CONDIE, K. C. 2001. Mantle Plumes and Their Record in Earth History. xiii + 306 pp. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Price £75.00, US $110.00 (hard covers), £27.95, US $39.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 521 80604 6; 0 521 01472 7 (pb)

Abstract

Kent Condie has previously given us a valued text on the role of plate tectonics in the geological record. He extends this effort here with a new text specifically dedicated to a description of mantle plumes, their causes, and their effects on surface geology. Subduction zones and mid-ocean ridge systems might be viewed as the two principal structural components of plate tectonics. These systems are now well understood, perhaps even taken for granted. If we look beneath the lithosphere, we might say similarly that subducted slabs and mantle plumes are the two principal structural components of the mantle convection system –outside of the thermal boundary layers anyway. One could argue that, in dynamical and thermal terms, plumes and subducted slabs are equally important features in the convecting mantle. Subducted slabs have got a lot more attention, however, because they have been evident since the first global maps of mantle seismicity were obtained. Since then, global seismic tomography solutions have shown us that the slabs are even more complex and interesting than we thought. On the other side of the mantle convection system, however, we see that although there is a general recognition that mantle plumes constitute an important form of upwelling in the mantle, their impact on the Earth’s surface seems more variable and harder to classify. Condie’s book draws together many diverse strands of evidence, however, to provide us with a coherent and very readable picture of the whole topic. Mantle plumes are more difficult to detect than subducted slabs. Unlike most slabs, they …