News Release

Cutting through continental crust

Book Announcement

Geological Society of America

Crustal Cross Sections from the Western North American Cordillera and Elsewhere

image: This is the cover of a new Special Paper from The Geological Society of America, "Crustal Cross Sections from the Western North American Cordillera and Elsewhere: Implications for Tectonic and Petrologic Processes," edited by Robert B. Miller and Arthur W. Snoke. view more 

Credit: Geological Society of America

Boulder, CO, USA - This new volume from The Geological Society of America provides a synthesis of crustal cross sections with a special emphasis on the western North American Cordillera. From the North American geographic perspective, articles discuss examples of crustal cross sections from the Bering Shelf area, where the Russian Federation and Alaska share a common international border, followed by other studies of areas along the western North American Cordillera and the southwestern United States.

Exposed crustal cross sections provide a unique direct view of continental crust, and are a major source of insights into variations in lithologic and geochemical composition, structural style, metamorphism, plutonism, and rheology with progressive depth through the crust. This volume places special emphasis on Phanerozoic sections from the western North American Cordillera, supplemented by articles on lower- and mid-crustal sections through Proterozoic crust in North America and Australia, and the classic crustal section of Fiordland, New Zealand. Many of the papers describe multidisciplinary research on crustal sections and include data from various combinations of structural analysis, geochemistry, geothermobarometry, geochronology, geophysics, and other disciplines. Also discussed are common problems for the interpretation of crustal cross sections, including how sections that expose deep-crustal rocks are eventually exhumed, leading to the conclusion that there is no simple "standard model" for continental crust.

Volume editors Robert B. Miller of San José State University and Art Snoke of the University of Wyoming note that this new GSA Special Paper will be useful to students, faculty, professionals, and others interested in structural geology, tectonics, geodynamics, regional geology, petrology, geochemistry/isotope geology, and geophysics.

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Individual copies of the volume may be purchased through the Geological Society of America online bookstore, http://rock.geosociety.org/Bookstore/default.asp?oID=0&catID=9&pID=SPE456, or by contacting GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.

Book editors of earth science journals/publications may request a review copy by contacting Jeanette Hammann, jhammann@geosociety.org.

Crustal Cross Sections from the Western North American Cordillera and Elsewhere: Implications for Tectonic and Petrologic Processes
Robert B. Miller and Arthur W. Snoke (editors)
Geological Society of America Special Paper 456
2009, 286 pages plus index and CD-ROM, US$90.00, GSA member price US$63.00
ISBN 978-0-8137-2456-0

www.geosociety.org


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