El Soldado is the largest (>200 Mt @ 1.4% Cu) of the known Cu manto-type deposits in central Chile. It is strata-bound within a submarine, bimodal calc-alkaline basalt - rhyodacite unit of the Lower Cretaceous Lo Prado Formation., which also contains marine carbonaceous shales and volcaniclastic sandstones. Although stratigraphically restricted, the clustered orebodies are mostly vein-like and discordant, controlled by a system of N-S to NNW faults fonned within a transtensional zone (cymoid loop) of a sinistral, strike-slip brittle shear system. Individual orebodies are zoned, with an external and deeper zone of barren pyrite, followed inward by concentric zones with chalcopyrite-pyrite, chalcopyrite bornite, bornite-chalcocite, and a central zone of chalcocite (± digenite ± covellite) and abundant hematite. The deposit was formed in two main phases: l)a low-temperature, diagenetic phase during which framboidal pyrite developed in association with migrated petroleum, at ca. 130 to 120 Ma; 2) a high-temperature (>300°C from fluid inclusions) hydrothennal phase at ca. 103 Ma, (coinciding with batholith emplacement), that deposited early hematite (± magnetite), followed by chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite, mostly replacing pre-existing pyrite, with the excess Fe forming hematite. Gangue minerals are calcite, albite, k-feldspar and chlorite. The hydrothermal Cu mineralization is associated with an increase in Na and depletion in K in host rocks, although there are localised zones of K increase in bornite-chalcocite assemblages near structures. Isotopic studies indicate that: a) the sulphur in diagenetic pyrite provided the bulk of the sulphur for Cu sulphides; b) petroleum was the source of carbon in bitumen and part of the carbonate; c) osmium in diagenetic pyrite was derived from the black shales; d) strontium in calcites was inherited from the Cretaceous arc lavas; e) oxygen isotopes in carbonates, and K-feldspar and atmospheric argon in K-feldspar plus the high salinity of fluid inclusions (21-26% NaCl equivalent) suggest a basinal connate-metamorphic brine was responsible for Cu transport, yet a (distal) magmatic component to the fluids cannot be ruled out.

Available knowledge concerning the origin and geologic structure of Mexico is still incomplete. Each day scientific discoveries, advances in mapping, and new techniques of exploration offer more information toward the development of our understanding. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to achieve a complete description of the geologic character of the territory of the nation, as well as to work out functional models to explain the origin of its geologic structure. Along with the development of geologic studies that science has made in Mexico, there have been a few attempts to formulate general works covering the many aspects of geology that the country presents. Nevertheless, one must recognize that the lack of information about certain periods in the geological history of the national territory, and the numerous unexplored areas, have constituted some principal obstacles toward achieving a finished work of this type <...>

The flight of the Mariner 2 spacecraft past Venus in December 1962 marked the start of a new era in the exploration of the solar system. At that time our knowledge of the terrestrial planets other than Earth (Mercury, Venus, and Mars) was largely astronomical in nature.

The need for a new book on the platinum-group elements (PGE) became apparent about four years ago at the 8th International Platinum Symposium in Rustenburg, Republic of South Africa. The abstract volume for this meeting contained one hundred and thirty-three technical papers covering a broad range of subjects from exploration to the marketing of platinum-group elements. However, it was not just the number of papers and subjects covered that suggested an abundance of new data on the PGE, but the fact that this was the first international conference on the subject characterized by an important feature: a truly international collection of authors from both western and eastern affiliations.