The cretaceous system in east and south Asia / Меловая система в Восточной и Южной Азии

IGCP-350, "Cretaceous Environmental Change in East and South Asia", began in 1993 with the active participation of members from 12 countries. The first international organisational meting was held in Fukuoka, Japan, in November 1993, in order to establish a working framework for effective international cooperation, and to discuss the status of research in participating regions, and future project goals.

This meeting was attended by regional coordinators from eight countries, including some Japanese Cretaceous researchers. Presentations made by the regional coordinators were of sufficient interest and quality that it was decided to make them more widely available through this special issue of the project newsletter. Papers in this issue cover aspects of the Cretaceous geology in Australia, India, the Philippines, China, Korea, Japan, and the Russian Far East.

The intention of this issue is to assess the status of research pertaining to the project in respective regions. We requested from the authors current information about Cretaceous sedimentary and biological environments, the timing and manifestation of principal tectonic and volcanic features, the stratigraphy and location of potential sections showing the correlation between marine-nonmarine strata, economic resources, and project currently underway in their regions. With a better understanding of the above features, research on the environmental change that occurred during the Cretaceous can be more easily assessed.

We are confident that these contributions will provide a helpful base from which we can proceed with the goals of the project. The quick response from the authors in preparing these papers is appreciated. We wish to acknowledge with thanks the support of UNESCO, the IGCP National Committee of Japan, and Kyushu University in holding the first international project meeting. The following individuals provided invaluable assistance during the meeting and field excursions: Dr. Wonn Soh, Mr. Takashi Sakai, Dr. Futoshi Nanayama, Ms. Eiko Goya, and Ms. Seiko Hayakawa.

One of us (H. Okada) would like to express his sincere thanks to the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (Monbusho), Japan, for the Grant-in-Aid for Co-operative Research (Grant No. 06304001) and to the Japan Petroleum Exploration (Japex) Co., Ltd. for supporting the publication of this special issue.