Studies of the magnetic anomalies paralleling ocean ridges have furnished partisans of continental drift with decisive arguments. To take stock of this important question, my colleague Thellier and I decided in the early summer of 1967 to make it the subject of the annual seminar on Earth physics for the school year 1967-68. Although research was still developing rapidly, the General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics held in Switzerland in September, particularly some of the meetings in Zurich under the auspices of the International Committee for the Upper Mantle, appeared to confirm that we had made no important omissions. At the conclusion of the seminar, where I had been responsible for most of the lectures, I resolved to write the present volume for the non-specialized scientific reader.

Various simple and advanced models exist for mechanisms of uniform and non-uniform sediment compaction that increases density and reduces porosity. While the classical Athy’s relation on depth-wise exponential reduction of porosity is not divided into any distinct stages, the Hedberg’s model involves four stages. Weller’s model utilized Athy’s and Hedberg’s relations to deduce a sediment compaction model. Power’s compaction model additionally considers clay mineralogy. Several other porosity/compaction models exist, e.g., those by Teodorovich and Chernov, Burst, Beall, and Overton and Zanier. The geometry of the depth-wise porosity profile depends on the sedimentation rate, compaction mechanism and pressure solution model. This chapter reviews porosity variation with depth for the following rock types: shales, shaly sandstones, sandstones and carbonates. <...>

The term “provenance” originates from the Latin word “provenire,” meaning to originate. Although commonly used to indicate source or parent rock from which sediments were generated, the term “provenance” actually encompasses all factors related to sediment production, with “specific reference to the composition of the parent rocks as well as the physiography and climate of the source area” (Weltje and Eynatten, 2004). Sedimentary provenance data play a critical role in assessing palaeogeographic reconstructions, in constraining lateral displacements in orogens, in characterizing crust that is no longer exposed, in mapping depositional systems, in subsurface correlation, and in predicting reservoir quality (Haughton et al., 1991; Weltje and Eynatten, 2004; Garzanti et al., 2014; Bhattacharya et al., 2016). <...>

Sediment-hosted gold deposits in Guizhou, China, are hosted in late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic sedimentary rocks along the southwest margin of the Precambrian Yangtze craton. They have characteristics similar to Carlin-type gold deposits in Nevada and are notably enriched in As, Sb, Hg, and Tl. The Shuiyindong and Yata deposits consist of disseminated, strata-bound sulfides in Permian bioclastic limestone and fault-controlled mineralization in Middle Triassic calcareous clastic rocks, respectively. Mineralization in both deposits consists of barren milky quartz veins, disseminated gold-bearing arsenian pyrite and arsenopyrite, stibnite, realgar, and orpiment. The barren milky quartz veins occur in the ore-controlling structures with an envelope of gold mineralization in the host rock consisting of disseminated gold-bearing arsenian pyrite and arsenopyrite and replacement-style quartz veinlets. Later drusy quartz, stibnite, realgar, and orpiment fill fractures and vugs on the periphery of gold mineralization. Petrography, microthermometry, laser Raman spectroscopy, and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric (LA-ICP-MS) analyses of fluid inclusions are used to characterize the chemical evolution of ore fluids at Shuiyindong and Yata.