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- The Neogene stratigraphy of northern Belgium
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The Neogene stratigraphy of northern Belgium
Foreword
1This Neogene Stratigraphy volume of Geologica Belgica is dedicated to Piet Laga at the occasion of his 80th birthday.
2Piet Laga has been a pioneer of the application of modern stratigraphic principles to the Neogene of Belgium. After his doctoral studies, he continued at the Geological Survey of Belgium his stratigraphical investigations which resulted, in co-authorship with Frans De Meuter, in a landmark paper leading to the establishment of the first, formal stratigraphic framework of the Neogene System in Belgium. As testified by the contributions in this volume, this paper still remains a stratigraphic reference paper.
3Piet Laga was not only a leading scientist in the International Geological Correlation program of the Cenozoic of the North Sea Basin in the 1970s and 1980s, but he also brought his Neogene stratigraphic insights into practice to improve the groundwater extraction in northern Belgium. In both the fundamental and the applied stratigraphy of the Neogene, he closely collaborated with the Geological Survey of the Netherlands, aligning the Neogene stratigraphy of both countries. He was an excellent liaison between both geological surveys. Also, numerous international professional organisations benefited from his field demonstrations of Neogene outcrops in Belgium.
4Piet Laga has discretely guided the Geological Survey of Belgium through complex reorganisations, and for years he skilfully rendered services to both the scientific association Geologica Belgica and its professional counterpart BLUG-UBLG. As a gentleman geologist, Piet Laga was always very keen on sharing his vast knowledge and paved the way for many younger geologists including many of the authors in the present volume.
5As a token of appreciation for his fundamental contributions to the Neogene stratigraphy, Geologica Belgica is honoured to dedicate this volume of its journal to Piet Laga.