Anatomy of the backbone of the Americas

		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... Click here for more information.

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.