Book Reviews
Landslides and Landslide Management in North Wales.
D. Nichol, M. G. Bassett and V. K. Deisler (eds).
National Museums & Galleries of Wales, 2002. £13.50
Softback, 134 pp. ISBN: 0-7200-0521-3.
This volume comprises five main sections: Landslide
Research, Landslide Sites, Rockfall Sites, Landslide
Management and Rockfall Management. The sections
comprise six, nine, five, six and five papers respectively.
The section on landslide research begins with a paper
that essentially traces the history of, and motivation for,
landslide research in North Wales. This is a useful paper,
in particular highlighting the key events leading to
particular investigations in North Wales and the strong
interest in this subject in the region. Both the book and
this particular paper remain focussed on North Wales.
The other papers in this section consider the design and
construction of a trial embankment on a landslip, geo-
physical applications, and notes on landslide dams. This
section also includes two case study papers that, at first,
seem to fit better into the sections on landslide and
rockfall sites. However, these are much more extensive
expositions than are to be found in the later two sections
and deal with recent investigations and so their inclusion
here seems appropriate.
The sections on landslide sites and rockfall sites
present short papers in a very similar style to that of
Landslide News. This brevity allows papers to be
included to cover a wide range of events. The sections on
landslide and rockfall management follow a similar
style. However, the papers included therein are, in
general, more about the remediation of individual sites
than the management of their impacts on, and their
interaction with, for example, infrastructure, as the title
may seem to suggest.
However, setting such minor observations aside we
are left with a book that provides a fascinating and
particularly well illustrated insight into landslide and
rockfall events in North Wales. The brevity of the
papers is particularly appreciated as each gives a short
account of an event or remediation exercise allowing a
wider range to be included than would otherwise be
possible.
The locations of the sites referred to in the papers are
usually, and usefully, accompanied by National Grid
References. This does, of course, raise the possibility of
undertaking a tour of a fascinatingly wide range of
landslide and rockfall sites, always provided that safe
and legal access can be obtained.
This book follows the similarly titled volume on
South Wales, which was published in 2000. Unusually, it
is printed on rather tactile glossy paper giving a high
level of perceived value, especially considering the very
reasonable cover price. However, the acid test of any
book is whether one would spent ones own hard-earned
Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 38, 109–111
cash on a copy: in this case the question is a resounding
‘yes’. I strongly recommend that all those with even a
passing interest in landslides purchase a copy for their
own use while for libraries there is no excuse for not
adding a copy to their shelves.
M.G. Winter
Foundations of Engineering Geology 2nd Edition. Tony
Waltham, Spon Press, 2002, ISBN 0415 254493, £50 hb,
ISBN 0415254507, £13.99 pb, 92 pp.
This is the second edition of a book first published in
1994. The book is aimed primarily at students with no
knowledge of geology and attempts to provide a distil-
lation of the fundamental information in an easy-to-read
and very visual format. The book can be considered as a
springboard by which the reader may be launched into
the complexities of topics presented in more weighty
tomes, armed with sufficient basic knowledge to provide
a better understanding of them.
The book covers material that forms the basis of a
university module on engineering geology. The topics
include:
• Basic principles of geology
• Regional geological characteristics
• Surface processes and associated materials.
• Ground investigation
• Material and mass properties
• Ground subsidence
• Slope instability
• Excavation
• Stone and aggregate
These are covered in 40 double-page (A4 format)
spreads. For each subject key information is given in
note form instead of being lost in continuous text. Much
use is made of diagrams, tables and short case histories.
In condensing quite large and complex topics such as
sedimentary rocks, geophysical surveys or soil strength
into two A4 pages it is inevitable that the material is
simplified to a considerable degree. In some cases,
however, the material is oversimplified to the extent of
being misleading. For example, the importance of effec-
tive stress in the section on soil strength is not empha-
sized adequately. In most cases, however the
information provided is good and is reinforced and
enhanced through provision of a bibliography that is
cross referenced to each section giving key papers and
textbooks. One important topic that is not covered
adequately is the characterization and mechanical
properties of discontinuities in rock.
In the second edition a new section on understanding
ground conditions has been included. It is a most
welcome addition as it focuses on taking a broader view
of the overall geology of the site and reinforces the
1470-9236/05 $15.00  2005 Geological Society of London
110 BOOK REVIEWS
importance of identifying geological and geotechnical
hazards at an early stage in the site investigation process.
Other sections in the book have been carefully updated
and improved.
The author must be congratulated for his novel and
courageous approach to presenting a simple and read-
able text on engineering geology. This book provides a
very useful means of gaining a. ‘snapshot’ of various
topics in engineering geology and some of the wider
aspects of geotechnical engineering. I have recom-
mended this as an essential textbook to first year
civil engineering undergraduates since it was first
published.
Marcus Matthews
Environmental Magnetism. M.E. Evans & F. Heller,
Academic Press 2003, ISBN 0-12-243851-5, £45 hard-
back; 312pp.
It is almost true that wherever magnetic minerals occur,
and in whatever concentrations, they can be detected.
Techniques originally developed for palaeomagnetism,
and subsequently refined, can be used to characterize
and quantify the magnetic minerals present in a sample
with speed, economy and great sensitivity. The role of
the environmental magnetist, it seems, is to seek con-
tinually to broaden the range of applications in which
these methods can be used. This book provides a
state-of-the-art summary of the field.
Beyond converted ‘enviromagnetists’, the potential
audience for the book might include palaeomagnetists
seeking to broaden their scope, palaeoclimatologists and
biologists who have heard of magnetoclimatology and
magnetobiology, geologists (here we approach most
closely the journal readership) and physical geographers
interested in the possible use of magnetic tracers, and
‘general readers’ (including students). All will want to
know how magnetic measurements can impact on par-
ticular specialisms, some will require introduction to
those specialisms; many will require a layman’s intro-
duction to magnetism, and magnetists will expect
description of developments in instrumentation and
approach.
The book is subtitled ‘Principles and Applications of
Enviromagnetics’. ‘Principles’ are covered in chapters on
Basic Magnetism, Enviromagnetic Minerals, Measure-
ment and Techniques, Processes and Pathways, and
Time. ‘Applications’ involve Magnetoclimatology and
Past Global Change, Mass Transport, Magnetism in the
Biosphere, Magnetic Monitoring of Pollution, and
Archaeological [sic] and Early Hominid Environments.
This illustrates well the structure and breadth of the
book, though the division of material is not as clear-cut
as the chapter headings might suggest. The book
concludes, somewhat oddly, with a chapter on Our
Planetary Magnetic Environment.
An earlier, and classic, book titled ‘Environmental
Magnetism’, by Roy Thompson and Frank Oldfield,
appeared in 1986, and heralded the birth of the subject.
The most obvious shift of emphasis between that book
and this, is the significance now accorded to the bacterial
production of magnetite (BOM and BIM, biologically
organized and biologically induced mineralization!) in
soil formation and in lake and marine deposition.
The real strength of the present book lies in its
coverage, in breadth and time (with references up to
2002), of the literature in this burgeoning field. The
writing, at times almost journalistic, conveys well the
sense of excitement of current research. Less successful
(disappointingly and surprisingly, given the authors’
expertise) is the ‘layman’s’ introduction to magnetism
and geomagnetism, unconventional in its inclusions and
omissions, and in its ordering of material; many stan-
dard palaeomagnetic texts are, in this regard, more
approachable. Nevertheless, the deductive processes and
combinations of measurements used to tease out the
nature and state of the magnetic mineralogy of a sample
are well handled, and the potential, and potential com-
plexities, of using magnetic measurements as proxy
estimators are well explained.
If you think you might profitably make use of environ-
mental magnetic techniques, or are simply curious about
the ingenuity of the new breed of enviromagnetists, this
book is the obvious starting place.
William Owens
Geotechnical Modelling by Professor David Muir Wood
(University of Bristol), Spon Press (London & New
York), 2004, Applied Geotechnics Volume 1, ISBN
0-415 34306-6 (hbk), £80.00, ISBN 0-419-23730-5 (pbk),
£25.00
Professor Muir Wood puts an interesting slant on soil
mechanics theory: all theoretical solutions are just mod-
els. This proposition allows him to write a book on
geotechnical modelling which is populated by many of
the simple, classical, solutions that are the stock in trade
of the undergraduate (or maybe Masters’) course in soil
mechanics. However, the central idea means that some
of the solutions that are lumped together are a rather
eclectic collection: for example, under ‘empirical models’
we find the vane test, the pressuremeter, cone tests and
their correlation with settlement of footings on sand,
and Skempton & Bjerrum’s slant on consolidation
settlement.
However, the idea is exhausted by the end of Chapter
1, and the rest of the book turns into a comparatively
ordinary (if advanced) text book after that. One chapter
covers soil properties, and the remaining six deal with
various types of models, although physical modelling (a
broad field) turns into centrifuge modelling (a rather
narrower one).
 BOOK REVIEWS
For the engineering geologist, the idea that geological
modelling can be dealt with in a couple of pages in
Chapter 1, and then be omitted for the rest of the
461-page text, will seem remarkable. Also absent is any
coverage of rock mechanics. Even in soil mechanics,
the issue of the stability of slopes merits only a cover
illustration (on the soft cover), a page or two on
dimensional analysis, and a single diagram showing that
the stress conditions change around a slip surface, which
given the extensive coverage of bearing capacity later in
the book should really have been a bearing failure under
a footing. Modelling of an embankment on a soft
foundation is covered, but this turns out to be settle-
ment, not stability. Several processes, such as freezing,
grouting, etc., which might have lifted the text out of the
pack, are not touched upon.
In my view, the title of the book is misleading, as it is
not geotechnical modelling, but modelling in soil mech-
anics, which is covered. Furthermore, the models are
chiefly continuum models, and although anisotropy is
touched upon, the soils are usually that ideal fiction of
being uniform, isotropic and homogeneous materials.
It is not ‘Applied Geotechnics’, and it should not be
catalogued under ‘Engineering Geology’.
111
The book is copiously illustrated, but several of the
illustrations appear clumsy, as though they were not
reduced from the original by the same proportion as the
rest of the figures (e.g. Figure 8.19). Some illustrations
are placed, awkwardly, on pages of their own with
nearly half the page blank, as in numerous places in
Chapter 7. These give the book an unfinished appear-
ance, and come from the Author providing camera-
ready copy which really needed final polishing before
going into print.
Both a Bibliography and a List of References are
provided. All the usual suspects are to be found there.
I found it difficult to decide what sort of people the
book was aimed at. Those who understand what the
book is getting at will have all the theoretical material
already to hand in other books, and those who don’t,
will not find this an easy way of accessing the theory. If
the reader (at whatever level) perseveres, however, the
occasional additional insight into modelling issues will
be gained by reading the book from cover to cover.
Professor Muir Wood writes carefully and precisely.
This style will not appeal to all readers.
Eddie Bromhead