General Statement. The aim of this book is to discuss the processes that operate during the deformation and metamorphismof rocks in the crust and upper lithosphere of the Earth with the goal of understanding how these processes control or influence the structures that we observe in the field.

Through, long-lived structural–kinematic parageneses were established in the southeastern marginal part of the Baltic Shield on the basis of structural studies. These parageneses were formed and periodically rejuvenated from at least the Paleoproterozoic until the neotectonic stage of the evolution of this territory. A series of consecutive tectonic events related to the vertical and horizontal mobility of rocks of the crystalline basement and sedimentary cover had important implications for the formation of present-day structure of the southeastern margin of the Baltic Shield. These tectonic displacements developed for an extremely long time with retention of the main kinematic tendencies. At the end of the Paleoproterozoic, the volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Vetreny Belt underwent tectonic stacking as a result of the countermotion of the crystalline masses of the Vodlozero Massif and the Belomorian–Lapland Belt. The clockwise rotation and lateral displacement of the Vodlozero Massif to the northeast provided the left-lateral transpression of the Vetreny Belt. Under these conditions, the Paleoproterozoic sequences experienced squeezing in the southeastern direction. This kinematic tendency was retained at the subsequent evolutional stages and eventually was recorded in the structure of the present-day boundary between the Baltic Shield and the Russian Platform.

Obituary: Dr Ken Thomson 1966–2007 

PETFORD, N. Structure and emplacement of high-level magmatic systems: introduction 

ABLAY, G. J., CLEMENS, J. D. & PETFORD, N. Large-scale mechanics of fracture-mediated felsic magma intrusion driven by hydraulic inflation and buoyancy pumping

THOMSON, K. & SCHOFIELD, N. Lithological and structural controls on the emplacement and morphology of sills in sedimentary basins

LEAT, P. T. On the long-distance transport of Ferrar magmas 

Ophiolite, Greek for 'the snake stone', appears to have received its first written definition by Brongniart (1813) as a serpentine matrix containing various minerals. Later in 1821 and 1827, Brongniart determined that volcanic and gabbroic rocks were also present, associated with cherts, and he ascribed an igneous origin to the ophiolite. Amstutz (1980) gives an excellent exegesis of these early contributions and traces the further use of the term and concept of ophiolite. This concept had been forged in the western Alps and Apennines where, thanks to talented Italian geologists, in particular A. Sismonda, B. Gastaldi, V. Novarese and S. Franchi, the study on metamorphic ophiolites (the 'pietre verdi') has rapidly progressed. <...>