Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Volume 6 (1978) — Jupiter’s Moons, Ozone Layer, Mantle Convection & Climate

The original 1978 sixth volume of the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, collecting major review articles by leading researchers in geology, geophysics, atmospheric science, oceanography, paleontology, and planetary science.

Volume 6 is particularly interesting as a snapshot of science at the end of the 1970s. Plate tectonics was still a comparatively young framework, modern climate science was rapidly developing, concern over atmospheric ozone had recently become a major scientific issue, and NASA’s Voyager spacecraft were on their way toward encounters that would transform understanding of the outer Solar System.

Among the volume’s notable articles are:

• “The Earth as Part of the Universe” — Fred L. Whipple
• “Mantle Convection Models” — Frank M. Richter
• “Photochemistry and Dynamics of the Ozone Layer” — R. G. Prinn, F. N. Alyea & D. M. Cunnold
• “The Galilean Satellites of Jupiter: Four Worlds” — Torrence V. Johnson
• “The Interstellar Wind and Its Influence on the Interplanetary Environment” — Gary E. Thomas
• “Glacial Inception and Disintegration During the Last Glaciation” — J. T. Andrews & R. G. Barry
• “Hydrothermal Alteration in Active Geothermal Fields” — P. R. L. Browne
• “Critical Mineral Resources” — Charles F. Park Jr.
• “Organic Matter in the Earth’s Crust” — Philip H. Abelson
• “State of Stress in the Earth’s Crust” — A. McGarr & N. C. Gay
• “Temporal Fluctuations of Atmospheric Carbon-14” — P. E. Damon, J. C. Lerman & A. Long
• Reviews of Precambrian life, paleomagnetism, continental rifting, ocean-crust seismic structure, estuarine pollution, biostratigraphy, ocean circulation, and sediment chemistry.

Several papers have acquired additional historical interest with time.

The chapter on the Galilean satellites of Jupiter appeared immediately before the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 encounters of 1979, which would reveal active volcanism on Io, detailed geology on Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, and dramatically change the scientific picture of Jupiter’s moon system.

The ozone-layer review appeared only four years after Mario Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland’s landmark 1974 warning that chlorofluorocarbons could destroy stratospheric ozone—and seven years before discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole brought the issue to worldwide attention.

Other chapters document the rapid maturation of modern ideas about mantle convection, continental breakup, paleoclimate, radiocarbon variation, geothermal systems, and critical mineral resources, making the volume a useful historical cross-section of late-20th-century Earth science.

This copy also retains Cities Service Company ERG E&P Research Library, Tulsa, Oklahoma markings. Its corporate research-library provenance reflects the extensive scientific infrastructure maintained by major industrial geology and energy organizations during the period.

Editor: Fred A. Donath
Associate Editors: Francis G. Stehli and George W. Wetherill
Publisher: Annual Reviews Inc., Palo Alto, California
Year: 1978
Volume: 6
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8243-2006-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-8243-2006-5
ISSN: 0084-6597

Condition: Vintage institutional-library hardcover in brown cloth with gilt lettering and black spine panel. Former Cities Service Company ERG E&P Research Library copy with ownership stamp, handwritten catalog markings, and other library notation.