The upper cretaceous fresh-water deposits (Rognacian) have been the purpose of a new study which allows : first, to precise the stratigraphie notions already established, and also, to make obvious some general features of paleoeco-logy and paleogeography.

Thanks to different sections, a detailed analysis was done : which was mostly based on the microscopic observation and allowed to define, qualitatively and quantitatively, different types of microfacies.

Different factors characterize these microfacies : sedimentological factors (nature of the cement, structures, figures of alteration, minerals...) and paleontological ones.

Close correlations appear between the lithological facies and the biological ones ; the geographical repartition in particular, is identical and allows to set up a paleobiogeographical reconstitution of the provencal lake during the Rognacien.

Three superposed regions can be found from South to North :

- a fluviatile channel shifts widely in the South (about the "Etang de Berre"). The algal balls accumulations are abundant there,

- an East-West very broad and rather low gut lays in the central regions (about Aix-en-Provence) there, sediments have settled, alternatively calcareous (still in a lacustral environment) and sandeous( fluviatile sedimentation) .

The edges of this gut are represented by zones of high fenny shoals.

- We can  infer the proximity of an emerged continent from the decrease of depth in the limestone of Rognac and the presence of some sedimentological and paleontological factors.

Fossils are our planet's memory, and they stick hard in our memories. Those people who are lucky enough to have found fossils often remember their first fossil for life. Leaving dinosaurs aside for the moment, two types of fossils seem to appeal more than others: ammonites and trilobites. Both are extinct, diverse, and beautiful; both are poster children for extinction; and both have fans who devote their lives to collecting them.

The first volume of the Treatise on Geochemistry, 2nd Edition covers the chemistry of meteorites and some of their important components, as well as interplanetary dust particles, cosmochemical processes, and chronology. We have learned a great deal about the present-day solar system from flying by, orbiting, and landing on planets, asteroids, and comets with spacecraft, but the earliest history of the solar system has been obscured by subsequent geological processing on the terrestrial planets. Meteorites and their constituents provide unique witnesses to planet formation, the formational stages of the solar nebula, and even stars that lived their entire lives before the solar system was born <...>

Geomorphology, the study of landforms and their formative processes, is a multidisciplinary field most strongly associated with the geographical and geological sciences. It encompasses numerous subfields of specialization that are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Like all disciplines, what geomorphology is like today derives in part from the practitioners, ideas, controversies, and events involved in its development. This paper presents a brief perspective and overview of the history of geomorphology as an introduction to the subsequent chapters in the volume, each of which focuses on a specific period of the discipline’s history or on concepts that have figured prominently in its past development or current status. A brief summary of the following 18 papers in this volume provides insight into the range of ideas and methods that are engaged in the theory and practice of geomorphology. The volume as a whole provides historical and thematic context for the subsequent volumes in the Treatise on Geomorphology. <...>