The asymmetry of the continental margin around southern Africa can be related to Mesozoic sediment thicknesses, which were in turn controlled by the local structural setting. On the west coast, the Orange Basin sediments were built out as a thick wedge over the margin of the continent by discharge from the Orange River, whereas on the Agulhas Bank, sedimentation was confined to continental areas. Off the east coast the extremely narrow margin of the continent did not form an effective trap for sediments, which were readily carried beyond it. Cainozoic sediments are thin, and modify the Mesozoic sediment pile only locally on the outer shelf and slope.

The melting intervals of basaltic magmas are investigated in detail at various pressures, as the size of the interval has an important bearing on the genesis of igneous rocks. Tholeiitic magmas do not have a more pronounced four phase proximity at low pressures than at higher ones. This result seems to oppose the generally accepted low pressure character of these magmas; but as there is a general decrease in melting intervals with increasing pressure, the four phase proximity is nevertheless sustained. The melting intervals of alkaline rocks decrease rapidly with increasing pressure. Small variations in the temperature may therefore generate large variations in the composition of the liquids developed at high pressures.

The fauna of a Lower Carboniferous (S1) fissure near Clitheroe, Lancashire, is listed. Coignouina acanthina sp. nov. (Otarionidae) is described, together with its unusual ‘eye-mound’ which bears tubercles rather than lenses. Note is made of new material of C. acanthina (Coignou) which necessitates modification of Osmólska's (1967) reconstruction of the cephalon. Carbonocoryphe hahnorum sp. nov. (Proetidae) is also described and a brief account presented of its variation, postlarval ontogeny and palaeo-ecology.

Chemical examination of uralites and their parent pyroxenes from associated eucrites and bronzitites indicate that the alteration can proceed by diverse paths and yield differing actinolites. Alteration in eucrites can be interpreted as occurring in a near closed system but in the bronzitites an external source of Ca and Al is required.

Near Tintagel, southerly verging kink bands cut flat-lying Upper Palaeozoic Plates and schists. The bands are about 2 cm wide and most of them terminate by a Decrease of amplitude but not wavelength. The length of the kinked limb and the frequency of the bands were probably determined by lithology when the deformation began, The bands may have formed under a N-S directed maximum principal stress which was Slightly oblique to the layering.

A lithostratigraphy is described and related to that in the adjacent Corris-Machynlleth district. Thickness of the Formation is estimated to be c. 500 m near Towyn rather than c. 1000 m as generally accepted, although poor exposure precludes accurate determination. Palaeocurrent data are given for a prominent interval of turbidite arenites, here termed the Llyn Barfog Member. Sedimentary facies are interpreted as slope-base and deep basinal deposits and are consistent with control of sedimentation by the Bala and Corris ‘basement faults’.

The unrivalled exposures of the quarry show the Forest Marble to comprise a complex association of vertically and laterally changing facies. These are interpreted to represent environments ranging from subtidal-intertidal fully marine sand shoals and hard substrates colonized by corals, to mud flats and tidal channels associated with coastal swamps. An earlier interpretation of calcarenites in the Forest Marble is inapplicable at Shipton-on-Cherwell.

Quantitative methods of X-ray fluorescence analysis have been employed to the determination of Pb, Zn, Ni, As, Rb, Ce and Y, in soils of the Teign Valley of SW Devon. The results enable a comparison to be made of the ore metal and non-metal anomalies found, and demonstrate the applicability of non-metals as lode indicators.

The charnockite series consisting of pyroxene granulites and charnockites are not formed by magmatic differentiation, although both units had their antecedents in igneous material. The solid-state recrystallization of pyroxene granulite and the liquid-state crystallization of charnockite are inferred from the field criteria. The pyroxene granulites with the associated paragneisses are formed from the original sedimentary-volcanic sequence under granulite facies of metamorphism. The magmatic charnockites emplaced into these rocks resulting in the development of intermediate varieties by the partial assimilation and incorporation of the pyroxene granulites. The stability of the minerals is not affected by this migmatization, which is therefore thought to have taken place under granulite facies conditions. The evolutionary trend of the charnockite series is one of retrogression from the earlier granulite facies to the later almandine-amphibolite facies, caused by the subsequent granite invasion.