This volume presents a selection of survey and research articles based on invited lectures and contributed talks presented at the Workshop on Fluid Dynamics in Porous Media that was held in Coimbra, Portugal, in September 12-14, 2011. The contributions are devoted to mathematical modeling, numerical simulation and their applications, providing the readers a state-of-the-art overview on the latest findings and new challenges on the topic. The book includes research work of worldwide recognized leaders in their respective fields and presents advances in both theory and applications, making it appealing to a vast range of audience, in particular mathematicians, engineers and physicists.

This book consists of 44 technical papers presented at the Ninth International Geostatistics Congress held in Oslo, Norway in June 2012. The papers have been reviewed by a panel of specialists in Geostatistics. The book is divided into four main sections: Theory; Petroleum; Mining; and Environment, Climate and Hydrology. The first section focuses on new ideas of general interest to many fields of applications. The next sections are more focused on the particular needs of the particular industry or activity. Geostatistics is vital to any industry dependent on natural resources. Methods from geostatistics are used for estimating reserves, quantifying economical risk and planning of future industrial operations. Geostatistics is also an important tool for mapping environmental hazard and integrating climate data.

The push-pull test is a powerful site characterization technique that has been applied to a wide range of problems in contaminant hydrogeology. The theoretical and practical apsects of push-pull testing were initially developed to characterize groundwater acquifers but the method has now been extended to saturated and unsaturated soils and sediments as well as to surface water bodies. Dr. Istok and his collaborators have been instrumental in the development of these techniques and he is widely recognized as the world's leading expert push-pull testing. This is the only reference book available on this powerful method.

After many years of geographical and bibliographical journeys, William Panczner has completed a project that many of us would have loved to initiate, but did not undertake because of its magnitude and intrinsic complexity. Not since L. Salazar Salinas, who is credited with authoring Bole tin numeros 40 and 41 (lnstituto Geologico de Mexico, 1922, 1923), has an author been able to provide readers with a comprehensive volume containing information that is both authentic and reliable on Mexican mineralogy, mineral species, and localities. This volume is the most complete synthesis about Mexican minerals and their occurrences to date. It is richly illustrated with photographs and drawings, is well documented, and is organized into four sections, making it easy to use and enjoyable to read. The introduction contains an interesting summary of the mining history and the development of mineralogy. It also describes, in a condensed but accurate and stimulating manner, the geography and the mineralogy of the country, dividing it into eleven mineral provinces. The author discusses eight of the more important mining districts in Mexico, which produce fine mineral speci mens. There is also a chronology of historical, geological, and mineralogical events in Mexico. This is followed by a bibliography with over 500 references on the subject.

The discipline encompassing the use of high-resolution geophysics for obtaining geoengineering survey data has evolved rapidly over the past decades to become an interdisciplinary subject encompassing the fields of Geophysics, engineering, geology, marine geology, oceanography, and civil engineering. While high-resolution geophysical surveys are routinely performed offshore today, this has been so only since the late 1960s. High-resolution geophysical methods are employed in the offshore environment to obtain a comprehensive picture of the sea-floor mor phology and underlying shallow stratigraphy. The purpose of the survey methods is to assist in the design and installation of bottom-supported structures such as drilling and production platforms and pipelines. Drilling structures and pipelines of steel and/or concrete have become behemoths with respect to their size and the complexity of their design in order to withstand, for periods of up to twenty-five years, an extremely harsh environment, including storm waves, strong currents, unstable sea floor conditions, and great water depths. It is therefore of paramount importance that the geometry and physical properties of the sea floor be well understood in order to provide an adequate foundation for the design lives of such structures. On land, engineering foundation data usually may be obtained by visual field inspection and shallow borehole information, but offshore the presence of the water column places certain constraints on geoengineering investigations. High-resolution geophysical methods employed in the acquisition of geoengineering data offshore are defined as the use of seismic sources and receivers that operate at acoustic frequencies greater than 100 Hz.

As we transition into the 21st century, it is apparent that this is an exciting time for environmental engineers and scientists studying remediation technologies. There has been a rapid development of new ways to clean-up polluted groundwater. Research activities of the past and next 10 years will have a dramatic impact on the quality of the subsurface environment for the next century. In 20, or even 10 years from now, our approach to subsurface remediation will probably be vastly different than it is today. Many of the emerging technologies presented in this book will form the basis of standard remediation practices of the future. Physicochemical Groundwater Remediation presents detailed information on multiple emerging technologies for the remediation of the contaminated subsurface environment. All of these technologies apply our knowledge of physical and chemical processes to clean up ground water and the unsaturated zone, and many (if not all) of these emerging technologies will help define standard practices in the future. These technologies include in situ sorptive and reactive treatment walls, surfactant-enhanced aquifer remediation, optimization analyses for remediation system design, chemical, electrochemical, and biochemical remediation processes, and monitored natural attenuation. You will learn how palladium catalyzes the dehalogenation of chlorinated solvents. You will find out how barometric pumping can naturally remove significant quantities of volatile organic pollutants from shallow ground water and the unsaturated zone. You can learn about mobilizing non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) without risking significant downward migration of the NAPL. You can find out how processes such as electroosmosis and electromigration can be exploited for groundwater remediation purposes and how zero-valent iron and zeolite treatment walls can be used in situ to treat and control contaminant plume migration. Contributors to this book are experts in groundwater remediation processes, and they represent industry, consulting, academia, and government. If your work involves the clean up of contaminated soil and groundwater, this book is an essential reference to keep you up to date on the most promising new developments in remediation research.

The series editor's foreword provides the opportunity to give the rationale for a series on the evolution of ore fields. In brief, it meets a need that I, an explorationist, perceived as I became involved in a multidisciplinary explo ration program in the late 1960s. We were looking for mines while prospecting at the ore-field scale. The practicalities demand that we know more about the ore field and that we do not just study individual deposits, the analogy being the three blind men who attempted to describe the elephant as they felt the trunk, ear, or leg. Two considerations in identifying ore fields are the different perception as one changes scale from orebody to ore field and the problem of stratigraphic classification and nomenclature in terms appropriate to metallogenesis. Two workers, Brock (1972) and Carey (1976), have been particularly con cerned with the different appreciation brought about by a change in scale."

In the second edition Steve Kesler (University of Michigan) has been added as an author to rewrite some chapters. The motivation for this revised edition is to more intensively address economic issues that surround the exploitation of mineral resources. This emphasis gives the book a unique character. With these sections "Metals and Society" deals with issues that pervade much of current science reporting the rate of exploitation of natural resources, the question of when or if these resources will be exhausted, the pollution and social disturbance that accompanies mining, the compromises and challenges that arise from the explosion of demand from China, India and other rapidly developing countries, and the moral issues that surround mining of metals in lesser developed countries for consumption in the first-world countries.

With its dual character, the book will be useful as an introductory text for students in the earth sciences and a reference volume for students, teachers and researchers of geography, economics and the social sciences.

"

This is the sixth contribution to the Computer Methods in the Geosciences series and it continues the tradition of being practical, germaine, and easy to read. Michael Hohn in his presentation, Geostatistics and Petroleum Geology, nicely compliments the other books in the series and brings to the readers some new techniques by which to analyze their data. New approaches always result in new ideas or enhancement of old ones. The French School of Geostatistiques (Fontainebleau, France) was founded and developed by Georges Matheron in response to problems in mining explo ration and exploitation. This approach has been used successfully in that industry since the mid-1960s, but only recently applied to similar problems in petroleum. Likewise, these applications have been successful in this applied field as well and here Hohn gives examples. Standard subjects of the field of geostatistics are explored and discussed-the semivariogram, kriging, cokriging, nonlinear and parametric estimation, and conditional simulation. These may be unrecognizable terms to the readers now, but upon completion of reading the book, they will be fimiliar ones. Each subject is discussed in detail with appropriate and pertinent case studies, taken from the author's own research or from the literature. The author notes the book is for working geologists in the petroleum industry."

This book describes the methods and attributes required for the compe tent quality control of the data acquisition of a seismic exploration crew operating on land. Although the book is concerned mainly with explo ration for oil and gas reservoirs, and all the topics that are discussed in it are centred on that target, the material is applicable to other areas of seismic exploration such as civil engineering and the search for other minerals. The book comprises the distillation of more than thirty years' experience in geophysical exploration in all its aspects and in many parts of the world. Seismic data acquisition quality supervision is one aspect of geophysical exploration which, although of great importance, has had, so far as the writer is aware, no textbook devoted to it. It is hoped that it will be of interest to anyone who is engaged, in whatever capacity, in geophysical exploration and will help them to attain their goal, which is illustrated in Fig. 1. 1. The term birddog is colloquial in the geophysical exploration industry. It is a convenient shorthand title to describe the person whose full title is, and who acts as, the data acquisition quality control supervisor on a field seismic exploration crew. The term is used also to describe the person who is the client's representative on the field crew. In practice the same person performs both functions on behalf of the client."

reviewers, and reported by users of the earlier This third edition (or issue) of the Quantitative Data File for ore minerals (QDF) of the Commission on editions. The result is that 510 species and 125 are Mineralogy of the International Mineralogical compositional or structural variants, or varieties, of Association (COM-IMA) is published, with the species, are represented in QDF3. A large number of support of the Natural History Museum, London, by the entries include data collected from the type Chapman & Hall. It has been greatly revised and specimen of a mineral: these include data extracted enlarged and now includes graphs of the reflectance from the published literature. In this respect, QDF3 spectra for all of its entries. These have been differs from earlier editions. included in response to requests from users of the We have also revised and simplified the notes earlier editions. Also included, for those users concerning X-ray data: no longer are the strongest unfamiliar with the application of such spectra to lines in the powder diffraction pattern quoted, nor mineral identification, are introductory notes, are cell dimensions generally given. Instead, it was illustrated with examples of R spectra. decided to refer to data from the original description, The 635 data sets, which are arranged or to data in the PDF of the JCPDS.

Although some handbooks on the microscopic identi In Part I the concept of heavy mineral analysis is fication of heavy mineral grains are available, a introduced and the relative significance of factors comprehensive manual illustrated in colour has not affecting heavy mineral assemblages is discussed. There been published until now. Because the appearance of are brief references to the commonly used laboratory minerals in grain mounts differs considerably from methods and auxiliary techniques. It concludes with those seen in a thin section, a different approach is some examples of the application of heavy mineral necessary for the identification of detrital grains. studies. Coloured photomicrographs, showing their colour Part II contains the descriptions of 61 transparent shades, pleochroism and interference tints, provide heavy mineral species, including those which are an excellent means of assisting recognition. As a commonly authigenic in sediments. Positive identi number of mineral grains have similar optical proper fication of authigenic minerals is important to avoid ties and morphology, it is equally important to confusion and to help recognition of diagenetic describe them verbally in detail, pointing out events. In the mineral descriptions considerable characteristic features and differences. emphasis is placed upon detrital morphology and This book is intended primarily as a manual that diagnostic features. Optical properties and character describes and illustrates the transparent heavy min istics are detailed, together with information on host erals most commonly found in sediments. It is hoped rocks.

The 12thInternational BasementTectonicsConferencewas hostedbythe Schoolof Geologyand Geophysics and theOklahoma Geological Survey inthe SarkeysEnergy Centeronthe campusoftheUniversityofOklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, U. S. A. , from May 21stthroughMay 26th, 1995. Atotal of52 individualswere in attendance, 9 ofwhichwereattendingfrom 6differentforeign countries. Fourdaysoforal and posterpresentationswere divided intofour technical sessions withthefollowing themes: I)FractureDevelopment, Reactivation, andMineralization, organizedbyM. 1. Bartholomewand S. Marshak; 2)EvolutionoftheBasementofthe North American Plate (with special emphasison its southern margin), organizedby R E. Denisonand E. G. Lidiak; 3)ProbingofBasement: Geophysical and Geochemical Methods,organizedbyR A. Youngand G. R Keller; and 4)ResponseofCoverRocks toBasementDeformation, organized by P. Berendsenand M. P. Carlson. Seventy-five presentationswere made during thecourseofthe meeting, which wasorganizedby Program Chairman M. Charles Gilbertandprofessionally managedbySaraMoody. Precedingthe meeting wasatwo dayfield trip toexaminethe modeand kinematics ofterraneaccretion duringclosureofan oceanbasin, as preserved in thePrecambrian geologyoftheeasternLlano Uplift, Texas, U. S. A. Thefield trip leaders Sharon Mosher, MarkHelper, Don Barker, and Robert Reed providedan excellentand comprehensive guidebook, and shared theirconsiderable expertise in manydiscussions at one spectacularexposures afteranother. All registrants participatedinthe mid-conferencefield tripguidedby R E. Denison, E. G. Lidiak, M. C. Gilbert, and John P. Hogan to examinethePrecambrianand Cambrianbasementterranesexposed in the ArbuckleMountainsupliftin southernOklahoma, U. S. A. Evidencefor apossible continental arc settingfor the southern margin ofthe-1. 4 Ga Granite-Rhyolite Terrane, theopeningofthe Cambrian Southern Oklahoma Aulacogenasevidencedby aspectacularexposureofadiabasedike swarm, and the roleofearliertectonicfabrics in thedevelopmentofyoungerstructureswere someofthe topicsofdiscussion. Thetwo day postconferencefield trip to the WichitaMountains uplift, southwestern Oklahoma, U. S. A. was ledby M. Charles Gilbert, and John P. Hogan. Thistrip highlightedthe Cambrian SouthernOklahoma Aulacogen.

Estimating abundance of wildlife is an essential component of a wildlife research program, and a prerequisite for sound management. With the exception of a few highly mathematical volumes, there are no books on the subject for use by students and field workers. Also, the various techniques for counting animals found in scientific journals are often not accessible to African managers. The unavailability of the diverse literature necessitated the production of a textbook or field manual that covers the ground. The book compiles the most relevant techniques for counting African mammals, illustrated with many examples from the field. It provides guidelines for selecting the appropriate methodology for a range of conditions commonly found in the field, in terms of different animal species, habitat types, and management objectives.

Reservoirs generally consist of sandstones or carbonates exhibiting heterogeneities caused by a wide range of factors. Some of these formed depositionally (e.g. as channels, palaeosols, clay seams or salts), others may be diagenetic in origin (e.g. carbonate or silica cemented zones, authigenic clays, karstic surfaces). The severity with which diagenesis affects rock systems results from the interplay between the diagenetic process itself and the timescale over which it operated. The book provides a wide-ranging overview of diagenetic processes and responses in calcareous, argillaceous, arenaceous and carbon-rich (microbial and organic) sedimentary systems. It introduces diagenetic concepts, reviews existing knowledge, and shows how existing qualitative approaches might be developed in more quantitative ways. Several chapters consider mass balance calculations and the temporal and spatial aspects of diagenetic processes. It is unique, as a textbook, in providing such a breadth of diagenetic subject range and such depth of coverage in each topic. It provides a source reference for advanced students and professionals active in reservoir and aquifer studies.

One of the major challenges of sustainable development is the interdisciplinary nature of the issues involved. To this end, a team of conservation biologists, hunters, tourist operators, ranchers, wildlife and land managers, ecologists, veterinarians and economists was convened to discuss whether wildlife outside protected areas in Africa can be conserved in the face of agricultural expansion and human population growth. They reached the unequivocal - if controversial - conclusion that wildlife can be an economic asset, especially in the African savannas, if this wildlife can be sustainably utilized through safari hunting and tourism. Using the African savannas as an example, Wildlife Conservation by Sustainable Use shows that in many instances sustainable wildlife utilization comprises an even better form of land use than livestock keeping. Even when population pressure is high, as in agricultural areas or in humid zones, and wild animal species can pose a serious cost to agriculture, these costs are mainly caused by small species with a low potential for safari hunting. Although ranching has a very low rate of return and is hardly ever profitable, the biggest obstacle to the model of sustainable wildlife use outlined in Wildlife Conservation by Sustainable Use is from unfair competition from the agricultural sector, such as subsidies and lack of taxation, resulting in market distortion for wildlife utilization. This book thus gives valuable evidence for a different way of working, providing arguments for removing such distortions and thereby facilitating financially sound land use and making it a rationally sound choice to conserve wildlife outside protected areas. The expert team of authors, most of whom came together at a workshop to thrash out the ideas that were then developed into the various chapters, has written a superb account of recent research on this complex subject, resulting in a book that is a major contribution to our understanding of sustainable use of land. The important conclusion is that wildlife conservation can be possible for landholders and local communities if they have a financial interest in protecting wildlife on their lands.

oil is the lifeblood of the World's economy. It was a critical element in two World Wars and in the Cold War, and, as recent events in the Middle East confirm, people are willing to fight for it. The cheap energy it provides, especially for transport and agriculture, was one of the main factors that made possible the economic prosperity and growth that the World has enjoyed for the past fifty years and more. People rely on it everywhere, and in many forms, and they have become so accustomed to its ready availability that they take it for granted. To conceive of a world without traffic jams and airliners is unthinkable, and while not so obvious, oil lies behind every supermarket shelf, fuelling the tractor that ploughs the field and the delivery van that brings the consumer his food. Yet everyone knows that it is a finite and irreplaceable commodity, formed long ago in the geological past. What no one knows is just how finite it is. This book is an effort to try to answer that question : not in detail, but at least in orders of magnitude. More useful than the figures themselves is the discussion of the elements involved in addressing the subject. While it is impossible to predict the precise pattern of future production, which will be affected by many unforeseeable factors, one can at least begin to think in terms of resource constraint instead of an ever expanding supply of oil.

The first North Sea Oil and Gas Conference was held in Trondheim in 1985 as a part of the Norwegian Institute of Technology's 75th anniversary celebration. Favourable reactions from the delegates prompted the Organizing Committee to rerun the event in 1989. The response was again very encourag ing and led the Committee to conclude that the conference should be held on a regular basis so long as there is a demand for this type of gathering. The third conference in the series was held in 1992. The objectives of the conference series are fourfold: To bring together those who are engaged in various geoscientific and reservoir engineering aspects of North Sea oil and gas reservoirs in one forum; to demonstrate wherever possible the interdependence of the various disciplines and specializations; to promote innovative, synergetic approaches to research and development programmes aimed at North Sea conditions; and to reflect current trends in the reservoir sciences. The conference format has remained unchanged throughout the series. The present conference contained four field reviews by Amoco, Conoco, NAM Velsen, and Statoil, and four keynotes addresses by Professor R. Ewing, Dr. G. Geehan, Dr. D. Johnston, and Dr. F. Santarelli. Twenty-seven research papers were selected from the response to a Call for Papers in accordance with the aims of the conference and their technical contents.

Structural geologists are well aware of the fact that isotropic rocks are quite exceptional in nature. Whicheverorigin, sedimentary, metamorphicormagmatic, rocks are shaped with a plane of mineral flattening, the foliation in geologists' jargon, and with a line ofmineral elongation, the lineation. Just like a good quarryman, a trained structural geologistwill detectapreferredorientationin an apparently isotropic granite. Preferred mineral orientation and thus structural anisotropy are the rule in nature. Consideringthe largevariationsinelasticcoefficientsofrock-forming minerals, itcould be predicted that, in turn, seismic anisotropy should exist and be important, provided thatdomains withasimilarstructural signatureare largeenough to affectseismic waves. This is why, in 1982 at a conference held in Frankfurt, which was oneofthe fIrst meetings devoted to the subject of seismic anisotropy, I asked Don Anderson the question of why seismologists had not considered earlier in their models the obvious constraint of anisotropy. I still remember Don's answer: "Adolphe, we knew that our isotropic models were not very good but we had no other choice. It is simply that, so far, computerswere not largeenough tointegrate the anisotropy parameter." Changingisotropic glassesfor anisotropic ones permits us to obtain betterand more realistic seismic modelsofthe Earth's interior, but, maybe more importantly, it has, for a seismologist, the farreaching consequenceofsteppinginto the fIeld ofgeodynamics.

Sedimentation and Tectonics in Rift Basins: Red Sea - Gulf of Aden presents new case studies and synthesises the results of recent research on the sedimentological evolution of the Red Sea - Gulf of Aden rift system. This rift basin is generally regarded as the best natural geological laboratory in the world in which to study the processes of rift formation. Uplift of the rift margins in an arid climate results in extensive three-dimensional exposures of pre- and syn-rift strata and associated structures. These serve as analogues for the understanding and hydrocarbon exploration of deeper buried rift-systems on continental margins such as the North Sea and the Atlantic margins. The Red Sea - Gulf of Aden rift is also exceptional in that its stratigraphy spans all stages from pre-rift environments, syn-rift continental to marine environments through the rift to drift transition to post-rift sea-floor spreading. The work is arranged in eight sections: following a review of the sedimentology and stratigraphy of rift basins, the magmatism and structural evolution of the Red Sea - Gulf of Aden rift is reviewed. Subsequently, new case studies are presented of the early rifting environment, syn-rift sedimentation, tectonics and diagenesis, evaporites and salt tectonics. Post-rift sediments of the axial trough are then discussed along with studies of reefs, coastal zone and shelf sediments, and the tectonic geomorphology of the rift margin escarpment. This work results from extensive new research in the rift basin largely carried out under collaborative research projects by European and Middle Eastern geologists. It will be an invaluable reference work for geoscientists in the hydrocarbon, groundwater and mineral extraction industries, as well as for researchers in university departments of earth sciences, mining and physical geography.

Taking Complexity Seriously applies the advanced policy analysis technique of triangulation to what is now the world's most complex public policy challenge: sustainable development. One central problem of public policy analysis has been to find new ways of analyzing issues of increasing complexity and uncertainty. Triangulation is perhaps the best example of these novel techniques, as it uses various methods, databases, theories, and approaches to converge on what to do about the complex issue in question. Taking Complexity Seriously uses four different theoretical approaches (Girardian economics, cultural theory, critical theory, and the local justice framework) to triangulation in order to converge on answers to four major policy questions: What is sustainable development? Why is it an issue? What needs to be done? What can actually be done? These four approaches are used to analyze the sustainable development controversy that recently arose in the pages of Science magazine and the journal Ecological Applications. These different approaches prove highly potent in defamiliarizing conventional wisdom about sustainable development. Ultimately the different approaches will converge on novel answers to the four questions. The practical implications of these conclusions are drawn out at the end of Taking Complexity Seriously in a detailed case study of ecosystem management.

The reasons for writing this book are very simple. We use and teach com puter aided techniques of mathematical simulation and of pattern recogni tion. Life would be much simpler if we had a suitable text book with methods and computer programmes which we could keep referring to. Therefore, we have presented here material that is essential for mathematical modelling of some complex geological situations, with which earth scientists are often confronted. The reader is introduced not only to the essentials of computer modelling, data analysis and pattern recognition, but is also made familiar with the basic understanding with which they can plunge into when solving related and more complex problems. This book first makes a case for seismic stratigraphy and then for pattern recognition. Chapter 1 provides an extensive review of applications of pattern recognition methods in oil exploration. Simulation procedures are presented with examples that are fairly simple to understand and easy to use on the computer. Several geological situations can be formulated and simulated using the Monte Carlo method. The binary lithologic sequences, discussed in Chapter 2, consist of alternating layers of any two of sand, shale and coal."

Sixty years ago the Louisiana Geological Survey published "Rock Salt. Its Origin. Geological Occurrences and Economic Importance in the' State of Louisiana, Together with Brief Notes and References to All Known Salt Deposits and Industries of the World" (Bull., 7, 1908, 259 pp.) by G. D. Harris, assisted by G. D. Maury and L. Reineke. The volume which follows is an equally ambitious project, carved out as a labor of love by Stanley J. Lefond, who began the work when he was a geologist with Diamond Alkali Company, Cleve land, Ohio, and finished it when he was a member of the geology staff of United States Borax & Chemical Corp., Los Angeles. Mr. Lefond has done a thorough job, taking full advantage of the discoveries (due in large part to exploration of the subsurface in the search for oil), expanded governmental coverage of mineral deposits, and improved communications, since 1908. The motivation for "The Handbook of World Salt Resources" was the First Symposium on Salt, held in Cleveland in May, 1962, which was sponsored and organized by the relatively young and dynamic Northern Ohio Geological Society. The user of this valuable compilation owes a debt of gratitude to that Society, to the Diamond Alkali Company which donated countless hours of Mr. Lefond's time, and above all, to author Stanley Lefond."

In this text, attention is focused mainly on those literature is accessible, however, it is to be expected countries in western Africa lying south of the Sahara, that teachers and lecturers will know of it and will be that is, between about SON and 15 DegreesN, and westward able to acquaint their students with it, where neces of about 15 DegreesE. Parts of the region as far north as sary. about 200N are considered from time to time, for A glossary of terms is provided at the end of the purposes of correlation and cQntinuity. The map on volume, and there is a summary at the beginning of p. xiii indicates the approximate extent of the cover each chapter. age. This book is dedicated to the many colleagues and The principal aim is to provide a broad view of students with whom we have worked in West Africa West African geology as a whole, for undergraduates and who have stimulated and encouraged our teach who are studying for honours degrees in geology and ing and research in various ways. We hope also that it may help the work of international organizations who already have an understanding of basic geologi cal principles. It is increasingly important that such as AGID, CIFEG and UNESCO to encourage the growing trend towards geological co-operation geologists working in this region should see it as made up of geological 'provinces' which transcend and correlation between different countries in West national boundaries. Africa.