These volumes represent the fifth member of the Geological Society of London's ‘Geology of . . .’ series. For some years this ‘series’ comprised only the volumes on Scotland and on England & Wales, now in their third and second editions respectively. However, the addition of volumes first on Spain (2002) and then on Chile (2007) has started to expand the regional coverage. Now, the Central Europe title is by far the largest and most ambitious of all, running to two volumes each of over 750 pages, and involving over 200 authors.
What is ‘Central Europe’ in this geological context? It is taken to include Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, eastern France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. However, some individual chapters discuss geology outside this core area, where this provides context and perspective. Geologically, the area is a mosaic of terranes, dominated by those assembled during the Variscan Orogeny and bracketed between Caledonian terranes in the north and Alpine terranes in the south.
The book covers this geological mosaic in 21 chapters. The basic structure is chronological, with a chapter on the Precambrian, then successive chapters on each of the eleven Phanerozoic periods and subperiods. Interspersed in this framework are chapters on the main tectonic events: Cadomian, Caledonian, Variscan, Permian to Cretaceous, and Alpine, both in and north of the Alps. Volume 1 starts with an introductory chapter by the editor, partly a history of European geological knowledge and partly an overview of the regional geology, and ends with a chapter on Palaeozoic magmatism. Volume 2 concludes with a chapter on fossil fuels, ore and industrial minerals. There is an accompanying CD containing a 1:2 500 000 map of Central Europe's mineral and energy resources.
The number of authors on each chapter ranges from one to 46, with an average of about 11. This wealth of contributors has been managed by having a named coordinator, or two or three, on each chapter, These coordinators have generally done a good job of collating contributions on each topic. The Geological Society and the editor have then imposed some conformity and continuity on what is still a diverse mix of styles. The main contrasts between chapters are in the extent to which they focus on the Central European core, or stray further afield. The tectonics chapters naturally take a wider perspective, without which the context of central European deformation events would be unclear. A necessarily personal and patchy sampling of all the chapters suggests a usefully high standard of information content and presentation across the whole book.
Tom McCann is to be congratulated for completing the mammoth task of assembling such a large group of authors, and for coordinating their efforts into two valuable volumes. This book has no up-to-date competitor as the premier source of information on Central European geology. It deserves to be in libraries throughout the region and in all the many countries whose geology correlates into Central Europe.
