Introduction and overview, B C Schreiber, M Babel and S Lugli • Tectonics, basin evolution and evaporates • Timing and origin of the South Atlantic pre-salt sag basins and their capping evaporates, G D Karner and L A P Gamboa • Clastic depositional systems at the base of the late Miocene evaporites of the Levant region, Eastern Mediterranean, C Bertoni and J A Cartwright • Basin analysis of the Burdigalian and Early Langhian successions, Kirkuk Basin, Iraq, A I Al-Juboury, A M Al-Tarif and M Al-Eisa • Role of rifting in evaporite deposition in the Great Kavir Basin, central Iran, H Rahimpour-Bonab, Z Shariatinia and M G Siemann • A giant late Triassic-Early Jurassic evaporitic basin on the Saharan Platform, North Africa, P Turner and H Sherif • Working depositional models • Depositional environments of a saline-type evaporite basin recorded in the Badenian Gypsum facies in the northern Carpathian foredeep, M Babel • Experimental evaporation of superficial brines from continental playa-lake systems located in Central Ebro Basin (NE Spain), P L Lopez and J M Mandado • Post-depositional evolution of sediments • Genesis and evolution of 'pseudocarniole': preliminary observations from the Susa Valley (Western Alps), W Alberto, F Carraro, M Giardino and D Tiranti • Messinian halite and residual facies in the Crotone basin (Calabria, Italy), S Lugli, R Dominici, M Barone, E Costa and C Cavozzi • Ancient basins • The Messian 'Vena del Gesso' evaporites revisited: characterization of isotopic composition and organic matter, S Lugli, M A Bassetti, V Manzi, M Barbieri, A Longinelli and M Roveri • The 'Evaporati di Monte Castello' deposits of the Messinian Southern Apennines foreland basin (Irpinia-Daunia Mountains, Southern Italy): stratigraphic evolution and geological context, F Matano • The Badenian evaporite basin of the northern Carpathian Foredeep as a model of a meromictic selenite basin, M Babel and A Bogucki • Sedimentology and geochemistry of the Middle Miocene (Badenian) salt-bearing succession from East Slovakian Basin (Zbudza Formation), K Bukowski, G Czapowski, S Karoli and M Babel • Sulphur isotopic composition of K-Mg sulphates of the Miocene evaporites of the Carpathian foredeep, Ukraine, S P Hryniv, J Parafiniuk and T M Peryt • Generation of primary sylvite: the fluid inclusion data from the Upper Permian (Zechstein) evaporatives, SW Poland, S V Vovnyuk and G Czapowski • Evidence of vanished evaporites on Neoarchaean carbonates of South Africa, A Gandin and D T Wright • Regional reviews • Evaporites of Ukraine: a review, S P Hryniv, B V Dolishniy, O V Khmelevska, A V Poberezhskyy and S V Vovnyuk • Depth indicators in Permian Basin evaporites, S D Hovorka, R M Holt and D W Powers