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Abstract-As of July 2001, 1238 Libyan meteorites have been reported. Most were found in two areas called Dar al Gani and Hamadah al Hamra. Dar al Gani is located on a plateau of marine carbonate rocks with marly components. Eight-hundred and sixty-nine meteorites between 6 g and 95 kg totalling 687 kg have been found here but the calculated mean recovery density is comparatively low with one meteorite on 6.5 km-.Dar al Gani is a perfect site for the recognition and preservation of meteorites. The existence of meteorites is the result of a combination of specific geological and geomorphological conditions: there is a bright-colored, old limestone plateau «2 Ma), under arid weather conditions over long periods of time, with rapid elimination of surface water if present and low erosion rates. The preservation of meteorites is guaranteed through the absence of quartz sand on the plateau, strongly reducing wind erosion and a basic environment emerging from the carbonate ground retards rusting ofmetallic meteorite components. A supposed soil cover during pluvial times has probably protected older meteorites and led to a concentration of meteorites of different periods.An evaluation of Dar al Gani meteorites suggests the existence of at least 26 strewnfields and 26 meteorite pairs reducing the number of falls to, at most, 534. Shock and weathering grades as a tool for the recognition of pairings turned out to be problematic, as several strewnfields showed paired meteorites which had been classified to different shock and weathering grades.

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The Tertiary fold-and-thrust belt on Brøggerhalvøya is characterized by a NE-vergent pile of nine thrust sheets. The sole thrust of the pile is located in Precambrian phyllites and climbs up-section to the northeast. Four lower thrust sheets consisting predominantly of Upper Palaeozoic sediments are overlain by two thrust sheets in the central part of the stack which contain a kilometrescale syncline and anticline. The fold is cut by juxtaposed thrusts giving rise to the formation of three structurally higher basement-dominated thrust sheets. A multiple-stage kinematic model is proposed including (1) in-sequence foreland-propagating formation of the lower thrust sheets in response to N-S subhorizontal bedding-parallel movements, (2) a change in tectonic transport to ENE and outof-sequence thrusting and formation of the kilometre-scale fold-structure followed by (3) truncation of the kilometre-scale fold and stacking of the highest basement-dominated thrust sheets by hindward-propagating out-of-sequence thrusting. The strain of the thrust sheets is predominantly compressive with the exception of the structurally highest thrust sheets, reflecting a temporal change to a more transpressive regime. Thrusting was followed by (4) N-S extension and (5) W-E extension. Comparison of the structural geometry and kinematic evolution of Brøggerhalvøya with the data reported for the fold belt further south allows us to assume a coeval evolution with the fold belt. A latest Paleocene/Early Eocene age for the main phase of thrusting is suggested for the West Spitsbergen Fold-and-Thrust Belt; the main phases therefore pre-date the separation of Svalbard and Greenland due to right-lateral movements along the Hornsund Fault Zone. The fold belt's temporal evolution followed by the formation of the Forlandsundet Graben can be linked with the platekinematic framework in the span between latest Paleocene and Middle Eocene times.

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