This volume is an excellently written and beautifully illustrated textbook compiled by a multidisciplinary group of experts examining the production, transport and deposition of volcaniclasts (tephra and epiclasts) as well as their economic geology.

The variety of volcanic activity in the Solar System is widely recognised, yet the majestic sequences of magmatic processes that operate within an active planet are much less well known. Providing an exposition of igneous rocks, magmas and volcanic erupsions, this book brings together magnetic and volcanic data from different tectonic settings, and planets, with explanations of how they fit together. It systematically examines composition, origin and evolution of common igneous rocks, yet also examines a variety of rare magnetic rocks that play a crucial role in the global magma/igneous rock system.

One of our aims in the book is to provide geologists with a sound basis for making their own well founded interpretations. For that reason we cover not only concepts about processes, and the nature of the products, but also methods and approaches that may be useful in analysing both modern and ancient successions. Most importantly, we treat the diversity of products in volcanic terrains as facies, and we use the method of facies analysis and interpretation as a means of constructing facies models for different volcanic settings. These models will, we hope, be useful as norms for comparison for workers in ancient terrains. The idea for this book came into being between 1981 and 1982 when J. V. W. came to Monash University to take up a Monash Postdoctoral Fellowship. During this period a short course on facies analysis in modern and ancient successions was put together, integrating J.V.W.'s extensive volcanological experience in numerous modern volcanic terrains with R.A.F.C.'s extensive sedimentological and volcanological experience in older volcanic and associated sedimentary successions in the Palaeozoic and Precambrian of Australia. The enthusiastic response from the participants to the first short course, taught in May 1982, and to subsequent annual re-runs, encouraged us to develop the short course notes into this book. The idea for both the short course and the book arose because we felt that there was no single source available that comprehensively attempted to address the problems of analysing, interpreting and understanding the complexity of processes, products and stratigraphy in volcanic terrains.

'Deep-Sea Sediments' focuses on the sedimentary processes operating within the various modern and ancient deep-sea environments. The chapters track the way of sedimentary particles from continental erosion or production in the marine realm, to transport into the deep sea, to final deposition on the sea floor.

Puerto Rico, in the Greater Antilles, is a complex arc terrane with a basement of Late Jurassic to Early Tertiary volcanic, volcaniclastic, and sedimentary rocks, intruded by felsic plutonic rocks, that is overlain by Oligocene and younger sedimentary rocks and sediments. This investigation deals with the geochemical evolution of the volcanic rocks. Flow rocks of all formations distinguished were sampled and analyzed for major, trace, and rare earth elements. Volcano-Stratigraphic Associations (VSA's) were defined as packets of volcanic and associated sedimentary rocks in which the age of the volcanic rocks was determined based on the fossil ages of the associated rocks. The basement rocks are divided into the Southwestern, Central, and Northeast Igneous Provinces (SIP, CIP, NIP). Late Jurassic cherts and associated amphibolites of the Bermeja Complex (SIP) are considered to represent Pacific ocean floor fragments, whereas Early Cretaceous greenstones and metagabbros of the Bermeja Complex represent early island-arc products. The latter, with the Pre-Robles VSA (CIP) and the Daguao-Figuera VSA (NIP), formed part of an island-arc above the northward subducting Pacific Ocean floor. The SIP represents the frontal part of the arc, characterized by melange and fore-arc basin, the CIP the summit basin, and the NIP the trailing part. Magmas have a tholeiitic composition interpreted as generated through partial melting of the mantle wedge enriched by dehydration fluids. Late Cretaceous magmas show evidence for the involvement of pelagic oozes and continental material in concordance with the subduction of older oceanic crust and the approach of South America. With the attempted subduction of the buoyant oceanic platform at the end of the Cretaceous, subduction flipped. The chemistry of the volcanic rocks in the SIP confirms that the fore-arc basin changed into a back-arc basin during the Maastrichtian. Magmas show no evidence for the involvement of continentally derived material, but chemical characteristics suggest involvement of pelagic oozes in concordance with the scenario of subduction of old (proto-Caribbean) ocean floor. Early Tertiary magmas show evidence for both incorporation of pelagic oozes and continentally derived material resulting from subduction of ocean floor close to the North American continent and the Bahamas.