Over the last three decades, there has been a growing appreciation of the role of extensional tectonics in convergent orogens. The opening contribution, by Brian Wernicke, provides a flavour of how this detachment era has changed our views on tectonometamorphic relationships in mountain belts. It gives a historic view of how our ideas about large-scale tectonic contacts in mountain belts have changed over the years. Wernicke concludes that controversy still persists over the existence and mechanics of slip on shallowly dipping extensional detachments. However, incontrovertible field evidence shows that slip on shallowly dipping extensional faults occurs in nature. The other papers provide a mix of new, innovative and controversial ideas that may help to solve the mechanical paradox on slip on shallowly dipping extensional detachments and quantitative case studies from New Zealand, the Aegean extensional province, the Alps and Finland.
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