This book aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of thrustbelts as a whole. The aim is to synthesize existing information devoted to specific aspects of these important hydrocarbon habitats. The book assembles this information in one volume, in a manner that permits the knowledge to be used to assess the risks of exploring and operating in these settings.

The plan for this book originated with a project called Systematics of Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production in Thrustbelts, which summarized various aspects of exploration and production in thrustbelt settings provided by a large and diverse literature, and addressed gaps in knowledge.

This synthesis is completed from results of personal, long-term research on thrustbelts, numerical validations of various concepts and extensive tables documenting various factors influencing structural styles, thermal regimes and petroleum systems, as well as rates of various modern geological processes. The book contains an enclosed database on characteristic features of existing hydrocarbon fields in thrustbelts, which serves as further documentation. This book should have value to a broad range of readers, from geology students to exploration managers searching for the character of producing fields in analogous settings. The book is divided into four parts.

Part I defines the scope of the book, with the thrustbelt being defined broadly enough to include conventional thrustbelts, transpressional ranges, toe thrusts and accretionary prisms. It describes fundamental structural styles and variation of styles in thrustbelts, illustrated by worldwide thrustbelt data, including their location, age, tectonic character and vergency.