This volume focuses on the Canadian Appalachian region. The chapter on the East Greenland Caledonides stands alone and there is no attempt to integrate the geological accounts of the two far removed regions. Rocks of the Canadian Appalachian region are described under four broad temporal divisions: lower Paleozoic and older, middle Paleozoic, upper Paleozoic, and Mesozoic. The rocks of these temporal divisions define geographic zones, belts, basins, and graben, respectively. The area is of special interest because so many modern concepts of mountain building are based on Appalachian rocks & structures.

"The papers published in this volume were prepared as part of one of the 62 projects of the International Geological Correlation Programme (IGCP), Project 27-The Caledonian Orogen. This project is concerned with the great Paleozoic orogenic belt exposed in the lands bordering both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and which forms such a significant feature of the geology of the Appalachian region of Eastern Canada and the United States. The papers cover a wide variety of related problems including geological comparisons between Newfoundland and Ireland, and between Nova Scotia and Morocco. Such comparisons are unquestionably relevant to the elucidation of the significance of the Caledonian orogeny which cannot be attempted from studies within any one country." --