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cess on the Moon, terrestrial planets and the Galilean satellites. Interpretations of the history of each of these planetary bodies suggest that in the early history of the Solar System, prior to about 4 X l0~ years ago, impact cratenng dominated the geology of solid planets and their satellites, and it now seems unlikely that the Earth would have avoided impact destruction of its land surfaces. However, the terrestrial stratigraphic record only goes back to about 3.8 X i0~ years and we may at present only speculate about this phase of the Earths history by using other planetary bodies for a comparison. Nevertheless, impact craters have been found throughout the whole history of the planetary bodies since that time, and wellpreserved impact craters are present on most planetary surfaces. Geologists were slow to recognise impact features on Earth, endeavouring to explain all craters in terms of the better known process of volcanism. This reluctance by geologists to accept impact probably results from the pervasive influence of umformitarianism that had so successfully advanced geological understanding; impactcratering, a rarely observed phenomenon, smacked too much of catastrophism for the liking of many geologists, Recognition of the impact origin of lunar craters provided the necessary impetus to make geologists examine possible impact structures on Earth in more detail. A turning point in the history of geological understanding is marked by the classic paper by E.M. Shoemaker on Meteor Crater (reproduced in this book). In this paper, for the first time, Shoemaker examines the structure of the crater and compares it to artificial nuclear and high energy explosion craters where the conditions of formation are known and are in some ways similar to impact. Since that time, our knowledge of impact processes has advanced considerably and we are able to interpret the geology of craters more confidently in terms of the physical processes that formed them. It is the emphasis on understanding process since the Shoemaker paper that has dominated the study of meteorite craters since about 1960. However, little of this aspect of the science has been included in the book under review here. The papers chosen to illustrate the advancement of this sci-

ence are arranged in a classical style in terms of their morphology which in turn is related to structural form, degree of degradation and whether they have been proved as meteorite craters. By taking this approach, the editor has omitted papers of major importance that describe the physics of impact, concentrating more on the purely descriptive side of the subject. The pioneering work of Donald Gault, who used high speed photography of impact craters being formed by the Light Gas Gun at NASA Ames Research Center, is well known to all those working on meteorite craters; and yet his classic paper with W.L.Quaide and V.R. Overbeck published in 1968 is not included in this compendium. Sadly, the works of other authors, such as R.B. Baldwin, D.J. Roddy, M. Dence and B. French, who have placed emphasis on physical process, are also omitted from the list of authors represented. In any Benchmark book the choice of papers clearly represents the interests of the editor. In this book, most of the papers reproduced are important reading, but by concentrating on the more descriptive papers, the editor has missed out on the important steps taken towards understanding process during the l960s and 70s.
J.E GUEST (London)

Seismic Migration. Imaging of Acoustic Energy by Wave Field Extrapolation. A.J. Berkhout. De-

velopments in Solid Earth Geophysics 12, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1980, xii + 340 pp., Dfl. 120.00, U.S. $ 58.50, ISBN 0-444-41904-7. In seismic reflection surveying, a stacked seismic section consists of a series of seismograms, each of which represents an approximation to the reflection coefficient series which would be observed by a coincident source and receiver at the Earths surface. Successive seismograms come from equally spaced positions of the source and receiver along the seismic line. When a seismic profile is shot over dipping strata, the reflected arrivals on the seismograms will generally not have come from points vertically beneath the position of source and receiver. Migration is the process of repositiornng each seismic arrival on the section to the

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lateral position from which it came, while preserving the two-way travel time from source to reflecting point and back to the receiver. Thus migration is designed to reposition reflectors correctly and to collapse diffracted energy on the sections. Provided that the seismic line is running downdip over a two-dimensional structure, a straightforward conventional algorithm such as the diffraction stock would migrate the data successfully and improve the resolution on the seismic section. HQwever, with three-dimensional structures and cross-dip lines it is incorrect to assume that all the recorded energy has come from raypaths lying on the vertical plane through the seismic line. Twodimensional migration will not reposition reflectors correctly, will not collapse diffractions properly to maximise lateral resolution of faults, and will not eliminate sideswipe energy which has come from structures out of the vertical plane. The continuing expansion in the capacity of data acquisition systems has made three dimensional seismic surveys possible, with seismic sources and receivers distributed over an area, or at least a band, at the Earths surface, rather than simply along lines. Much research effort has been devoted in recent years to deriving algorithms for migrating seismic data in three dimensions which may be handled efficiently on digital computers. These methods, known collectively as waveequation migration, succeed in repositioning reflectors correctly, improving the lateral resolution and correcting the amplitudes of reflections. Professor Berknouts book is a thorough theoretical treatment of the different approaches to wave-equation migration which have been derived in recent years. The first four chapters set out the basic mathematics of vector analysis, discrete spectral analysis, two-dimensional Fourier transforms and wave theory which are required in the rest of the book. Then the forward problem of extrapolating the wave field is introduced and discussed within the context of modelling seismograms from generalised structures. Migration is shown to be the inverse of modeffing, in that the wavefield has to be extrapolated downward and imaged to produce the corrected seismic section. The meat of the book is the set of chapters on the different approaches to migration by wavefield extrapolation:
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migrating in the wavenumberfrequency domain, migrating by summation in the spacefrequency and space time domains and migrating with the finite-difference method. The penultimate chapter compares these different approaches and the final chapter is a discussion of the factors limiting lateral resolution. The treatment of migration is rigorous throughout. It is undoubtedly excellent for geophysicists who require a thorough understanding of migration methods. This book has to be studied rather than read. It does not contain any verbiage which would be superfluous to a sound mathematical exposition of the subject, and shows no examples of real seismic sections to illustrate the beneficial effects of migration. Accordingly it cannot be recommended for casual reading by nonspecialist geophysicists. The book has been produced by photographically reducing the typed manuscript, which contains only the occasional grammatical idiosyncrasy and some unimportant typing/speffing errors. Although the material has been clearly set out on each page, the reduction in size of the typescript makes the text physically tiresome to study.
N.R. GOULTY (Durham)

Microelectronics. Scientific American. W.H. Freeman, Reading, 145 pp., U.K. 3.10 (softcover), ISBN 0-7167-0066-2. We live in the computer age. The U.K. Government has a 55 million fund to help industry embrace the new technology and to create new educational courses in microelectronics and microprocessors. Some areas of scientific activity, for example geophysical field studies, are being transformed by the data logging and processing abilities of the minicomputer. We are entering the age of the smart scientific instrument in which it becomes difficult to distinguish between the physical instrument and its built-in capacity to decide when to take readings and to store, process and interpret the data. In order to make the best use of any specialist the potential user must know something about the