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Analysis of the Data |
BP Perú Ltd., Casilla 985, Lima, Perú
The Data for Orogenic Studies project has aimed to demonstrate that profuse and complex geological information from the Mesozoic-Cenozoic orogens can be collected in a systematic and organized fashion. The particular method used—a questionnaire designed to elicit factual information—has resulted in a collection of objective data, in which gaps in knowledge are also revealed. The accumulation of these data into a convenient and uniform format will, it is hoped, enable them to fully yield their part in the story of the evolution of the lithosphere in Mesozoic-Cenozoic times. In particular, it should facilitate the progression of geological ideas from the evidence to the hypotheses rather than (as is common) the reverse. The aim of this summary is to follow this method and indicate the major groups of data, particularly the historical information, which have been collected and briefly to evaluate their significance.
The major part of the information in the volume is focussed on the rocks that build the orogenic belts. The major type of information yielded by the rocks is historical: the history of the accumulation, intrusion, vulcanism, plutonism, deformation, metamorphism, uplift, etc., which produced the present orogenic belts. Information of a geometrical nature (geometry of tectonic structures and of the orogenic crust, palaeogeography, palinspastic reconstructions, etc.) is, because of its greater complexity, not as definitely or as widely known.
The volume has aimed at a world-wide coverage but is incomplete in two respects. Articles are missing for several areas, principally the U.S.S.R., the western United States, southern South
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This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
