**1. Introduction**

The objective of this volume di ffers from that of the usual review of current advances. While the state of the art remains the basis for departure, our main objective is to identify areas where advances in understanding and modeling could significantly impact exploration e ffectiveness. Our criterion is not what is the most exciting and important current science, but what could be the most important in the future. We encouraged our authors to avail themselves of the increased latitude for speculation that this future focus a ffords, and solicited the papers contained in this volume with this perspective.

A first step in any discussion of basin processes must be an observational appreciation of their scale and diversity. The scale of operation is huge, and the driving forces planetary. The first paper is an overview that reminds us of this. Subsequent papers address more specific basin phenomena:

