Year by year the Earth sciences grow more diverse, with an inevitable increase in the degree to which rampant specialization isolates the practitioners of an ever larger number of sub fields. An increasing emphasis on sophisticated mathematics, physics and chemistry as well as the use of advanced technology have. set up barriers often impenetrable to the uninitiated. Ironically, the potential value of many specialities for other, often non-contiguous once has also increased. What is at the present time quiet, unseen work in a remote corner of our discipline, may tomorrow enhance, even revitalize some entirely different area. The rising flood of research reports has drastically cut the time we have available for free reading. The enormous proliferation of journals expressly aimed at small, select audiences has raised the threshold of access to a large part of the literature so much that many of us are unable to cross it. This, most would agree, is not only unfortunate but downright dangerous, limiting by sheer bulk of paper or difficulty of comprehension, the flow of information across the Earth sciences because, after all it is just one earth that we all study, and cross fertilization is the key to progress. If one knows where to obtain much needed data or inspiration, no effort is too great. It is when we remain unaware of its existence (perhaps even in the office next door) that stagnation soon sets in.

Since the 1960s, the general theory of plate tectonics has provided a clear link between the geological processes of seafloor spreading, subduction and mountain building. However, details of how this theory relates to continental tectonics are still unclear; the nature of the theory itself may depend upon the recent interpretation of tectonostratigraphic terranes, areas where geologic relations are uncertain, suspect and possibly unrelated. This book introduces the reader to the principles of terrane analysis, and describes how accretion tectonics relates to classic plate tectonic theory and what this represents in terms of mountain building and continental growth processes. A forensic-like investigation of continental geology is detailed, integrating many different sub-disciplines of the Earth Sciences. The concepts outlined have a practical bent and help to explain the nature and occurrences of petroleum and metallic mineral deposits. Written in a lively manner, the author conveys his enthusiasm for the subject and puts across complex ideas in a way that is easy to comprehend. Senior undergraduates and graduate students will find this a useful synthesis of structural geology and tectonics. Petroleum and mineral explorationists, paleogeographers, structural geologists and earthquake seismologists will also find the ideas condensed in this advanced text invaluable.