The 20th Liège Colloquium was particularly well attended and these proceedings demonstrate the significant progress achieved in understanding, modelling, and observing geostrophic and near-geostrophic turbulence. The book contains more than 50 review papers and original contributions covering most aspects of the field of mesoscale/synoptic coherent structures in geophysical (oceanographic) turbulence. The properties of isolated vortices (generation, evolution, decay), their interactions with other vortices, with larger scale currents and/or with topography are investigated theoretically and by means of numerical and physical models. Observation of these dynamically important features in different parts of the world ocean are reported. Of particular interest will be the fourteen contributions by scientists from the USSR which emphasize the international character of the meeting. The book thus constitutes a useful and complete overview of the current state-of-the-art.