Wolfgang Frisch was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1943. He studied in Vienna and worked at the Mining University of Leoben (Austria), the University of Vienna, and the Technical University of Munich (Germany), before he was appointed to Tübingen (Germany) University where he held the Chair in Geology until his retirement in 2009. His research interests include structural geology and geodynamics, the genesis of mineral deposits, and the petrology of magmatic rocks. His working areas include the Alps, southeastern Europe, the Himalayas and Tibet, Arabia and Egypt, as well as Greenland, middle America, and Africa.

Martin Meschede, born in 1957 is Professor of Regional and Structural Geology at the University Greifswald, Germany. He received his Diploma in Geology from the University Hannover, Germany, and his Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen (Germany). His research interests include geodynamics, structural geology, paleogeography reconstructions, particularly in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific region; marine geology as well as neotectonic and glacial processes in the Baltic Sea area.

Roland Blakey is Professor Emeritus of Geology at Northern Arizona University (US) following over 34 years of teaching courses in Historical Geology, Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, Field Geology, and Tectonics. Most of his scholarly publications concern the sedimentary rocks and geologic history of the American Southwest. He is involved in the reconstruction of paleogeography maps that document past Earth history.

Contains about 200 colored figures visualizing the complex geodynamic processes

Emphasizes special topics which may be read independently

Provides a glossary with important terms