Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Volume 7 (1979) — Dinosaur Extinction, Climate, Jupiter & Planetary Geology

The original 1979 seventh volume of the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, collecting authoritative reviews of major developments in geology, geophysics, atmospheric science, paleontology, geochemistry, and planetary science.

Volume 7 is particularly fascinating in hindsight because several of its chapters capture major scientific questions immediately before important discoveries changed their fields.

Among its notable articles are:

• “The Enigma of the Extinction of the Dinosaurs” — D. A. Russell
• “Influences of Mankind on Climate” — W. W. Kellogg
• “The Role of NO and NO₂ in the Chemistry of the Troposphere and Stratosphere” — Paul J. Crutzen
• “The Magnetic Field of Jupiter: A Comparison of Radio Astronomy and Spacecraft Observations” — Edward J. Smith & Samuel Gulkis
• “The Magnetic Fields of Mercury, Mars, and Moon” — Norman F. Ness
• “Subsolidus Convection in the Mantles of Terrestrial Planets” — Gerald Schubert
• “Geochemical and Cosmochemical Applications of Nd Isotope Analysis” — R. K. O’Nions, S. R. Carter, N. M. Evensen & P. J. Hamilton
• “The North Atlantic Ridge: Observational Evidence for its Generation and Aging” — J. R. Heirtzler
• “Paleozoic Paleogeography” — A. M. Ziegler, C. R. Scotese, W. S. McKerrow, M. E. Johnson & R. K. Bambach
• “The Dynamical Structure and Evolution of Thunderstorms and Squall Lines” — D. K. Lilly
• Reviews of sandstone diagenesis, petroleum generation, atmospheric tides, sedimentary structures, mantle mineralogy, calorimetry, and synthetic seismograms.

The dinosaur chapter is especially significant historically. Dale Russell’s “The Enigma of the Extinction of the Dinosaurs” appeared in 1979, while scientists were still debating environmental, biological, and astronomical explanations for the end-Cretaceous extinction. Just one year later, Luis and Walter Alvarez and their collaborators published the famous asteroid-impact hypothesis, transforming the scientific debate and ultimately establishing impact as the principal explanation for the extinction event.

The volume is equally notable for W. W. Kellogg’s “Influences of Mankind on Climate,” an early synthesis of research into the ways human activity could alter the global climate. Published decades before modern climate change became a central public issue, it preserves the state of scientific understanding in the late 1970s.

Another chapter was written by atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen, whose research demonstrated the role of nitrogen oxides in ozone destruction. Crutzen would later share the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for fundamental work on the formation and decomposition of atmospheric ozone.

The planetary papers also arrived at a remarkable moment. Volume 7 was published in 1979—the year Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 encountered Jupiter. Voyager 1's March encounter revealed Jupiter’s previously unknown ring and active volcanoes on Io while returning unprecedented observations of the Jovian system. The volume’s reviews of Jupiter’s magnetic field and the magnetic environments and internal dynamics of terrestrial planets therefore capture planetary science during the transition from early spacecraft reconnaissance to the Voyager era.

As an Annual Review, the book is not simply a collection of research papers. Its invited authors were tasked with synthesizing entire fields, making the volume a particularly useful historical snapshot of what scientists understood—and what remained unresolved—in 1979.

This copy has additional institutional provenance from the Cities Service Technology Center geological research library in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with ownership stamps, catalog notation, and a dated 1981 library accession mark.

Editor: Fred A. Donath
Associate Editors: Francis G. Stehli and George W. Wetherill
Publisher: Annual Reviews Inc., Palo Alto, California
Year: 1979
Volume: 7
Pages: x + 517
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8243-2007-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-8243-2007-2
ISSN: 0084-6597

Condition: Vintage institutional-library hardcover in brown cloth with gilt lettering and black spine panel. Former Cities Service Technology Center geological-library copy with ownership/date stamps, handwritten catalog notation, and other institutional markings.