International Stratigraphic Guide - An Abridged Version

International Stratigraphic Guide - An abridged version

Edited by Michael A. Murphy1 and Amos Salvador2
International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Classification of IUGS
International Commission on Stratigraphy

1Geology Department, Univ.of California, Davis, California 95616, USA.
2Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA; e-mail:amos.salvador@mail.utexas.edu

Effective communication in science requires accurate and precise internationally acceptable terminology and procedures. The Abridged Version of the International Stratigraphic Guide, like the Guide itself, was developed to promote international agreement on principles of stratigraphic classification and to develop an internationally acceptable stratigraphic terminologyand rules of procedure in the interest of improved accuracy and precision in international communication, coordination, and understanding. It is not a revision of the Guide but a short version that omits history, explanatory text, and exemplification, the glossaries and the bibliography.
(A concise guide in the german language of the abridged Stratigraphic Guide is: Steiniger, F.F. & Piller,W.E., 1999. Empfehlungen (Richtlinien) zur Handhabung der stratigraphischen Nomenklatur. Courier Forschungsinstitutt Senckenberg 209, 20 p.)

Preface
The second edition of the International Stratigraphic Guide, edited by Amos Salvador, was prepared by the International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Classification of the International Commission on Stratigraphy and co-published in 1994 by theInternational Union of Geological Sciences and the Geological Society of America. Like the first edition, edited by Hollis D. Hedberg and published in 1976, the second edition of the Guide has been widely accepted and used by stratigraphers throughout the world. Copies can be obtained from the Geological Society of America, Publication Sales, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301, Fax 303-447-1133.Despite the wide acceptance and distribution of the second edition of the Guide, stratigraphers and students of stratigraphy around the world have commented on difficulty in gaining access to the Guide mainly because of remote availability of copies and of cost.The present abridged version of the second edition of the Guide is an attempt to overcome these problems.
This abridged version isnot a revision of the substance of the Guide; all essential tenets of the full second edition concerning stratigraphic classification, terminology, and procedure have been retained. Moreover, the abridged version has maintained the same organizational framework to the level of chapters, headings, and subheadings, so that the user can readily refer to the full version of the Guide for supplementarydetail; and where non-essential discussions of certain sections have been eliminated, headings have still been retained so that the user can easily find the corresponding section in the full version of the Guide. The principal victims of the abridgement have been some explanatory text, examples of stratigraphic procedures, the Glossary of Stratigraphic Terms, the List of National or RegionalStratigraphic Codes, and the extensive Bibliography of Stratigraphic Classification, Terminology and Procedure.
The editors express their appreciation to the editor of Episodes for helping to meet the aims of this abridged version of the International Stratigraphic Guide by publishing it in his journal, and for agreeing to prepare and market covered reprints of this document at cost. Theseactions ensure that the basic tenets of stratigraphic classification, terminology, and procedure can now reach stratigraphers and students of stratigraphy everywhere in the world.
As the notice accompanying this issue of Episodes states, individual covered reprints of the abridged version of the second edition of the Guide can be obtained from Episodes, P.O. Box 823, 26 Baiwanzhuang Road,...