Paleogeodynamics – The Plate Tectonic Evolution of the Earth

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Special Publications Series.

This volume presents the English language translation of L.P. Zonenshain and M.I. Kuzmin's classic text Paleogeodynamics, first published in Russian in 1992. The study of paleogeodynamics, or plate tectonics, has had an incredible impact on geological research in the former Soviet Union. The authors of this text were among the first to systematically study and utilize the plate tectonic model in the Soviet Union.

Within this book the entire sweep of plate tectonic observation, interpretation and example are presented, including detailed descriptions and analysis related to oceanic ridge structures, geochemistry, plate tectonic processes, seismology, tectonostratigraphy terranes, paleoclimatology, paleomagnetism, reconstruction of past plate motions and global Earth history models. Because Zonenshain and his colleagues at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanography pioneered the quantitatively precise mathematical analysis of past plate and terrane motions, one of the sections is highly mathematical, presenting for the first time their development of reconstruction techniques based upon spherical geometry. The extensive bibliography presents and combines both Russian and English language references. Also unique to this volume are numerous examples taken from the plate tectonic history of portions of the former Soviet Union and from data collected during Soviet oceanographic cruises.