image: Shown is the cover of the Geological Society of America's Memoir 204, "Backbone of the Americas: Shallow Subduction, Plateau Uplift, and Ridge and Terrane Collision," edited by Suzanne Mahlburg Kay, Víctor A. Ramos, and William R. Dickinson. view more
Credit: Geological Society of America
Boulder, CO, USA - The first two chapters of this new Special Paper from the Geological Society of America summarize the overall anatomy and evolution of North and South American segments of the orogenic system known as "the backbone of the Americas." Following these thorough overviews are ten seminal articles dealing with salient aspects of the key geodynamic processes accompanying the geotectonic evolution of the American Cordilleras: forearc terrane accretion, arc magmatism, shallow subduction, and backarc intracontinental deformation.
The American Cordilleras form a continuous orogen extending for 12,500 km along the eastern flank of the Pacific Ocean, from Arctic to Antarctic latitudes, as an integral part of the circum-Pacific orogenic belt. The papers analyzing this great mountain chain were selected from those presented at the 2005 international conference, titled "Backbone of the Americas," in Mendoza, Argentina, which was sponsored jointly by multiple North American and South American geological societies.
Individual copies of the volume may be purchased through the Geological Society of America online bookstore, http://rock.geosociety.org/Bookstore/default.asp?oID=0&catID=8&pID=MWR204, or by contacting GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.
Book editors of earth science journals/publications may request a review copy by contacting Jeanette Hammann, jhammann@geosociety.org.
Backbone of the Americas: Shallow Subduction, Plateau Uplift, and Ridge and Terrane Collision
Suzanne Mahlburg Kay, Víctor A. Ramos, and William R. Dickinson (editors)
Geological Society of America Memoir 204
2009, 278 pages, US63.00, GSA member price US$90.00
ISBN 978-0-8137-1204-8