Paradoxes in Geology

Book excerpt: An interesting volume presenting the papers collected for the Festschrift "Paradoxes in Modern Geology" in honor of Professor Ken Jinghwa Hsu on the occasion of his 70th birthday.Paradox, as defined in a dictionary, is a statement contrary to accepted opinion. That a broad discussion of paradoxes is fruitful for the advancement of science in general, and geosciences in particular, has been amply demonstrated by Professor Hsu throughout his distinguished career. Not only has he propelled the geoscience community forward with his controversial statements, a number of his former students, who are currently in key positions at universities and in industry, are influencing in a similar open minded way the present day thinking. The wide scope this reasoning encompasses is demonstrated by the contributions to this book, delineating paradoxes and problems in the fields of tectonics, basic and applied geosciences, petrology, paleoceanography, paleoclimatology and paleogeography, kinematics and modelling.