71

dence in rocks, the geologic character and surroundings of which are similar
to ones in which ores have been found. He would save time and energy if he
would leave his theorizing about how the deposit was formed until he had
found it, explored it, and at least to some extent mined it.
In most of the papers in this volume, the authors discussed the exploratory
or analytical techniques they employed in their search for ore and did not
worry about how the indications of ore they are studying got where they are
now. The papers that are not involved with theories do a far greater service
to the profession of exploration geochemistry than those that do. This is so
because their examinations and analyses are not biased by theories that are,
at least for the areas they are examining, unproved.
The entire volume is to be recommended not only to practicing explora-
tion geochemists but also to any geologists involved with the study of ore
deposits because the 47 papers in the volume offer a sound appraisal of what
is being done in this field by investigators of measurable phenomena that are
spatially associated with ore deposits, uctual or potential. It must not be
thought, however, that this is a review volume; it is a collection of papers, uni-
fied to some extent by their inclusion under eight different headings, but
dealing with individual problems that are, in most cases, not directly connected
with any of the others included. In short, the volume is essentially, an en-
larged number of the Journal of Geochemical Exploration.
The editors are to be congratulated on having produced a volume that is
remarkably free of errors that so easily creep into an edited volume. The
illustrations, maps, charts, and diagrams, are uniformly clear and useful.

J.D. RIDGE (Gainsville, Fla.)

Prospeccion Geoelec trica en corrien te continua. Ernest0 Orellana. Paraninfo,

Madrid, 1972.

The author of this book on direct-current geoelectrical prospecting is known

to the English-speaking geophysicists through the very useful collections of
master tables and curves for vertical electrical soundings which he prepared
some years ago in collaboration with Prof. Harold M. Mooney. From the title
of his present book in Spanish the reader might be led to expect a treatise on
geoelectrical prospecting in general but it must be conceded that the book deals
essentially only with the theory and interpretation of vertical electrical soun-
ding. Other aspects of geoelectrical prospecting are only marginally treated in
general.
After a brief but fairly adequate review of the electrical properties of rocks
including the elements of the theory of electronic band structure and the aniso-
tropy of electrical resistivity of rocks, the author makes a slight but a necessary
digression about units and dimensions. This chapter is followed by a very clear-
72

ly written one on the fundamental concepts and configurations of direct current

geoelectric prospcct%g and therpnfter by a chapter dealing with the theory of
VES proper. The author starts from Dar Zarrouk parameters and functions,
and gives a very clear description of the construction of DZ curves. The n-layer
boundary value problem is then treated from the point of view of Stefanescu’s
integral and the various characteristic functions of resistivity used by Slichter,
King and Vanyan are discussed. Prof. Orellana prefers the designation “charac-
teristic function” to the commonly used “kernel function”. As he correctly
points out, the kernel of the generalized Stefanescu integral is properly speaking
the Bessel function J1 (hr) and not the resistivity function N(h).
The properties of the characteristic function for a multilayered earth are
treated in detail. This chapter also includes a short note on the numerical calcu-
lation of apparent resistivity curves which, however, is a little outdated in view
of recent advances, especially in view of Ghosh’s method. In the concluding
part of this chapter we find the equations of Maillet, the theory of inclined
contacts and a useful but all too brief account of Alfano’s theory of general
inhomogeneities. The next chapter (Chapter 5, “Practica de1 sondeo electric0
vertical”) is by far the most important and the longest chapter of the book
occupying 96 pages. Here the author deals with the practical details of geoelec-
trical measurements and the various methods of interpreting sounding curves.
It is not possible in this review to give an adequate summary of the wealth of
excellent material contained in this chapter. Notwithstanding this, the reviewer
feels that too few practical examples of VES have been discussed. He agrees en-
tirely with the strictures that the author passes on the uselessness of the inter-
pretation rules proposed in the initial epoch of geoelectrical prospecting. These
strictures are not out of place even today because these so-called methods and
rules have the habit of making renewed appearance (sometimes in reputed
journals!) in spite of the fact that the fallacies behind them have been exposed.
A chapter each is devoted to the theory of dipole sounding (axial, equatorial,
radial, azimuthal, parallel, perpendicular), electric mapping, the method of
equipotentials and self-potential method. All these chapters would have bene-
fited greatly if appropriate practical field examples had been included but their
usefulness in &he present form must not be underrated.
All in all Prof. Orellana’s book is a competently written, good book. Spanish-
-speaking geophysicists will find it very useful and the reviewer feels that it de-
serves to be translated into English.

D.S. PARASNIS (Boliden, Sweden)