This volume summarizes the state of the art of Variscan geology from Iberia to the Bohemian Massif. The European Variscan belt consists of two orogens: the older, northern and the younger, southern. The northern Variscan realm was dominated by Late Devonian–Carboniferous rifting, subduction and collisional events as defined by sedimentary records, crustal growth, recycling of continental crust and large-scale deformations. In contrast, the southern European crust was reworked by major Late Carboniferous collision followed by Permian wrenching. The Late Carboniferous–Permian orogeny overprinted the previously accreted system in the north, but with much lower intensity, resulting in magmatic recycling and extensional tectonics. These two main orogenic cycles do not reflect episodic evolution of a single orogenic system but a complete change in orientation of stress field, thermal regime, degree of reworking and recycling of European crust, reflecting a major switch in plate configurations at the Early–Late Carboniferous boundary.

This second edition of 'The Geology of England and Wales' is considerably expanded from its predecessor, reflecting the increase in our knowledge of the region, and particularly of the offshore areas. Forty specialists have contributed to 18 chapters, which cover a time range from 700 million years ago to 200 million years into the future. A new format places all the chapters in approximately temporal order. Both offshore and economic geology now form an integral part of appropriate chapters.

Special Publication 503 celebrates the career of R. Damian Nance. It features 27 articles, with more than 110 authors based in 18 different countries. These articles include contributions on the processes responsible for the formation and breakup of supercontinents, the controversies concerning the status of Pannotia as a supercontinent, the generation and destruction of Paleozoic oceans, and the development of the Appalachian-Ouachitan-Caledonide-Variscan orogens. In addition to field work, the approaches to gain that understanding include examining the relationships between stratigraphy and structural geology, precise geochronology, geochemical and isotopic fingerprinting, geodynamic modelling, regional syntheses, palaeogeographic modelling, and good old-fashioned arm-waving! The wide range of topics mirrors the breadth and depth of Damian’s contributions, interests and expertise. Like Damian’s papers, the contributions range from the predominantly conceptual to detailed field work, but all are targeted at understanding important tectonic processes. Their scope not only varies in scale from global to regional to local, but also in the range of approaches required to gain that understanding.

"This volume provides a comprehensive overview of our understanding of the evolution of the Appalachian-Caledonian-Variscan orogen. It takes the reader along a clockwise path around the North Atlantic Ocean from the U.S. and Canadian Appalachians; to the Caledonides of Spitsbergen, Scandinavia, Scotland and Ireland; and thence south to the Variscides of Morocco"--