This is a book on the geology of hydrocarbon reservoirs in carbonate rocks. Although it is written for petroleum geologists, geophysicists, and engineers, it can be useful as a reference for hydrogeologists and environmental geologists because reservoirs and aquifers differ only in the fl uids they contain. Environmental geoscientists interested in contaminant transport or hazardous waste disposal also need to know about porosity (capacity to store) and permeability (capacity to fl ow) of subsurface formations.

For several decades a team of specialists from the field of paleontology has been acting in the Geological Institute. The team has gathered rich material of fossil fauna and flora from drillings and outcrops in several parts of the country (Polish Lowlands, Silesian-Cracow Upland, the Gory Swietokrzyskie Mts and the Carpathians).

Analythical results of studies of the above team of the Geological Institute, especially those obtained in the course of paleontological and biostratigraphic expertises, have as far as possible been published, contributing to the Polish and world biostratigraphic literature. This made it necessary for the Geological Institute, the oldest and biggest centre of geological sciences in the country, to undertake works aimed at gathering museum collections and synthetize most important biostratigraphic information dispersed in various sources.

Works on monograph Atlas skamienialosci przewodnich i chardktery sty cznych, the third volume of Budowa Geologiczna Polski and the first position of that type compiled in our country, were initiated in 1971. The team of researchers of the Geological Institute and the invited specialists from other research centres in the country which took part in that project has been led by Doc. Dr. Lidia Ma-linowska (Head of Laboratory of Paleozoology of Department of Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Paleogeography, Geological Institute) as the General Editor. Thanks to the deep concern of the General Editor, section editors, authors and editorial teams of the Department of Publications, Maps and Text (Geological Institute) and the Publishing House Wydawnictwa Geologiczne, it became possible to publish first of Mesozoic parts of Polish version of the monograph as early as 1979.

Presenting Mesozoic part of the monograph to the foreign Reader, the Geological Institute dedicates this publication unique in Polish geological literature to our paleontologists such as J. B. Pusch-Korenski, J. Siemiradzki, L. Zej-szner, M. Raciborski and others who laid foundations for major achievements of Polish biostratigraphy

The Arizaro and Lindero prospects are possibly the youngest recognised examples of the hydrothermal iron oxide-copper-gold class of deposits in the world. These two prospects, and numerous other iron-oxide manifestations, form a newly discovered district within northwest Argentina. The Arizaro and Lindero prospects are hosted within mid-Miocene, calc-alkaline, dominantly andesitic, volcanic complexes that formed within a convergent plate margin tectonic setting. This descriptive paper presents observations from surface geology and petrographic studies.

The -1590 Ma Olympic Dam Cu-U-Au-Ag-REE deposit is located in the Stuart Shelf geological province of South Australia, on the eastern margin of the Gawler Craton. The deposit is hosted by the Olympic Dam Breccia Complex, a large hydrothermal breccia system wholly contained within the Roxby Downs Granite, a Proterozoic age granitoid inteipreted to be part of the Hiltaba Suite. Initial hydrothermal activity within the Olympic Dam Breccia Complex was probably localised by structures in a dextral fault jog environment. Subsequent development of the complex involved repetitive and overprinting physical, chemical and volcanic brecciation mechanisms, resulting in a highly variable array of irregularly shaped and distributed breccia zones with widely differing and gradational lithologies. A complex pattern of hydrothermal alteration dominated by hematite and sericite, with lesser chlorite, siderite and quartz is associated with the breccia zones. Mineralisation within the deposit is intimately associated with iron-oxide alteration of the granitoid, which dominantly occurs as hematite, with lesser magnetite at depth and on the periphery of the breccia complex. The principal copper minerals within the deposit show a broad lateral and vertical, hypogene zonation pattern grading from chalcopyrite on the margins to bornite, then chalcocite adjacent to a central barren core. Gold and silver are mainly associated with the copper sulfides, while uranium dominantly occurs in pitchblende disseminated throughout the hematitic breccia zones. Overall, mineralisation grade generally correlates with the degree of hematite alteration and is largely dependent on copper sulfide tenor. Minor brittle faulting post-dates breccia development and appears to have exploited existing anisotropies within the complex. Late-stage fault movements are associated with barite-fluorite vein arrays which overprint the orebody. The deposit formed in a high level volcanic environment, venting to the surface and possibly forming a composite phreatomagmatic eruption crater, which has subsequently been completely eroded. Mafic and felsic dykes intruded the breccia complex, locally producing diatreme structures. Tectonism, hydrothermal activity, dyke intrusion, brecciation, alteration and mineralisation within the system were broadly concurrent and interdependent. Hydrothermal fluids and metals have a dominantly magmatic source, probably associated with the Middle Proterozoic volcano-plutonic event correlated with the Gawler Range Volcanics and Hiltaba Suite intrusives.