The sequence of sediments deposited in lakes forms an archive of a high-resolution record of the changes and rates of changes in continental palaeoenvironments. Global Geological Record of Lake Basins is the first in a short series of books containing concise geological summaries of lake basin deposits. Geoscientists worldwide have co-operated to bring together the information available on a global spectrum of lacustrine deposits - looking in particular at palaeoenvironmental aspects. The compilation has resulted from IGCP 219 - Comparative Lacustrine Sedimentology in Space and Time - which has given impetus to the field of limnogeology. Lacustrine deposits are widespread throughout the geological record, and this series of books will assess, for every geological time window, key lacustrine sequences worldwide in the form of short summaries of specific deposits. A common language will be defined to describe these deposits.