Since 1964, the time when the Upper Mantle Project was started, the Precambrian continental crust has been studied in considerable detail in many areas. Multidisciplinary studies, using modern tools and techniques have resulted in increasing levels of accuracy. The Precambrian continental crust has been subjected to several thermal events and multiple episodes of deformation. These events have obliterated the scenario produced by early events and present-day efforts are directed towards evaluating the cause-effect processes of each event. How far back the known geological processes of the Phanerozoic can be extended into the Precambrian is one of the main questions. The present volume provides data and interpretations which will help in formulating the answer to some of these questions.The book contains 30 contributions resulting from researches on almost all the important Precambrian terranes.

The second 'African Mining' conference is planned for June 1991, and follows the first, very successful, event held in May 1987. That full four-year period was characterized by substantial changes in the political and economic climate of many countries in both hemispheres. Copper prices were relatively firm, and the advance and steady demand for nickel and ferrochromium stabilized important sectors of the mineral industry, certainly in Zimbabwe. The promise for gold remained unfulfilled, but the smaller, relatively flexible, mines survived and only the large, deep and low-value mines seem seriously at risk. None of this has affected the hungry, and intensive exploitations from surface to the water-table have revealed many targets of promise to those willing to take the risks. The pattern in Southern Africa was extraordinarily stable among the turmoil, with independence for Namibia, adjustments in South Africa and a gradual shift to market economies in the region. The pace of exploration has increased to recover some part of the progress that was lost in the Independence struggle, and atthe end of the first decade in Zimbabwe, for example, oil is being sought in the Zambesi Rift, following the investigation of the Luangwa in Zambia, and there are exciting exploration projects for methane released from coal, deep in its basins.

This Scientific Bibliography of the “Far Northern Drakensberg” is a continuation by the Afromontane Research Unit of the University of the Free State (ARU) to document published and other similar works on the mountains of the summer rainfall area of South Africa. It follows “A Scientific Bibliography of the Drakensberg, Maloti and Adjacent Lowlands” which was published in 2020 (Moffett 2020), and which covered the area between the North-Eastern Cape and the North-Eastern Free State. The current work extends this northward by including articles and publications dating back to 1875 (E.Cohen, on the Lydenburg goldfields) reaching as far as the Wolkberg and Woodbush near Tzaneen in Limpopo Province. Figure 1 shows the boundary of the area covered, and although referred to as the Far Northern Drakensberg in this work, it is identical to that described as the LMEE, Limpopo, Mpumalanga & Eswatini Escarpment by Clarke et al (2022). Although slightly separate from the “lower” escarpment, the mountainous Barberton and adjacent Eswatini area, as well as the Leolo Mountains in eastern Sekhukhuneland are also included. Details on how the boundary in figure 1 was determined are given in Clark et al (2022). Bibliographies on two further ranges in the summer rainfall area, viz. the Magaliesberg in Gauteng province and the Soutpansberg in Limpopo province are to be the subject of future compilations.

Cratons and Fold Belts of India, is a unique attempt at presenting geological characteristics and evolution of the fold belts and the cratonic areas of the Indian shield. The author has evaluated the different evolutionary models for each fold belt in light of all the currently available geological and geochronological informations that are clearly listed. Shortcomings, if any, of each model are stated and a viable geodynamic model is presented for each fold belt. The book is self-contained – it includes an introduction to the processes of mountain building, especially plate tectonics theory with its application to the evolution of the Himalaya as an illustrative example – so that the reader can better appreciate the novel approach to the evolution of Proterozoic fold belts. The author eschews a detailed account of the fold belts for a clear description of all the concepts that go into building models. It is primarily written for graduate students, teachers and for those geoscientists who aspire to know all about the Indian shield.

The second half of the past century witnessed a remarkable paradigm shift in approach to the understanding of igneous rocks. Global literature records a change from a classical petrographic approach to emphasis on mineral chemistry, trace element characteristics, tectonic setting, phase relations, and theoretical simulation of magma generation and evolution processes. This book contains contributions by international experts in different fields of igneous petrology and presents an overview of recent developments. This book is dedicated to the late Dr Mihir K. Bose, former professor of the Department of Geology, Presidency College, Calcutta, India, who actively participated in the development of this new global view of igneous petrology.

The integration of Tectonics/Geochemistry, up-to-date reviews by leading scientists as well as a broad topical coverage of the Archean, are some of the features of this particular volume. As geochronology has progressed in the last 20 years, the Archean has continued to attract interest. Advancements in the understanding of Archean crustal and mantle evolution have progressed rapidly since the first International Archean Symposium in Western Australia (1970). The landmark for the Archean was the NATO Advanced Study Institute at Leicester (1975). At this meeting the Archean truly "came of age". Investigators from many different disciplines focused their expertise on the early history of the earth. For the first time, the nature of the atmosphere, oceans, and life during the Archean was an important part of an Archean symposium. During the most recent Archean Symposium in Perth in 1990, there was a shift in interest from field and trace element data to the new rapidly evolving high-precision U/Pb geochronology of Archean rocks and to detailed structural studies of both low and high grade Archean terrains. The terrane concept so widely applied to the Phanerozoic was proposed for the Archean Yilgarn Province in Western Australia and is now widely accepted for the Archean (as evident by the articles in this book). Plate tectonics is now widely accepted as the principal process that controls the history of continents and oceans. There are, though, well substantiated differences between Archean and post-Archean rocks that indicate that Archean tectonic regimes must have differed in some respects from modern ones. The question of how and to what degree did Archean plate tectonics differ from modern plate tectonics is treated in many of the chapters of this book. Altogether, the editor has presented a selection of articles that provide a fascinating insight into the latest observations in this field.

The northwestern Indian Shield, covering a major part of Rajasthan and parts of northern Gujarat, northwestern Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi, is one of the most important repositories of a variety of mineral deposit types, particularly of base metals. Their metallogeny has been a topic of both academic and economic interest for more than five decades. This volume presents in a systematic manner the essential features of all economically significant types of metallic mineral deposits in this region and considers their mettallogeny in the perspective of crystal evolution of the northwestern Indian shield. Current concepts, problems and the probable trends of future research are highlighted. Leading geoscientists with first hand knowledge of this Precambrian terrene have contributed to this volume. The book will be of interest to exploration geologists, researchers and postgraduate students concerned with Precambrian geology and metallogeny.

As a final product of the International Geological Correlation Program (IGCP) Project 217, this volume brings together significant advances in the understanding of Proterozoic crustal evolution. This IGCP Project focussed on nine research objectives: 1) Comparison of Archean and Proterozoic supracrustal assemblages to more fully understand differences between Archean and post-Archean tectonic regimes; 2) To more fully understand the geochemical differences between Archean and post-Archean sediments and to evaluate the various factors that control sediment composition; 3) From combined U/Pb zircon and whole-rock Sm/Nd studies, to see if the apparent 2.4-2.0 continental crust "generation gap" is real; 4) To employ new techniques in the dating of individual zircons to more fully understand Proterozoic tectonic history and the role of crustal reworking; 5) From trace element ratios and Nd isotopic data from basalts, to better understand Proterozoic mantle evolution; 6) To encourage more detailed studies of the anorogenic granite-anorthosite association to better understand its origin and significance in terms of crustal evolution; 7) From combined Nd, Pb, and Sr isotopic data, to more precisely estimate the amount of new continental crust formed during the Proterozoic; 8) To encourage joint P-T and geochronological studies of Proterozoic and high-grade terranes to better understand Proterozoic orogenesis: and 9) To try and understand why hydrothermal precious metal deposits are relatively rare in the Proterozoic compared to both the Archean and the Phanerozoic. The book should be of interest to professionals in the geosciences (especially geochemists, petrologists and structural geologists) and graduate students in the same fields.

Processes and Ore Deposits of Ultramafic-Mafic Magmas through Space and Time focuses on the fundamental processes that control the formation of ore deposits from ultramafic-mafic magmas, covering chromite, platinum-group element (PGE), Ni-sulfides and Ti-V-bearing magnetite. The exploration, exploitation and use of these magmatic ores are important aspects of geology and directly linked to the global economy. Magmatic ores form from ultramafic-mafic magmas and crystallize at high-temperature after emplacement into crustal magma chambers, and are genetically linked to the evolution of the parental magmas through space and time. This book features recent developments in the field of magmatic ore deposits, and is an essential resource for both industry professionals and those in academia. - Elucidates the relationships between tectonic settings and magmatic ore mineralization - Provides the links between magma generation in the mantle and ore mineralization at crustal levels - Features the latest research on changing patterns in magmatic ore mineralization through time and their bearing on the chemical evolution of the Earth's mantle

This volume presents a selection of contributions from international environmental scholars and water researchers. The book includes significant topics on earth and environmental sciences such as water resources and water quality, soil quality and sediment contamination, air pollution and climate change, and issues related to clean production. The themes were chosen according to the current global issues covering major aspects of their respective fields. The aim of the book was to discover advances, experiences and innovative ideas on issues related to earth and environmental sciences, to share experiences and research findings, discuss challenges encountered and solutions in order to have opportunities to establish productive new academic and industry research collaborations.