The Goals of Data Collection and Its Statistical Treatment in the Earth Sciences The earth sciences are characterised by loose and complex relationships between variables, and the necessity to understand the geographical dis- tribution of observations as well as their frequency distribution. Our fre- quency distributions and the looseness of relationships reflect the com- plexity and intrinsic natural variation in nature, more than measurement error. Furthermore, earth scientists cannot design experiments according to statistical recommendation because the availability and complexity of data...

In May 1976 Lucian B. Platt organized a highly successful Penrose Confer ence on The Formation of Rock Cleavage at Bryn Mawr College in Penn sylvania, U. S. A. The meeting drew together about 70 specialists from both sides of the Atlantic and from Australasia, who contributed discussions on various aspects of rock cleavage and its formation. Even early in the meet ing it became clear to the participants that they lacked a common terminol ogy, that often the same technical word implied different things to different people and that observables and descriptors were loosely defined. In an at...