This volume has its genesis in the “Backbone of the Americas: Patagonia to Alaska” conference that took place in the city of Mendoza, Argentina, from 2 to 7 April 2006. The conference was convened by the Asociación Geológica Argentina and the Geological Society of America in collaboration with the Sociedad Geológica de Chile and was the fi rst meeting on this scale to be jointly convened by North and South American geologic societies. Some 400 participants from 20 countries along the western margins of the Americas and elsewhere participated. The purpose of the meeting was to explore common scientifi c themes affecting the evolution of the Cordilleras of the Americas from a multidisciplinary international perspective. Major themes included collision of active and aseismic oceanic ridges, shallowing and steepening subduction zones, plateau and orogenic uplift, and terrane collision. This volume presents a selection of papers by the invited plenary speakers and other represenative presentations of the symposium <...>

The theme of this book is the study of basaltic volcanism as a stage in planetary evolution: to use the eruption of lava from the interior of a planet as evidence of the thermal and chemical processes of the planet. All lavas extruded on a planet’s surface can provide information about events in the interior. From a petrologic point of view, however, it is the more primitive lavas, which rise to the surface of a planet with minimal changes, that can provide the most information about the interior. In general, these more primitive lavas are basalts and so in Chapter 1 our sampling has concentrated on basaltic rocks.

Research on base metal sulfide deposits is among the oldest and best-documented subjects of economic geologists worldwide, considering that copper was first mined about 3000 years ago on the island of Cyprus.

During the past 10 years, after the exciting discovery of active sulfide formation on the modem ocean floor, a considerable flow of new ideas has stimulated and influenced the discussion of oreforming processes for copper-zinc-Iead sulfides in sedimentary and volcanic environments. The development of new genetic concept sconsequently led to reinterpretation of some apparently well-established formation models. <...>