Chemical modifications of supracrustal materials have occurred at various times in the Earth's history. This reference book gives an overlook over themost recent findings of isotope research in the sedimentary environment. The reader, interested in the diagnetic evolution of sediments, can use the book as a tool for the understanding of mineral-water interactions in the supracrustal level.

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.

NATO Advanced Research Institutes are designed to explore unre solved problems. By focusing complementary expertise from various disciplines onto one unifying theme, they approach old problems in new ways. In line with this goal of the NATO Science Committee, and with substantial support from the u.s. Office of Naval Research and the Seabed Assessment Program of the U. S. National Science Founda tion, such a Research Institute on the theme of Coastal Upwelling and Its Sediment Record was held september 1-4, 1981, in Vilamoura, Portugal. The theme implies a modification of uniformitarian thinking in earth science. Expectations were directed not so much towards find ing the key to the past as towards exploring the limits of interpret ing the past based on present upwelling oceanography. Coastal up welling and its imprint on sediments are particularly well-suited for such a scientific inquiry. The oceanic processes and conditions characteristic of upwelling are well understood and are a well packaged representation of ocean science that are familiar to geolo gists, just as the magnitude of bioproduction and sedimentation in upwelling regimes --among other biological and geological processes- have made oceanographers realize that the bottom has a feedback role for their models.

Stable Isotope Geochemistry is an introduction to the use of stable isotopes in the geosciences. The three parts treat theoretical and experimental principles; fractionation mechanisms of light and heavy elements; and the natural variations of geologically important reservoirs. The fifth edition has been revised and extended and now includes a new chapter on palaeoclimatology. Special emphasis has been given to the growing field of "heavy" elements, while many new references have been added. For students and scientists alike, the book will be a primary source of information with regard to how and where stable isotopes can be used to solve geological problems.

Diagenesis of carbonates and clastic sediments encompasses the biochemical, mechanical, and chemical changes that occur in sediments subsequent to deposition and prior to low-grade metamorphism. These parameters which, to a large extent, control diagenesis in carbonates and clastic sediments include primary composition of the sediments, depositional facies, pore water chemistry, burial–thermal and tectonic evolution of the basin, and paleo-climatic conditions. Diagenetic processes involve widespread chemical, mineralogical, and isotopic modifications affected by the original mineralogy of carbonate and clastic sediments. These diagenetic alterations will impose a major control on porosity and permeability and hence on hydrocarbon reservoirs, water aquifers, and the presence of other important economic minerals. In this Special Issue, we have submissions focusing on understanding the interplay between the mineralogical and chemical changes in carbonates and clastic sediments and the diagenetic processes, fluid flow, tectonics, and mineral reactions at variable scales and environments from a verity of sedimentary basins. Quantitative analyses of diagenetic reactions in these sediments using a variety of techniques are essential for understanding the pathways of these reactions in different diagenetic environments.