This book is aimed at the modern tectonicist who is using a vast array of "tools" from stratigraphy to petrology and isotopic techniques to interpret the geologic evolution of a study area. These tools are summarized in the introductory part of this book. The major interpretative principles in tectonics will also be summarized – e.g. calc-alkaline magmatism indicates the presence of a subduction-related arc, etc. Modern examples are then used to define the unambiguous characteristics of a tectonic setting, addressing for example what kinds of rock assemblages are found in subduction settings; these characteristics are then projected to ancient orogens. The book will also be the first to present some new tectonics concepts in a textbook format – e.g. delamination and lower crustal flow. These processes operate at regional scales and thus have to be dealt with here – they do not refute plate kinematics but rather complement it.

Ducea is a Geosciences Professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Research interests are primarily in Tectonics and Petrology, with an emphasis on deep crustal processes and the questions regarding the origin of continents. Ducea has active projects in the western North American Cordillera, from southern Mexico to Sierra Nevada, and the central coastal California, to British Columbia and Alaska. His group also works in central and eastern Europe, Tibet, and South East Asia, as well as other regions on the planet. Ducea runs an isotope laboratory at the University of Arizona; this laboratory is pushing the envelope of geochronologic methods applied to tectonics.