The Sedimentary Basins of the United States and Canada

Andrew Miall

Dec 2008 · Elsevier

About this ebook

In recent years there have been rapid strides in our understanding of plate-tectonic processes, many developments in methods of basin analysis, and the accumulation of much new surface and subsurface geological and geophysical data. Projects such as COCORP (in the United States) and Lithoprobe (in Canada) have provided essential insights into the deep crustal structure of the continent. Synthesis of all the available information about North America’s geological regions has not been attempted systematically since the “Decade of North American Geology project undertaken by the Geological Society of America and the Geological Survey of Canada nearly twenty years ago. The book commences with a summary of the Phanerozoic geological history of the United States and Canada, illustrated with a suite of new paleogeographic maps, and tying in each of the subsequent regional chapters by the inclusion of numerous cross-references. This followed by a set of fifteen regional syntheses of the principal tectonic regions of the United States and Canada, focusing on the stratigraphic and tectonic history of the major sedimentary basins. Most of these chapters have been contributed by specialists, drawing on their own research, and providing interpretive summaries of a type not previously attempted.

• Up-to-date synthesis of the sedimentary/tectonic history of the major areas of the United States and Canada
• Up-to-date references
• Many new color maps

About the author

Andrew Miall has been Professor of Geology at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, since 1979, where his focus is on teaching and research of the stratigraphy and sedimentology of sedimentary basins. He is the inaugural holder of the Gordon Stollery Chair in Basin Analysis and Petroleum Geology, which was founded in 2001. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1995. Andrew Miall was Vice President of the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada from 2005 to 2007 and President of the Academy from 2007-2009. From 2000-2004 Andrew Miall served as Canada’s representative to the NATO Science and the Environment Program’s “Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society. In 2010-2011 he served on expert panels for the Government of Canada and the Alberta Government to examine the environmental management of the Alberta Oil Sands. Prof. Miall has been the author of five research-level technical books and the editor of five special research collections. He is the co-author, with N. Eyles, of “Canada Rocks, an account of the geological history of Canada written for a general audience. This lavishly illustrated book is now in its second edition.