Developments in sedimentology. Diagenesis II / Исследования в седиментологии. Диагенезис II

This Introduction - and its philosophies - are dedicated to the late Johann (Hans) Steiner (Canada) and John Elliston (Australia) for their respective concepts offered far ahead of most of their contemporary fellow scientists. That is, Steiner’s ideas in “The sequence of geological events and the dynamics of the Milky Way Galaxy - the present cosmic year; a preliminary study” (J. Geol. SOC. Aust., 1967, 14(1): 99 - 132) which will eventually be proven to be part of the astronomical, longdistance controls on diagenesis; and Elliston’s physicochemical theories expressed in numerous publications, the latest of which treated the crystallization of hydrosilicates (based on thixotropy, for example) equally applicable to diagenetic systems (cf. Earth-Sci. Rev., 1984/85, vols. 20- 22).

Although the previously published and forthcoming volumes on Diagenesis deal almost exclusively with purely “scientific-cum-technical” methodologies’ and information, the ever-increasing demands on the theoretical (“academic”) and applied/practical researcher and explorationist are forcing us (occasionally, at least) to re-examine the underlying “philosophies” of our sciences2. But the just-stated demands are too multifarious to be dealt with here in detail; hence, only a few selectively chosen topics are preferentially treated. These are: (1) categories of research; (2) interdisciplinary approach; (3) interrelationships of geology - geochemistry - geophysics, (4) geochemical - mineralogical systems; (5) some laboratory-based (micro- mesoscale) investigations; (6) exemplar of interconnections between methodologies and some natural variables; (7) logic - validity - ambiguity - soundness - assumptions - informal fallacies as part of the Scientific Method; (8) some “practical philosophical” variables and their interrelations; (9) types of definitions; (10) the Real - Systems - Model World Trilogy; (1 1) the Objectivity - Reliability - Accuracy Spectrum/Continuum <...>