Magnetostratigraphy is best known as a technique that employs correlation among different stratigraphic sections using the magnetic directions defining geomagnetic polarity reversals as marker horizons. The ages of the polarity reversals provide common tie points among the sections, allowing accurate time correlation. Recently, studies of magnetic methods and the timing of geological processes have acquired a broader meaning, now referring to many types of magnetic measurements within a stratigraphic sequence. Many of these measurements provide correlation and age control not only for the older and younger boundaries of a polarity interval, but also within intervals. Thus, magnetostratigraphy no longer represents a dating tool based only on geomagnetic polarity reversals, but comprises a set of techniques that includes measurements of geomagnetic field parameters, environmental magnetism, rock-magnetic properties, radiometric dating and astronomically forced palaeoclimatic change recorded in sedimentary rocks, and key corrections to magnetic directions related to geodynamics, palaeocurrents, tectonics and diagenetic processes --

Paleomagnetic data are useful in many applications in Earth Science from determining paleocurrent directions to analyzing the long-term behavior of the geomagnetic field. In this book, an attempt has been made to draw together the various principles and practices within paleomagnetism in a consistent and up-to-date manner. It includes many practical examples that illustrate various applications of paleomagnetism. A companion software package implements the theory explained in the text. Audience: This volume is aimed at professional Earth Scientists using paleomagnetic data for their research. It is also suitable for use as a text book for students in courses with a paleomagnetic content. In addition, this volume will be of value to other professionals with an interest in the analysis of vector and tensor data in general.

This book is intended as a practical handbook for those engaged in the task of analyzing the paleogeographic evolution of ancient sedimentary basins. The science of stratigraphy and sedimentology is central to such endeavors, but although several excellent textbooks on sedimentology have appeared in recent years little has been written about modern stratigraphic methods. Sedimentology textbooks tend to take a theoretical approach, building from physical and chemical theory and studies of mod ern environments. It is commonly difficult to apply this information to practical problems in ancient rocks, and very little guidance is given on methods of observation, mapping and interpretation. In this book theory is downplayed and the emphasis is on what a geologist can actually see in outcrops, well records, and cores, and what can be ob tained using geophysical techniques. A new approach is taken to stratigraphy, which attempts to explain the genesis of lithostratigraphic units and to de-emphasize the importance of formal description and nam ing. There are also sections explaining principles of facies analysis, basin mapping methods, depositional systems, and the study of basin thermal history, so important to the genesis of fuels and minerals. Lastly, an at tempt is made to tie everything together by considering basins in the con text of plate tectonics and eustatic sea level changes.

The study of sediments and sedimentary basins in terms of their tectonic environment requires a multidisciplinary approach and has increasingly drawn both techniques and objectives from fields outside sedimentology. Studies presented in this volume range across a wide spectrum from the analysis of sedimentary sequence architecture at basin scale down to the chemical properties of individual grains, and include studies from a range of tectonic settings.

Accompanying CD-ROM titled: "Short course volume 29, 2001 (to accompany Short course 40, 2008)".