Drilling during 1978 focused on three major geologic problems: the nature and origin of the oceanic crust, the nature and geologic history of the active continental margins, and the oceanic paleoenvironment. (Author/BB)

Research efforts tended to focus on the ancestry of major groups in 1978, and in particular on Cambrian fossils. (Author/BB)

Techniques in geochemistry continue to improve in sensitivity and scope. The exciting areas of geochemistry still include the classical fields of the origin of the elements and objects in space, but environmental crisis problems are important as well. (Author/BB)

Work reported on here includes such topics as: the origin of the solar system, a planet-crossing asteroid survey, and Mars and Venus probes. (BB)

A brief summary of the year's activity. (BB)

Reviews research in carbonate geology focusing on both sedimentology and diagenesis of shallow and deep water carbonates. (MA)

Highlights major activities, conferences, conference and published papers, monographs, and research studies in paleobotany during 1982. Indicates that paleobotanists made more frequent use of the perspectives and ideas of disciplines as developmental biology and sedimentology in their research endeavors. (Author/JN)

Early land plants and their ancestry remained an important, controversial issue in paleobotany this past year. Current research and theories on the subject are reviewed. (MA)

Reviews recent developments in clastic sedimentology, including reports of meetings and symposia. Identifies a resurgence of interest in the diagenesis of terrigenous sediments. (MA)