Environmental Mineralogy: Microbial Interactions, Anthropogenic Influences, Contaminated Land and Waste Management, edited by J.D. Cotter-Howells, L.S. Campbell. E. Valsami-Jones and M. Batchelder. Mineralogical Society of Great Britain & Ireland, London. 2000, xii + 414 pages, hardback. [ISBN 0 903056 20 8, Price £50 (US $70); £32 (US $45) for members of the Mineralogical Society; £39 (US $55) for members of associated Learned Societies.]

Abstract

This is the latest addition to the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain & Ireland’s series of thematic volumes, and follows the Society’s Winter Meeting ‘Environmental Mineralogy’ held at Aberdeen in January 1999. It is the first of this series to be published by the Mineralogical Society itself, and achieves a high standard of presentation and content, at a reasonable price. The book presents us with a set of fifteen papers arranged into four sets, each accompanied by a concise and informative introduction provided by the editors. These concentrate on ‘Mineral-microbe interactions’, ‘Anthropogenic influences on mineral interactions’, ‘Minerals in contaminated environments’ and ‘Minerals and waste management’, respectively. The format invites comparison with the EMU Short Course volume ‘Environmental Mineralogy’ edited by D.J. Vaughan and R.A. Wogelius, also published recently. However, these books should be seen as complementing each other rather than duplicating. The four sets of papers in the Mineralogical Society’s volume give a structured examination of key aspects of mineralogy in the environment. The first deals …