Quantitative Plate Tectonics: Physics of the Earth—Plate Kinematics—Geodynamics, Antonio Schettino, Springer, 2015. $99.00 (403 pp.). ISBN 978-3-319-09134-1 Buy at Amazon
During the past half century, plate tectonics has developed from an initially radical, paradigm-shifting view of Earth processes to the foundational support for essentially all branches of geology. One early, great success of plate-tectonic theory was the explanation of geological observations through quantitative, physics-based models.
Plate-tectonic theory is closely linked to its underlying fundamental physics of heat transfer, continuum mechanics, elastic-wave propagation, and electromagnetic processes. But hardly any university-level texts derive and focus on those connections. That gap is the one Antonio Schettino intends to fill with his Quantitative Plate Tectonics: Physics of the Earth—Plate Kinematics—Geodynamics.
What sets the book apart is not the specifics of its content; virtually all the covered material can be found in other geophysics texts. Rather, the framing of everything in terms of plate-tectonic processes is what distinguishes this from a wide range of theoretical geophysics texts. Quantitative Plate Tectonics was clearly designed for a course taught by the author, and although its scope is comprehensive, the focus on purely mathematical treatments tends to remove much of the context from its discussions. I would imagine needing to supplement it with another text, such as C. M. R. Fowler’s The Solid Earth: An Introduction to Global Geophysics (2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2005), which discusses the plate-tectonic setting and the geologic and geophysical observations addressed by Schettino’s analyses.
In 14 chapters, Quantitative Plate Tectonics covers all the major topics in solid-Earth geosciences for which plate tectonics is critical. It is divided into two sections: kinematics of plate tectonics and dynamics of the lithosphere and upper mantle. That separation requires some arbitrary placements. For example, earthquake processes are considered in the dynamics section, which means they are excluded from the discussion of what quantifies plate motions. As a result of such choices, the plate kinematics section relies heavily on magnetism and paleomagnetism in its treatment of constraining observations. The plate dynamics section has a great deal in common with Donald Turcotte and Gerald Schubert’s Geodynamics (3rd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2014), the traditional mainstay of quantitative courses related to the physics of active-Earth processes. Quantitative Plate Tectonics, however, contains a more significant discussion of seismic-wave propagation and earthquake rupture.
The target audience for Schettino’s text is not entirely clear. Although in his preface the author indicates that the book is aimed at readers from diverse backgrounds (geology, geography, engineering, and physics), the high level of mathematics and the advanced terminologies and notations would make it difficult for most geology and geography students. The treatments are elegant, but I fear much of that elegance would be lost on students who struggle to master basic mathematics. Also, in most cases, each chapter introduces new math and does not build on the math presented in previous chapters. Given those features, the text may be primarily suited for students of plate tectonics who are comfortable using sophisticated mathematics to describe processes.
Overall, the book fills a gap in current texts covering plate tectonics. It fulfills the promise of its title by being highly quantitative; however, the background observations that motivate the quantification are less prominent. The book could be a nice addition to a scientist’s library in that it does provide, in one volume, the underlying mathematics describing a wide range of processes. I am not sure, though, how I would use it in my teaching, given the high-level mathematics background it requires.
Kevin Furlong is a professor in the department of geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on lithospheric geodynamics, particularly the formation and evolution of plate boundaries and the thermal structure of the lithosphere.
