Collections of this sort are a regular publication feature of the Laboratory of Mathemati cal Geology of the Order of Lenin V. A. Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sci ences of the USSR. In the future it is intended that further collections and monographs reflect ing the activity of the Laboratory be issued. In this present collection, in addition to workers of the Laboratory of Mathematical Geology, specialists of both Russia and many foreign countries participated. This has permit ted us to display the general level of mathematization of geology in 1966. In order to enhance the overall view, the editors have included a section "Chronicle and Bibliography" in which in formation is given on the most important actions relating to mathematization of geology taking place in 1965 and the first half of 1966, and which includes a bibliography on two-dimensional regressions having great practical value in geology but little known to us in the Soviet Union."

This book gives an account of a method of determining the type composition of sandy deposits from the air by the nature of their reflection of radiant energy. The measured spectral luminance of a rock outcrop rela ti ve to the luminance of a standard is the basic property considered in this method. The spectral luminance factors p\ are measured by means of special instruments - a universal photometer, cinespectrograph, spectro visors, and other spectrometers. The measured values of P" of the investigated rocks are interpreted geologically with the aid of some methods of mathematical statistics so that a means of lithological mapping of sandy deposits from the air can be found. The importance of developing a method of determining the type composition of rocks, primarily sandy de posits, from the air stems from the extensive occurrence of deserts on the earth's surface. Sandy deserts occupy vast areas in the southern latitudes of the USSR and occur in western and central China, Pakistan, Iran, India, and other states. In these deserts there are numerous deposits of petroleum and gas, and a search for water is continuously in progress. Successful prospecting for the above minerals depends on a determination of the material composition of the sandy deposits in these deserts and the solution of several questions of recent tec tonics, paleogeography, and quaternary geology, the answers to which might also be given by a study of the dis tribution of lithological types of sands.