Geological Evolution of The Cretaceous and Associated Mineralization

Dear Colleagues,

The Cretaceous is a special period of the Earth’s history including great evolutionary changes that have been rather well described but incompletely summarized in the literature. The most significant of them was the anomalously high igneous activity that was associated with a specific geomagnetic field, increased crustal production, global plate reorganization, a huge emission of greenhouse gases, thermal climatic maximum, and significant biological transformations, such as the appearance of angiosperms. These also resulted in giant energetic (mostly petroleum) and mineral resources. The latter include but are not limited to different hydrothermal deposits, such as granite- and adakite-related related examples, precious gemstones, rare metal ores, rare metal carbonatites, and diamondiferous kimberlites.

All these changes and events may be summarized under the concept of “Cretaceous turn of geological evolution”, connecting them with the critical point of Earth’s history when the solar system passed through the most distant point of its galactic orbit. This concept is probably not the only possible explanation of the data on the matter. Many researchers may prefer focusing on the evolution of the Earth as itself, independently from its cosmic circumstances. The main goal of this issue is the gathering of information that may help our understanding of the great Cretaceous evolutionary changes in their global context, based on both galactic and inner-Earth points of view.

The expected papers may be devoted to various aspects of the Cretaceous evolution, including magmatic, tectonic, and hydrothermal activities, catastrophic events and evolutionary changes in the deep Earth, hydrosphere and atmosphere, and accumulation of energetic and mineral resources. Some works may be focused on useful mineralization, while others concentrate on geological and biological processes as themselves. The papers that synthesize data from different fields of Earth’s and space sciences are of special interest.

Prof. Dr. Frederick Lin Sutherland
Guest Editor

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