Continental Scientific Drilling Project of the Cretaceous Songliao Basin (SK-1) in China is the first reference to provide the results of the first part of scientific drilling project at the Songliao Basin in the Daqing oil field, the largest known oil field in China. The project has two major objectives: one is to correlate the oceanic and continental records and determine the principal drivers of climate change in order to assist in future climate change predictions and its influence on the earth's environment. The second is to further test the theory of terrestrial genesis of hydrocarbons, and to explore the formation of intra-continental sedimentary basins, as many are major hydrocarbon provinces. In addition, this project provides the scientific basis for exploration of the Daqing Oilfields, which have a yearly production of forty million tons of oil. The world is entering a new exciting era to explore in which scientific drilling will provide a quantum leap in our understanding of its deep earth and history. Continental Scientific Drilling Project of the Cretaceous Songliao Basin (SK-1) in China will play an important role in promoting scientific drilling and earth system science research. - Summarizes the geological background, seismic profile, and tectonic evolution of the Songliao Basin - Provides detailed information on drilling technology of SK-1, which successfully obtained ~2500m core with a recovery rate of ~95% - Includes detailed core information: stratigraphic charts, core photographs, and core photograph identification tables

Senior managers and Heads of Geological Survey Organizations (GSOs) from around the world have contributed a collection of papers to provide a benchmark on how GSOs are responding to national and international needs in a rapidly changing world. GSOs continue to provide key scientific information about Earth systems, natural hazards and climate change. As countries adopt sustainable development principles and the public increasingly turns to social media to find information about resource and environmental issues, the generation and communication of Earth science knowledge become increasingly important. This volume provides a snapshot of how GSOs are adapting their activities to this changing world. The different national perspectives presented converge around several common themes related to resources, environment and big data. Climate change and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals provide an increased incentive for GSOs of the world to work in harmony, to generate knowledge of Earth systems and to provide solutions for sustainable management of the planet.

Continental margins and their fossilized analogues are important repositories of natural resources. With better processing techniques and increased availability of high-resolution seismic and potential field data, imaging of present-day continental margins and their embedded sedimentary basins has reached unprecedented levels of refinement and definition, as illustrated by examples described in this volume. This, in turn, has led to greatly improved geological, geodynamic and numerical models for the crustal and mantle processes involved in continental margin formation from the initial stages of rifting through continental rupture and break-up to development of a new ocean basin. Further informing these models, and contributing to a better understanding of the features imaged in the seismic and potential field data, are observations made on fossilized fragments of exhumed subcontinental mantle lithosphere and ocean–continent transition zones preserved in ophiolites and orogenic belts of both Palaeozoic and Mesozoic age from several different continents, including Europe, South Asia and Australasia.