In looking back at the 1970's, the decade may prove to be a crucial one in the development of quantitative geology. After quantification had lain fallow and essen­ tially undeveloped for 120 years, introduction of the computer in the 1950's revived interest and fostered ad­ vances in the subject. Developments continued through the 1960's at a rapid pace and the state-of-the-art was reported on in the proceedings of an international sym­ posium held at the University of Kansas in June 1969 (Merriam, 1969). The proceedings of the Kansas meeting, published as the first contribution in this series on "Computer Applications in the Earth Sciences" was one of 8 collo­ quia sponsored by the Kansas Geological Survey and the International Association for Mathematical Geology in the late 1960's. In a sense those international sympo­ sia were continued in the 1970's at Syracuse University as a series of Geochautauquas sponsored by the Depart­ ment of Geology at Syracuse University and the Interna­ tional Association for Mathematical Geology. These pro­ ceedings report the results of the 8th Geochautauqua held in Syracuse on 26-27 October 1979.