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The Permian was a remarkable time period. It represents the maximum stage of Pangean continental assembly, includes a major global climatic shift from glacial to nonglacial conditions (icehouse-greenhouse transition), and is ter minated by one of the most profound faunal/floral extinction events in the Earth´s history. In addition, Permian oceans, although poorly understood, must have had some quite unique characteristics. Permian seas reached the most extreme values of carbon, sulfur, and strontium isotopic ratios ever achieved in Phanerozoic time, and the isotopic ratios of all three elements abruptly returned to more "normal" values at, or very close to, the Permo Triassic boundary. Finally, the Permian is marked by an abundance of important sedimentary mineral resources. It has large fossil fuel concentra tions (coal, oil, and natural gas), enormous phosphate reserves, and very extensive evaporite deposits, including gypsum, anhydrite, and halite, as well as a variety of potash salts. Study of the Permian has been hampered, however, by a number of factors. These include a scattered geologic literature (presented in a variety of languages), a confusing regional and global stratigraphic framework (based, in part, on inadequate type sections), and largely provincial, often poorly correlatable faunas. All have contributed to the sparsity and inadequacy of overviews of this critical geological interval. These two volumes attempt to bring together some of the widely scattered observations about these fascinating rocks, at least for the northern (predominantly nonglacial) parts of Pangea.

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Basin Studies-North America.- Permian History of Arctic North America.- Permian of the Western United States.- Permian Stratigraphy and Facies, Permian Basin (Texas-New Mexico) and Adjoining Areas in the Midcontinent United States.- Filling the Delaware Basin: Hydrologie and Climatic Controls on the Permian Castile Formation Varved Evaporite.- Basin Studies-Europe.- Permian History of the Barents Shelf Area.- Permian History of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea Area.- Facies, Paleogeography and Sedimentary History of the Southern Permian Basin in Europe.- A. General Outline of the Permian Continential Basins in Southwestern Europe.- Permian Deposits of the Urals and Preduralye.- Basin Studies-Middle East/ Asia.- Stratigraphy and Sedimentology of the Permian in the Arabian Basin and Adjacent Areas: A Critical Review.- The Permian of Pakistan.- The Permian of China.- Economic Resources.- Oil and Gas Resources in Permian Rocks of North America.- Hydrocarbon Occurrences in Permian Strata of the Commonwealth of Independent States.- Permian Phosphorites: A Paradox of Phosphogenesis.

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Different Permian basins in North-America, Europe, the Middle-East and Asia are described and important hydrocarbon and phosphate resources are discussed. Special emphasis is layed on the paleogeography, the paleoclimate, the correlation of sediments and the position of continents.

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