From Amethyst to Artesian Spring; from Zeolite to Zirconium, The Encyclopedia of the Solid Earth Sciences provides a comprehensive modern reference text for all the subdisciplines of the Earth sciences.
The Encyclopedia is neither a short-entry dictionary nor a long-essay encyclopedia, but lies somewhere in between, with short entry definitions and longer articles reviewing the present state of knowledge across a huge range of topics and allowing any particular subject to be accessed to varying levels of detail; the longer entries provide general overviews of topics, and the short entries provide specific details on more specialized areas.
Over 2700 head words are grouped into three main styles of entry: articles up to 1500 words on major topics, standard entries of up to a couple of hundred words, and brief definitions.
However, the most important feature of the Encyclopedia which sets it apart from other similar books is the extent of cross referencing and the indexing: keywords are accompanied by synonyms; cross-reference to other particularly relevant keywords is made at the end of entries; keywords (for other entries) mentioned within entries appear in bold type; there are over 8000 index entries, including all keywords and more than 2750 other indexed entries; and index entries are shown in the text in italic type.
The Encyclopedia is essential for professional Earth scientists, but will also be an important reference for students and those needing information on terms in current usage and state-of-the-art research.