Extending a Continent: Architecture, Rheology and Heat Budget

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.

Related Titles

SP318 Earth Accretionary Systems in Space and Time
Edited by P A Cawood and A Kroner
ISBN: 978-1-86239-278-6
Publication Date: July 2009
Pages: 424
Hardback
Prices: $190

Accretionary orogens form at convergent plate boundaries and have been active throughout Earth history. They provide an important constraint on the initiation of horizontal motion of lithospheric plates on Earth and have been responsible for major growth of the continental lithosphere through the addition of juvenile magma.

SP312 South Caspian to Central Iran Basins
Edited by M F Brunet, M Wilmsen and J W Granath
ISBN: 978-1-86239-271-7
Publication Date: May 2009
Pages: 360
Hardback
Prices: $190

The data and models in this volume present a comprehensive picture of the Late Palaeozoic to Cenozoic evolution of the South Caspian to Central Iran region. Geodynamic processes and basin evolution are mainly controlled by the successive closure of the Palaeo- and Neo-Tethys oceans and the associated collisions, interspersed with periods of extension.

SP291 The Geodynamics of the Aegean and Anatolia
Edited by T Taymaz, Y Ylmaz and Y Dilek
ISBN: 978-1-86239-239-7
Publication Date: December 2007
Pages: 320
Hardback
Prices: $190

The Aegean region is considered to be a perfect natural laboratory in which to study the mechanisms of core complex formation, synchronous basin evolution and subsequent graben formation in late orogenic continental extensional deformation following crustal thickening due to orogenic contraction. The region has been the subject of intensive research for several decades. This will be essential reading about the structural evolution of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Geological Society of London

Founded in 1807, the Geological Society of London is the oldest geological society in the world, and one of the largest publishers in the Earth sciences.

The Society publishes a wide range of high-quality peer-reviewed titles for academics and professionals working in the geosciences, and enjoys an enviable international reputation for the quality of its work.

The many areas in which we publish in include:

-Petroleum geology
-Tectonics, structural geology and geodynamics
-Stratigraphy, sedimentology and paleontology
-Volcanology, magmatic studies and geochemistry
-Remote sensing
-History of geology
-Regional geology guides