Book reviews fundamental that the short-term, direct importance of Antarctica for the industry has all but vanished. So where does this leave the book? The authors are almost all academics working in universities or at government funded research institutes, and they describe work undertaken initially and primarily for academic purposes. Where possible, they discuss the implications of their research for hydrocarbon accumulation. Nine of the ten papers are based on presentations at the 1987 meeting; the tenth is a summary by Behrendt of the available (entirely marine) multi-channel seismic data, up to 1989, which puts into perspective the rather uneven and partial coverage of the remainder. The only totally, unashamedly academic contribution is Royer's (UTIG) presentation of a tectonic fabric chart of the surrounding Southern Ocean, based on Geostat altimeter data. This aims at the more accurate tracing of Antarctica's movements since Gondwanaland fragmented, and thus contributes to hydrocarbon assessment only indirectly, by helping the precise reconstruction of the crucial early stages of break-up. In so remote a region, this kind of background information cannot be provided quickly and routinely by any other means. Two papers from Anderson's group at Rice, and a third by Gamboa and Maldonado, describe seismic reflection profiles from Bransfield Strait and along the Pacific margin of the Antarctic Peninsula. Each interprets its own data in terms of models of tectonic evolution and sedimentation, and briefly speculates on the consequences for hydrocarbon accumulation. These papers give the most complete presentation to date of their basic data, so are also of value to the academic community, A third Anderson paper considers hazards to exploration and production, painting a view of icebergs, pack ice and storms that adds little to Antarctic academic experience, but must have been a symposium highlight. It retains some of that flavour in the book, as a reminder of how greatly industry would have to modify its routine practice for exploitation to proceed. The Ross Sea has been explored in more detail than other parts of the Antarctic margin, so it is appropriate that Cooper, Davey and Hinz draw on the data of several groups and take the assessment of hydrocarbon potential further than others do. In a companion paper, Collen and Barrett provide a different perspective, concentrating on data from CIROS 1, at 702 mbsf and 98% recovery the most successful of four holes drilled in the Ross Sea to date. Wannesson contributes the only paper on the East Antarctic margin away from the Ross Sea, noting the potential interest of synrift and early post-rift sediments on the Adelie Coast, which broke away from Australia in the mid-Cretaceous. Macdonald and Butterworth also describe Mesozoic sediments, exposed around the Antarctic Peninsula, but their approach is different: here is the view from onshore, given clarity by direct sampling of the formations described but forced to gaze uncertainly out over the ice shelf and permanent pack ice of the western Weddell Sea towards hypothetical depocentres and structure. The production of the book is idiosyncratic; its ten disparate papers, for example, have an index. Be warned, too, of a tendency to hide figures among the references, a curious strategy that stricter editing might have made unnecessary. Some reflection profiles and other diagrams are reproduced extremely well; that others are not is therefore probably not the AAPG's fault. In short, as a purely academic publication the book is moderately useful without being spectacular, and is saved from oblivion by AAPG's reasonable pricing policy; for the industry it is now, unfortunately for the AAPG, academic. Peter Barker British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK Facets of Modern Biogeochemistry: Festschrift for E. T. Degens V. Ittekkot, S. Kempe, W. Michaelis and A. Spitzy (Eds.) SpringerVerlag;1990;ISBN 3 540 50145 2and0 387 50145 2;427 lop Professor Egon T. Degens, a pioneer biogeochemist, died in February 1989 at the age of 60. This Festschrift has been put together by his close colleagues as a tribute to his life's work. Thirty original papers by present and past collaborators worldwide have bcen grouped into five chapters which reflect the wide range of earth science that Degens contributed to: general concepts in biogeochcmistry: geochemistry of river systems and coastal areas: isotopes in biogeochemistry: inorganic geochemistry: organic geochemistry. In Chapter 2. on general concepts in biogeochemistry, the theme is set m its widest context by papers dealing with geophysiology, biomimetic geochemistry, global change and biogeochemical aspects of living matter. Degens would have approved of the depth of perspective given in these articles by Krumbein, Nissenbaum. Fyfe. Romankevich and their colleagues. This chapter is completed by three articles concerning the Red Sea Rift (Uchupi and Ross), oceanic particles and fluxes to the deep ocean (Honjo), and statistical analysis of data (Kin Wong). tlonjo's article is a particularly fitting contribution to our understanding of biogeochemical cycles. Chapter 3, on the geochemistry of river systems and coastal areas, is led off by an article by J. D. Milliman, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. ttis qntroduction To Introduction" provides glimpses of Egon Degens which immediately register with anyonc who knew him. Thus: q expected to see a rather distinguished, rather middle-aged Germanic professor, certainly not the wild-eyed, long-haired Egon that 1 actually met." Again, 'I remember one noon-time seminar at which Egon changed a working hypothesis literally 180° in mid-sentence, although his delivery did not miss a beat.' And, 'With Egon, ideas and data ,jumped out at alarming rates. 1 often thought that Egon should have a team of specialists following him around, furiously scribbling down his ideas and insights, later to follow up the most promising-- a sort of narrow band filter, as it were." Milliman then goes on to provide a concise but useful summary of river discharge of water and sediments to the oceans, which is followed up by papers on minerals in soils and in suspended matters of rivers (Konta), phosphorus, potassium, calcimn dynamics (Esser and colleagues), and aspects of the Elbe River (Brockmann and Onken), Mahakam River in Indonesia (Eisma), the Strait of Dover (Postma), and in coastal areas such as the North Sea. Several of these papers, such as that by lrion and Mfiller on sediment-associated heavy metals in the North Sea, are major contributions with extensive data sets. Thus, the chapter by Szekielda and colleagues on satellite assessment of suspended matter in the coastal zones is abundantly illustrated with colour photographs of AVHRR data. Chapter 4, isotopes in biogeochemistry, concerns another love of Degens, Articles deal with carbon and hydrogen isotope variations in marine sediment gases (Faber et al.), 6~)C values for organic matter in the North Sea and adjacent estuaries (Laane et aLL a sulphur study (by Dickman and Thode) of a meromictic lake near Toronto, and a ~)13C study of carbonate crusts in the Red Sea (Stoffers and Botz). Chapter 5, inorganic geochemistry, is the shortest, with articles on calcified stromatolites (Kempe and Kazmierczak), 674 Marine and Petroleum Geology, 1992, Vol 9, December