Reflections
Abstract
My first field work was at Baraboo, Wisconsin, sixty miles north of Madison. And my first stratigraphic research, if one may call it that, was in correlation of sections of Black Earth, St. Lawrence, and Mendota dolomites (Cambrian) in the vicinity of Madison at a time when E. O. Ulrich maintained that they belonged in different systems. In the preceding summer I had studied fresh-water plankton in northern Iowa under the instruction of Gilbert M. Smith, then Professor of Botany at Wisconsin. And my doctorate thesis pertained to shales and limestones in southwestern Wisconsin and neighboring states. So I am delighted that we could hold the symposium in the fine setting of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
I am particularly grateful to R. H. Dott, Jr., for his having arranged the symposium. Tt was a pleasure to visit again with so many friends and former students and to learn of the continuing progress of study of geosynclines and their sediments. The preceding papers are such excellent summaries that a concluding synthesis would be somewhat redundant. I plan to comment briefly on some of the events that led to the formulation of the description and classification of geosynclinal belts and, then, on misgivings on some models that have been erected.
Figures & Tables
Contents
Modern and Ancient Geosynclinal Sedimentation

The Kay Conference was held in Madison, Wisconsin, November 1972. This symposium volume contains the texts of papers presented at Madison. It is organized in a topical manner, and in most areas of discussion, modern analogues and ancient examples together provide a comparative basis for evaluating sedimentary models for geosynclines. In the 1970s students of both modern and ancient sediments have compiled an immense body of knowledge relevant to the geosynclinals concept. Moreover, the new theory of plate tectonics has required a complete reassessment of the geosynclines as well as orogenesis. The purpose of this volume is to evaluate by comparison of modern and ancient sediments a number of depositional models applicable to the great variety of strata seen in orogenic belts also called geosynclinal.