image: Paleoproterozoic vein-quartz-clast conglomerate in Chino Valley, central Arizona. These alluvial-fan and proximal braided-stream sediments were deposited in an extreme weathering environment in which all feldspar and mafic minerals except hematite were destroyed before deposition. William R. Dickinson for scale. view more
Credit: Cover photo by Jon Spencer, 2015
Boulder, Colo., USA: Noted geoscientist William R. Dickinson (1931-2015) influenced and challenged three generations of sedimentary geologists, igneous petrologists, tectonicists, sandstone petrologists, and archaeologists. This volume is a tribute to the depth and breadth of Dickinson's contributions to his students and the geosciences.
A Stanford graduate, then Stanford faculty member, and later a professor at University of Arizona, Dickinson conducted and published research that was prodigious and ground-breaking.
In 1969, Dickinson convened the watershed GSA Penrose Conference at Asilomar, California, on "The Meaning of the New Global Tectonics for Magmatism, Sedimentation, and Metamorphism in Orogenic Belts." Volume editors Raymond V. Ingersoll, Timothy F. Lawton, and Stephan A. Graham, and author Richard A. Schweickert explain that "Dickinson initiated fundamentally new approaches to research (e.g., sandstone petrofacies, potsherd provenance, and plate-tectonic controls on basin evolution and sandstone composition)." They further state that he showed the "tremendous power of integration of plate tectonics, basin evolution, structural geology, sedimentology, geochronology, and petrology in the reconstruction of paleogeography and paleotectonics."
Dickinson was awarded the GSA Penrose Medal in 1991, the Laurence L. Sloss Award for Sedimentary Geology in 1999, and the Rip Rapp Archaeological Geology Award in 2014.
The 31 chapters in this volume provide testimony to his legacy, in terms of the application of basin models to paleotectonic reconstructions, analytical techniques (e.g., detrital-zircon studies and petrography) as applied to provenance and tectonics, and regions (including Oregon, California, and the North American Cordillera) that piqued his interest.
Individual copies of the volume may be purchased through The Geological Society of America online store, http://rock.geosociety.org/Store/detail.aspx?id=SPE540, or by contacting GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.
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Book editors of earth science journals/publications may request a review copy by contacting April Leo, aleo@geosociety.org.
Tectonics, Sedimentary Basins, and Provenance: A Celebration of the Career of William R. Dickinson
edited by Raymond V. Ingersoll, Timothy F. Lawton, and Stephan A. Graham
Geological Society of America Special Paper 540
SPE540, 757 p., $99.00; GSA member price $70.00
ISBN 978-0-8137-2540-6
View the table of contents: http://rock.geosociety.org/store/TOC/SPE540.pdf