Book review: Aspects of the Sedimentology of South Wales, by Gareth T George

Jon Trevelyan (UK)

I reviewed another of Gareth T George’s books (The Geology of South Wales: A Field Guide, 2nd edition) in the last issue of Deposits (Issue 47). However, given that both these books are well worth buying and reading if you are interested (like me) in the geology of the regions of the UK, I make no apologies.

And, as I pointed out in that review, South Wales is a great place to do geology, both because of the variety of what can be seen and the general beauty of the area and surrounds. In fact, the sedimentary rocks here (largely from the Palaeozoic and late Triassic/Lower Jurassic) were deposited in a wide range of environments, for example, deep-sea fans, clastic-carbonate shelf seas, beaches, estuaries and deltas, and rivers and floodplain swamps, to name but a few.

These are all covered in ten separate, largely self-contained chapters and illustrated by case studies, along with full technical discussions of the processes that operate in and give rise to such environments. The book is also packed full with maps, photographs and diagrams (largely in black and white, but there are also 32 colour photos and diagrams of South Welsh rock sediments and sedimentary environments – both ancient and modern).

In this respect and as the author points out, the book is intended as synthesis of some of the main principles of sedimentology within a framework provided by the sediments and sedimentary rocks of the southern part of the Principality. As such, the book is aimed more at undergraduates, postgraduates, geology teachers and professionals, but there is no reason why an intelligent and informed amateur should not enjoy and benefit from it.

Gareth has been teaching and researching geology since 1969 (originally at the Sir John Cass College), but retired in 2004 from the University of Greenwich after having been a part-time tutor at the Open University and a consultant to the oil industry. His interests include clastic sediments and sequence stratigraphy, in particular, in connection with the Upper Carboniferous. And much of the information contained in this book is from his own research (and that of his colleagues).

Aspects of the Sedimentology of South Wales, by Gareth T George, gareth@geoserv.co.uk, Bearsted, Kent (2014), 277 pages (paperback), ISBN: 978-0955937118