Mongolia occupies the central part of the giant Central Asian Orogenic Belt—an accretionary orogen with long-time evolution since the early Palaeozoic to Mesozoic. The orogenic belt formed by accretion of Cambrian, Ordovician and DevonianCarboniferous arcs, back-arcs and accretionary wedges contains world-class copper porphyry, and orogenic gold deposits originated in subduction zones and a number of important deposits related to the post-orogenic and intraplate settings.

The “Supercontinents” constitute the majority of the ancient Earth’s surface and play an important role in Earth’s history (Meert 2012). Supercontinent defined as a large, solid, homogeneous massif of the Earth’s crust, which contains nearly all the continental crust of the planet. It is believed that the largest part of the continental crust formed in the period of 3,200–2,500 million years (Ma) and its fragments are included in all the modern continents (Lubnina and Slabunov 2011).

The Arabian–Nubian Shield (ANS) is a vast and exceptionally well-preserved expanse of crust and underlying sub-continental lithospheric mantle that was largely produced during the Neoproterozoic, with only restricted contribution from older lithospheric components, except in the extreme north-eastern part of the shield. With an exposed area of nearly 2 million km², and an additional 1 million km² buried beneath the great Cenozoic East African Rift System and its associated volcanic rocks, the shield represents one of the best-preserved Neoproterozoic orogenic belts on the planet and the largest preserved expanse of new Neoproterozoic lithosphere in Earth’s geological history.

The passion to understand the Geology of Egypt could be traced back to 1150 BC. In this year, the oldest geological map in the world was prepared to illustrate the geology of the Hammamat-Fawakhir area in the central part of the Eastern Desert of Egypt.

It is necessary to define some fundamental terms that will provide indispensable background for the entire book. The first term to be explained deals with the title of the book: mineral resources. A mineral resource can be defined broadly as the concentration of material of economic interest in or on the Earth’s crust. In this book, it includes solid earth materials such as metals (i.e., copper, gold, iron),

The consumption of primary raw materials has increased ever faster in recent decades, not least due to rapid economic growth in countries such as China, India, and Brazil. Petroleum and natural gas continue to be the most important energy sources driving engines and turbines worldwide, while petroleum is also the most important raw material for the production of plastics, various medicines, and other products of the chemical industry.

Egypt is located in northeastern portion of Africa and extends into the Asian near East. It is susceptible to many local and global tectonic events with sea-level changes during deposition of the Phanerozoic sediments. The Paleozoic history of Egypt showed that the sediments were meagerly comparing with the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The most important structures which had a great effect on the stratigraphy of Egypt stretched from the northern shores of Egypt to its extreme southern part.

Soil mechanics is the science of equilibrium and motion of soil bodies. Here soil is understood to be the weathered material in the upper layers of the earth’s crust. The non-weathered material in this crust is denoted as rock, and its mechanics is the discipline of rock mechanics. In general the difference between soil and rock is roughly that in soils it is possible to dig a trench with simple tools such as a spade or even by hand.

In spite of its remote location and its cold and stormy weather, Antarctica has attracted seal hunters, whalers, and scientists all of whom have contributed to the exploration of this continent. The names of these explorers are preserved by many of the topographic and geologic features of Antarctica, as well as by the names of its coastal areas and surrounding oceans.

PART I: MARINE STUDIES

An Ultramafic Lift at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: Successive Stages of Magmatism in Serpentinized Peridotites from the 15°N Region. Mathilde Cannat and lohn F Casey 

Gabbroie Dikelets in Serpentinized Peridotites from the Mid-Atlanti Ridge at 23°20'N P. Tartarotti, M. Cannat and C. Me el 

Mafic and Ultramafic Intrusions into Upper Mantle Peridotites from Fast Spreading Centers of the Easter Micropiate (South East Pacific) M. Constantin, R. Hekinian, D. Ackermand and P. Stoffers