Dynamic Stratigraphy: An Introduction to Sedimentation and Stratigraphy – Robley K. Matthews – 2nd Edition, 1984

Published in 1984, the second edition of Dynamic Stratigraphy is an extensively illustrated introduction to the science of reading Earth's history from its accumulated layers.

Stratigraphy transforms seemingly ordinary layers of rock and sediment into a record of vanished environments. Changes in grain size, fossils, chemistry, erosion, sea level, and the geometry of sedimentary deposits allow geologists to reconstruct ancient coastlines, oceans, reefs, rivers, and landscapes—sometimes extending hundreds of millions of years into the past.

Written by Robley K. Matthews of Brown University's Department of Geological Sciences, this volume approaches stratigraphy as an active, evolving system rather than simply a catalog of rock layers. It connects modern sedimentary processes with the geological record, showing how observations of environments operating today can help explain structures preserved in ancient rocks.

The cover itself provides a particularly good example: a modern reef tract in Belize is paired with a Pleistocene coral-reef terrace in Barbados. Matthews uses these environments to explore coral-reef sedimentation, tectonics, and changes in Quaternary sea level—the same fundamental process of using the present to decode the past that underlies much of historical geology.

This 1984 edition also comes from an interesting period in Earth science. By this point, plate tectonics had fundamentally reorganized geology, while increasingly quantitative approaches were changing how scientists reconstructed sedimentary environments and Earth's history. Stratigraphy was—and remains—important to petroleum geology, but its scientific significance extends much further, including paleontology, paleoclimatology, evolutionary history, oceanography, tectonics, and the reconstruction of past climate and sea-level change.

Publication details:
Dynamic Stratigraphy: An Introduction to Sedimentation and Stratigraphy
Robley K. Matthews
Second Edition
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
1984
ISBN 0-13-222109-8
Printed in the United States

Condition: Vintage hardcover in good overall condition with light shelf and handling wear visible to the covers and edges. Interior pages shown appear clean and well preserved. Please review photographs for the exact condition of this copy.

A substantial vintage reference for geologists, paleontologists, Earth-science students, educators, collectors of scientific books, and anyone interested in how scientists reconstruct the deep history of our planet from the rocks beneath us.