The Ordovician was one of the longest of the geological periods, characterized by major magmatic and tectonic activity, an immense biodiversification, swings in climate and sea levels, and the first Phanerozoic mass extinction. ‘A Global Synthesis of the Ordovician System’ is presented in two volumes in The Geological Society, Special Publications. Whereas the first volume (SP532) concentrates on general aspects and a synthesis of the Ordovician geology of Europe, this volume (SP533) includes reviews of Ordovician successions of most other parts of the world. The classic successions of the Ordovician basins of North America are presented, as well as those of China where several of the Ordovician Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Points are defined. The volume also includes syntheses of the Ordovician geology of Africa, South America, most regions of Asia from the Near to the Far East along with Central Asia, as well as Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica.

The Ordovician was one of the longest of the geological periods, characterized by major magmatic and tectonic activity, an immense biodiversification, swings in climate and sea levels and the first Phanerozoic mass extinction. ‘A Global Synthesis of the Ordovician System’ is presented in two volumes in The Geological Society, Special Publications. This first volume (SP532) charts the history of the Ordovician System and explores significant advances in our understanding of its biostratigraphy, including more precise calibration of its timescale with tephra chronology and regional alignments using astrochronology and cyclostratigraphy. Changes in the world’s oceans, their shifting currents and sea levels, the biogeography of their biotas and the ambient climate are described and discussed against a background of changing palaeogeography. This first volume also includes syntheses of the Ordovician geology for most European countries, including historical key areas, such as Great Britain, Baltoscandia and Bohemia. The second volume (SP533) provides synthetic aspects of the Ordovician geology of most other parts of the world.

The Ross Orogen of the Transantarctic Mountains is the part of the orogenic system that formed at the Pacific continental margin of present-day Antarctica. According to a recent hypothesis, this continental margin was created by the rifting and subsequent drift of Laurentia from Gondwana. With an unparalleled breadth and depth of information, this book provides a detailed synthesis of the history of the Ross orogen. In doing so, it incorporates classical studies with discussions of the most recent and controversial research from the international community. The book also includes a comprehensive bibliography and a historical chronology of all expeditions that have worked on the Ross orogen in the Transantarctic Mountains, from the first sightings by Ross in 1840 right up to the present day. This review of the Ross orogen of the Transantarctic Mountains will be valuable to all geologists interested in these episodes in the Earth's history, and to researchers of the geology of Antarctica.

This book presents the accumulated data and current state of geological knowledge on China’s main shale gas fields. It addresses a broad range of topics, including the geological setting, reference sections and published boreholes, lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy, sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the late Ordovician to early Silurian, spatial and temporal distribution patterns and environmental changes in the black shales of the Wufeng and Lungmachi formations, numerical analysis of the Wufengian and Lungmachian Total Organic Carbon (TOC), late Ordovician to early Silurian bentonites of the Yangtze region, and a graptolite atlas of the Wufeng and Lungmachi formations. Given its scope, the book represents a valuable asset for researchers and petroleum engineers alike.

Humankind has pervasively influenced the Earth’s atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere and cryosphere, arguably to the point of fashioning a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. To constrain the Anthropocene as a potential formal unit within the Geological Time Scale, a spectrum of indicators of anthropogenically-induced environmental change is considered, and shown as stratigraphical signals that may be used to characterize an Anthropocene unit, and to recognize its base. This volume describes a range of evidence that may help to define this potential new time unit and details key signatures that could be used in its definition. These signatures include lithostratigraphical (novel deposits, minerals and mineral magnetism), biostratigraphical (macro- and micro-palaeontological successions and human-induced trace fossils) and chemostratigraphical (organic, inorganic and radiogenic signatures in deposits, speleothems and ice and volcanic eruptions). We include, finally, the suggestion that humans have created a further sphere, the technosphere, that drives global change.