and Francis G. Stehli
Publisher: Annual Reviews Inc., Palo Alto, California
Year: 1985
Volume: 13
Pages: x + 443
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8243-2013-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-8243-2013-3
ISSN: 0084-6597

Condition: Vintage institutional-library hardcover in brown cloth with gilt lettering and black spine panel. Former Cities Service Oil & Gas Corporation E&P Library copy with ownership/date stamps, catalog markings, and remnants of a spine label.