ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: This wide area of the Alpine–Himalayan belt evolved through a series of tectonic events related to the opening and closure of the Tethys Ocean. In doing so it produced the largest mountain belt of the world, which extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. The basins associated with this belt contain invaluable information related to mountain building processes and are the locus of rich hydrocarbon accumulations. However, knowledge about the geological evolution of the region is limited compared to what they offer. This has been mainly due to the difficulty and inaccessibility of cross-country studies. This Special Publication is dedicated to the part of the Alpine–Himalayan belt running from Bulgaria to Armenia, and from Ukraine to the Arabian Platform. It includes twenty multidisciplinary studies covering topics in structural geology/tectonics; geophysics; geochemistry; palaeontology; petrography; sedimentology; stratigraphy; and subsidence and lithospheric modelling. This volume reports results obtained during the MEBE (Middle East Basin Evolution) Programme and related projects in the circum Black Sea and peri-Arabian regions.

Description / Table of Contents: Limestone is a highly successful and widely used building material, found in many important historic buildings and new monuments around the world. Whilst its success reflects its durability under a wide range of environmental conditions, there are still important questions surrounding the selection, use and conservation of building limestones. In order to make best use of new limestone today, and to conserve old limestone most effectively, we need to bring modern research methods to bear on understanding the characteristics of different limestones, what mortars to use, and how key limestones have responded to polluted atmospheres. This volume brings together recent inter-disciplinary research on these issues, illustrating the diversity of innovative techniques that are now being applied to furthering our understanding of building limestones.

Description / Table of Contents: Disequilibrium textures versus equilibrium modelling: geochronology at the crossroads / Igor M. Villa / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 1-15, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.1 --- Argon enters the retentive zone: reassessment of diffusion parameters for K-feldspar in the South Cyclades Shear Zone, Ios, Greece / M. A. Forster and G. S. Lister / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 17-34, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.2 --- Serrated quartz grain boundaries, temperature and strain rate: testing fractal techniques in a syntectonic granite / Manish A. Mamtani and R. O. Greiling / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 35-48, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.3 --- Microstructure and elastic anisotropy of naturally deformed leucogneiss from a shear zone in Montalto (southern Calabria, Italy) / Rosolino Cirrincione, Eugenio Fazio, Renée Heilbronner, Hartmut Kern, Kurt Mengel, Gaetano Ortolano, Antonino Pezzino and Rosalda Punturo / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 49-68, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.4 --- Geometry of intercrystalline brine in plastically deforming halite rocks: inference from electrical resistivity / Tohru Watanabe / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 69-78, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.5 --- Brittle plus plastic deformation of gypsum aggregates experimentally deformed in torsion to high strains: quantitative microstructural and texture analysis from optical and diffraction data / M. Zucali, V. Barberini, D. Chateigner, B. Ouladdiaf and L. Lutterotti / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 79-98, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.6 --- Numerical modelling of spontaneous slab breakoff dynamics during continental collision / Cyrill Baumann, Taras V. Gerya and James A. D. Connolly / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 99-114, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.7 --- Present-day vertical isostatic readjustment of the Western Alps revealed by numerical modelling and geodetic and seismotectonic data / Annalisa Gardi, Stéphane Baize and Oona Scotti / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 115-128, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.8 --- Block model versus thermomechanical model: new insights on the present-day regional deformation in the surroundings of the Calabrian Arc / Raffaele Splendore, Anna Maria Marotta, Riccardo Barzaghi, Alessandra Borghi and Letizia Cannizzaro / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 129-147, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.9 --- The role of mantle hydration in continental crust recycling in the wedge region / Marco Meda, Anna Maria Marotta and Maria Iole Spalla / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 149-172, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.10 --- Three-dimensional evaluation of fabric evolution and metamorphic reaction progress in polycyclic and polymetamorphic terrains: a case from the Central Italian Alps / Francesca Salvi, Maria Iole Spalla, Michele Zucali and Guido Gosso / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 173-187, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.11 --- The interaction of deformation and metamorphic reactions / Bruce E. Hobbs, Alison Ord, Maria Iole Spalla, Guido Gosso and Michele Zucali / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 332, 189-223, 1 January 2010, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP332.12

Description / Table of Contents: This book considers the geology between North and South America. It contributes to debate about the area's evolution, particularly that of the Caribbean. Prevailing understanding is that the Caribbean formed in the Pacific and was engulfed between the Americas as the latter drifted west. Accordingly, the Caribbean Plate comprises internal, Jurassic–Cretaceous oceanic rocks, thickened into a Cretaceous hotspot/plume plateau, with obducted ophiolites and Cretaceous–Palaeogene, subduction-related, intra-oceanic volcanic arc and metamorphosed arc/continental rocks exposed on its margins. An alternative interpretation is that the Caribbean evolved in place. It consists largely of continental crust, extended in the Triassic–Jurassic, which subsided below thick Jurassic–Cretaceous carbonate rocks and flood basalts, and Cenozoic carbonate and clastic rocks. After uplift of ‘oceanic’ and volcanic arc rocks onto (continental) margins, the interior foundered in the Middle Eocene. Papers range from regional overviews and discussions of Caribbean origins to aspects of local geology arranged in a circum-Caribbean tour and ending in the interior. They address tectonics, structure, geochronology, seismicity, igneous and metamorphic petrology, metamorphism, geochemistry, stratigraphy and palaeontology.

Description / Table of Contents: Following the late Neoproterozoic – early Cambrian breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia, Gondwana evolved as one of the principal continental masses on Earth, embracing most of South America, Africa, Australasia, Antarctica, much of western Europe and parts of Asia. Around its margins were various other terranes that had varying tectonic and biogeographical affinities with the main continental block. This book incorporates a series of reviews and multidisciplinary research papers that together explore the tectonic, palaeogeographical and palaeobiogeographical evolution of the elements that made up the peri-Gondwanan collage. The stratigraphical scope of the coverage embraces the late Precambrian through early Devonian, providing a comprehensive overview of structural, stratigraphical and biological evolution through this significant interval of Earth history. Integration of these various processes throughout the volume will be of broad-based interest to a wide range of geoscientists.

Description / Table of Contents: This book presents a collection of papers that combines marine and terrestrial geological investigations valuable to hazard assessment in rocky coastal areas, including examples mostly coming from the Italian coasts. The hazardous processes that are discussed include: large slope failures, cliff recession and floods of steep coastal streams. It is assumed that coastal slopes operate as transfer zones of land-born geological processes, which deliver sediment to the coastal and open sea at intermittent time intervals, and therefore place coastal communities that are exposed or vulnerable to these events at high risk. Rocky coastal areas can be associated with regions of active or recent tectonics/volcanic activity, or can develop as low-relief cliffs along non-active margins. In all these settings, mass-wasting phenomena represent the most serious hazardous processes, and there is a need to characterize and model the factors causing them. It is stressed that proper comprehension of coastal mass-wasting hazard has to include shipboard acoustic surveys, historical source investigations and onshore geological features.

Description / Table of Contents: Ancient orogens and modern analogues: an introduction / J. Brendan Murphy, J. Duncan Keppie and Andrew J. Hynes / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 1-8, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.1 --- Mesozoic–Cenozoic Orogens --- Caldera volcanism and rift structure in the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand / J. W. Cole and K. D. Spinks / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 9-29, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.2 --- Andean flat-slab subduction through time / Victor A. Ramos and Andrés Folguera / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 31-54, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.3 --- Middle Miocene Chiapas fold and thrust belt of Mexico: a result of collision of the Tehuantepec Transform/Ridge with the Middle America Trench / J. J. Mandujano-Velazquez and J. Duncan Keppie / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 55-69, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.4 --- Extrusion of high-pressure Cache Creek rocks into the Triassic Stikinia–Quesnellia arc of the Canadian Cordillera: implications for terrane analysis of ancient orogens and palaeogeography / Jaroslav Dostal, J. Duncan Keppie and Filippo Ferri / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 71-87, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.5 --- Plate tectonics of the Alpine realm / Gérard M. Stampfli and Cyril Hochard / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 89-111, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.6 --- The Calabrian Orocline: buckling of a previously more linear orogen / Stephen T. Johnston and Stefano Mazzoli / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 113-125, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.7 --- Seismic structure, crustal architecture and tectonic evolution of the Anatolian-African Plate Boundary and the Cenozoic Orogenic Belts in the Eastern Mediterranean Region / Yildirim Dilek and Eric Sandvol / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 127-160, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.8 --- Palaeozoic/Neoproterozoic Orogens --- The evolution of the Uralian orogen / Victor N. Puchkov / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 161-195, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.9 --- Timing of dextral strike-slip processes and basement exhumation in the Elbe Zone (Saxo-Thuringian Zone): the final pulse of the Variscan Orogeny in the Bohemian Massif constrained by LA-SF-ICP-MS U-Pb zircon data / M. Hofmann, U. Linnemann, A. Gerdes, B. Ullrich and M. Schauer / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 197-214, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.10 --- Variscan intra-orogenic extensional tectonics in the Ossa-Morena Zone (Évora-Aracena-Lora del Rı́o metamorphic belt, SW Iberian Massif): SHRIMP zircon U-Th-Pb geochronology / M. Francisco Pereira, Martim Chichorro, Ian S. Williams, José B. Silva, Carlos Fernández, Manuel Dı́az-azpı́roz, Arturo Apraiz and Antonio Castro / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 215-237, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.11 --- Palaeozoic palaeogeography of Mexico: constraints from detrital zircon age data / R. Damian Nance, J. Duncan Keppie, Brent V. Miller, J. Brendan Murphy and Jaroslav Dostal / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 239-269, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.12 --- Pre-Carboniferous, episodic accretion-related, orogenesis along the Laurentian margin of the northern Appalachians / Cees R. van Staal, Joseph B. Whalen, Pablo Valverde-Vaquero, Alexandre Zagorevski and Neil Rogers / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 271-316, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.13 --- From Rodinia to Pangaea: ophiolites from NW Iberia as witness for a long-lived continental margin / Sonia Sánchez Martı́nez, Ricardo Arenas, Javier Fernández-Suárez and Teresa E. Jeffries / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 317-341, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.14 --- Rheic Ocean mafic complexes: overview and synthesis / J. Brendan Murphy, Gabriel Gutiérrez-Alonso, R. Damian Nance, Javier Fernández-Suárez, J. Duncan Keppie, Cecilio Quesada, Jaroslav Dostal and James A. Braid / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 343-369, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.15 --- Proterozoic Orogens --- The palaeomagnetically viable, long-lived and all-inclusive Rodinia supercontinent reconstruction / David A. D. Evans / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 371-404, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.16 --- The Grenville Province as a large hot long-duration collisional orogen – insights from the spatial and thermal evolution of its orogenic fronts / Toby Rivers / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 405-444, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.17 --- Neoproterozoic reworking of the Palaeoproterozoic Capricorn Orogen of Western Australia and implications for the amalgamation of Rodinia / Sandra A. Occhipinti and Steven M. Reddy / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 445-456, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.18 --- The Palaeoproterozoic Trans-Hudson Orogen: a prototype of modern accretionary processes / D. Corrigan, S. Pehrsson, N. Wodicka and E. de Kemp / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 327, 457-479, 1 January 2009, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP327.19

Description / Table of Contents: Periglacial and paraglacial environments, located outside ice sheet margins but responding to similar climate forcings, are key to identifying climate change effects upon the Earth system. These environments are relicts of cold Earth processes and so are most sensitive to global warming. Changes in the distribution and thickness of permafrost in continental interiors have implications for ecosystem and landscape stability. Periglacial Alpine environments are experiencing increased rockfall and mass movement, leading to rock glacier instability and sediment release to downstream rivers. In turn, these landscape effects impact on natural hazards and human activities in these sensitive and geologically transient environments. Papers in this volume explore some of these interrelated issues in field studies from Europe, North America and Asia. The volume will be of interest to geomorphologists, modellers, environmental managers, planners and engineers working on landscape, climate and environmental change in periglacial and paraglacial areas.

Description / Table of Contents: This volume, in honour of Peter L. Forey, is about fishes as palaeobiogeographic indicators in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The last 250 million years in the history of Earth have witnessed the break-up of Pangaea, affecting the biogeography of organisms. Fishes occupy almost all freshwater and marine environments, making them a good tool to assess palaeogeographic models. The volume begins with studies of Triassic chondrichthyans and lungfishes, with reflections on Triassic palaeogeography. Phylogeny and distribution of Late Jurassic neoselachians and basal teleosts are broached, and are followed by five papers about the Cretaceous, dealing with SE Asian sharks, South American ray-finned fishes and coelacanths, European characiforms, and global fish palaeogeography. Then six papers cover Tertiary subjects, such as bony tongues, eels, cypriniforms and coelacanths. There is generally a good fit between fish phylogenies and the evolution of the palaeogeographical pattern, although a few discrepancies question details of current palaeogeographic models and/or some aspects of fish phylogeny.

Description / Table of Contents: Some 75 years after the visionary work of Wegener and du Toit, Neoproterozoic to Mesozoic geological correlations between South America and Africa are re-examined in the light of plate tectonics and modern geological investigation (structural and metamorphic studies, stratigraphic logging, geochemistry, geochronology and palaeomagnetism). The book presents both reviews and new research relating to the shared Gondwana origins of countries facing each other across the South Atlantic Ocean, especially Brazil, Argentina, Cameroon, Nigeria, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. This is the first comprehensive treatment to be readily available in book form. It covers the common elements of cratonic areas pre-dating Gondwana, and how they came together in late Precambrian and Cambrian times with the formation of the Pan-African/Brasiliano orogenic belts (Dom Feliciano, Brasília, Ribeira, Damara, Gariep, Kaoko, etc.). The subsequent shared Palaeozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary record (Karoo system) prior to Gondwana break-up is also reviewed.