We thank reviewers Gilbert Boillot and Niko Froitzheim for their comments and geological insight, which helped us to improve this review. This overview of the results from the Leg 149 and 173 transect of holes off west Iberia has drawn on the work of about 100 shipboard and shore-based scientists in many countries. The work could not have been done without the efforts of the other two Co-Chief Scientists, Dale Sawyer and Marie-Odile Beslier, ODP Staff Scientist Adam Klaus, and ODP Operations Superintendents Gene Pollard and Mike Storms. We thank them and all the other shipboard scientists and ODP and drilling staff for their assistance and support during the two legs drilled off west Iberia. We also thank several authors for preprints in advance of publication. Gilbert Boillot, Karl Hinz, and Dale Sawyer generously provided copies of Lusigal (Suroît), Sonne, and Maurice Ewing seismic reflection profiles, respectively, used in the construction of Figure F3.