The Canadian Cordillera is largely a mosaic of terranes that are allochthonous relative to the autochthonous North American craton. Palaeobiogeographic data on pectinoid bivalves from various cratonal areas and from two western Canadian terranes, Wrangellia and Stikinia, are used to estimate the amounts of latitudinal displacement and rotation of these terranes that took place during and after Early Jurassic times. Distributional patterns of various species of the distinctive, very common bivalve Weyla, and a comparison of the positions of biogeographic boundaries between high-palaeolatitude, mixed and low-palaeolatitude faunas on the terranes and on the craton indicate that Wrangellia was displaced northward relative to the craton by at least several hundred and possibly more than 1000 km since Sinemurian and Pliensbachian times. For Stikinia such estimates are even higher and exceed 1000 km. Biogeographic patterns also suggest that Wrangellia experienced at best minor rotation since Sinemurian times, while rotation from a more or less east–west alignment to its present northwest–southeast position seems possible for Stikinia prior to the Pliensbachian. Palaeomagnetic interpretations, suggesting that during Sinemurian and Pliensbachian times Wrangellia and Stikinia were in much the same latitudinal position relative to the craton as they are now, are in sharp contrast to the results from faunal data. The presence of warm oceanic surface currents, oceanographic effects of elongated barriers, climatic change and differential latitudinal displacements due to rotation appear to be insufficient explanations for the discrepancy between the interpretation of palaeomagnetic and faunal evidence.

Whole-rock major and trace element compositions of quartzofeldspathic Permian–Cretaceous sandstones of the Torlesse terrane, New Zealand, display progressive changes which compare well with published petrographic data. Chemical indices in three Permian–early Late Triassic Rakaia subterrane petrofacies show small contrasts, as do the modes, reflecting original source compositions. A Late Triassic Rakaia petrofacies displays sharp increases in SiO2/Al2O3, K2O/Na2O, Th/Sc, La/Sc, Ce/Sc, LaN/YN and decreases in Ti/Zr and V/La, consistent with partial cannibalistic recycling and a small influx of lithic volcanic detritus. In the post-collisional Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous Pahau subterrane, SiO2/Al2O3 remains high, but other indices decrease to levels seen in the Permian, due to recycling of the earlier Rakaia petrofacies and influx of 10–30% mafic-intermediate volcaniclastic detritus derived from inboard volcanogenic terranes. The results are confirmed by additional suites, including mudstones, which cover a larger area, but also show that some spatial variation occurs within the terrane as a whole. Whole-rock data and Chemical Index of Alteration indices indicate that the Torlesse was derived from a relatively unweathered source with granodioritic bulk composition. Comparisons with data from a proposed Rakaia source in the New England and Hodgkinson orogens of eastern Australia suggest that the observed chemical and modal compositions cannot be simply derived from that area as presently exposed.

We report a U–Pb monazite age of 23.0±0.2 Ma for the Shivling leucogranite, a tourmaline+muscovite±biotite leucogranite at the top of the High Himalayan slab in the Garhwal Himalaya, north India. The Shivling–Bhagirathi leucogranite is a viscous near-minimum melt, emplaced as a foliation parallel laccolith via a dyke network not far from its source region. Prograde heating occurred soon after the India–Asia collision at c. 50 Ma up to melting at 23 Ma and high temperatures (>550 °C) were maintained for at least 15 Ma after garnet growth. The leucogranite was emplaced at mid-crustal depths along the footwall of the Jhala fault, a large-scale low-angle normal fault, part of the South Tibetan Detachment system, above kyanite and sillimanite grade gneisses. The geometry of the leucogranite laccolith shows biaxial extension and boudinage both perpendicular (north-northeast–south-southwest) and parallel to the strike (west-northwest–east-southeast) of the mountain range. Unroofing occurred by underthrusting beneath the High Himalayan slab along the Main Central Thrust zone, progressively ‘jacking up’ the leucogranites, removal of material above by low-angle normal faulting, and erosion. Very rapid cooling at rates of 200–350 °C/Ma between 23–21 Ma immediately followed crystallization, as tectonic unroofing and erosion removed 24–28 km of overburden during this time. K–Ar muscovite ages are 22±1.0 Ma and fission track ages of zircons from >5000 m on the North Ridge of Shivling are 14.2±2.1 and 8.8±1.2 Ma and apatites are 3.5±0.79 and 2.61±0.23 Ma. Slow steady state cooling at rates of 20–30 °C/Ma from 20–1 Ma shows that maximum erosion rates and unroofing of the leucogranite occurred during the early Miocene. This timing coincides with initiation of low-angle, north-dipping normal faulting along the South Tibetan Detachment system.

Significant volumes of partial melt developed in the arkosic contact aureoles of two of the numerous mafic and ultramafic minor intrusions found in the northern parts of the Isle of Rum, Scotland. Melting was essentially static, with little movement of melt even on a thin-section scale, and no segregation. The relative proportions of (now inverted) tridymite and high quartz inferred to have crystallized in the silica primary-phase field constrain the pressure of metamorphism to 150 ± 50 bars. Melting attained 95 vol. %, and occurred up to 15 m from the contact with the 50 m diameter gabbro plug. Melting around the adjacent 200 m diameter peridotite plug reached ≈ 70 vol. %, and occurred up to 6 m from the contact. Simple thermal models for the two aureoles, based on the isograds given by the onset of melting, the breakdown of chlorite and the disordering of microcline, support the hypotheses that the peridotite plug was injected as a crystal-rich mush close to its solidus, whereas the gabbro plug was a relatively long-lived feeder conduit. Time scales for the melting events are of the order of forty years for the aureole of the gabbro and ten years for that surrounding the peridotite body. The melt distribution resulting from the heating part of the thermal history is controlled by reaction, and is far from textural equilibrium. Crystallization was abrupt, being complete in ten years for the gabbro, and in only four for the peridotite, resulting in a fine-grained cotectic intergrowth and preservation of the melt distribution.

Fully temperate freshwater, brackish and marine sediments overlying Anglian till and glacilacustrine sediments in the Nar Valley area of northwest Norfolk, UK, have been attributed to the Middle Pleistocene Hoxnian temperate stage on palynological grounds, and basal peats associated with this sequence have been recently correlated with oxygen isotope stage 9 on the basis of a series of 230Th/238U dates (mean 317±14 ka). At Tottenhill these sediments (Nar Valley Freshwater Beds, Nar Valley Clay) underlie a deltaic complex attributed to the Wolstonian ice margin. The lithostratigraphical relations between the major formations in the Nar Valley, and the pollen stratigraphy of the fully temperate sequence, are very similar to the Pleistocene sequence in the Inner Silver Pit area of the southern North Sea, and correlation has been proposed between the successions described from these two localities. However, the Inner Silver Pit sequence has yielded aminostratigraphic data consistent with isotopic stage 11.

Benthic foraminiferal assemblages and foraminiferal amino-acid determinations have been investigated from the Nar Valley Clay in order to test further the palaeoenvironmental setting of the sequence and to help resolve the age of the sequence and correlation with the Inner Silver Pit interglacial. The foraminiferal assemblages support previous sedimentological and palaeontological evidence for a transgressive tendency within this sequence. Multiple isoleucine epimerization determinations on Ammonia beccarii and Aubignyna perlucida from five levels within the Nar Valley Clay give mean aIle/Ile ratios of 0.135 and 0.111, respectively. The A. beccarii ratios are much lower than mean aIle/Ile ratios on equivalent species from the interglacial sequence in the Inner Silver Pit (upper Sand Hole Formation), which are close to 0.2, and the two datasets fail to overlap at the 1σ level. The new aminostratigraphic ratios indicate correlation of the Nar Valley Clay with oxygen isotope stage 9, and therefore support the pre-existing 230Th/238U data.

These results suggest that two temperate stages of Hoxnian palynological affinity are present in the Quaternary record of East Anglia and the southern North Sea basin, a conclusion consistent with independent new U-series data from other Hoxnian sites in East Anglia. An alternative model in which the amino-acid ratios are explained as a function of different post-depositional thermal histories, related to length of cover by ice and water, is discussed but considered unlikely. The conclusions have important implications for the timing and number of glacial events in and around the southern North Sea basin, and help to resolve discrepancies in relative sea-level histories and biogeography in temperate sequences hitherto accommodated within a single stage.

The degree of isoleucine epimerization in the benthic foraminiferal species Elphidium excavatum and Bulimina marginata have been measured in four boreholes, penetrating marine interglacial beds, from northern Jutland. The results of these analyses are compiled with results obtained from other sites in Denmark and the North Sea region, and four aminozones (AZs) have been erected. AZ1 (aIle/Ile < 0.05) include the Late Weichselian and the Holocene part of the record. AZ2 (0.08–0.12) includes samples of last interglacial age. AZ3 (0.14–0.16) includes samples from sites that have been previously correlated with the Holsteinian, and marine isotope stage 7 age for this zone is suggested. An age close to 400±100 ka is assigned to AZ4 (0.21–0.26). AZ4 is recorded in corings at Skagen and Nørre Lyngby, and includes the here defined Skagerrak Interglacial, which is tentatively correlated with marine isotope stage 11.

The Skagerrak Interglacial sediments are characterized by boreal lusitanian benthic foraminiferal faunas evidencing strong input of Atlantic water to the North Sea. These faunas are replaced by assemblages indicating cooler conditions at least twice during this period. The sedimentation pattern in northern Jutland during this interglacial seems to be different from the sedimentation regimes in the same area at the classical Eemian sites and during the Holocene, which were characterized by large sediment input from the Jutland Current. This difference may be attributed to a change in the geometry of the sedimentary basin through the later part of the Quaternary, which is a result of repeated periods of intense erosion in the confluence area of the Norwegian Channel ice stream. A strong influx of Atlantic water to the North Sea during stage 11 has been suggested earlier, based on records from the Devil's Hole area. However, the correlation of this event to the classic biostratigraphic based schemes of northwest Europe is still problematic.

The scope of this study is to understand better the pre-Early Ordovician history of the west Pontides of northern Turkey by focusing on the best-exposed part of the Bolu Massif, which is located between Bolu and Yedigöller (Seven Lakes). The Palaeozoic rocks of the west Pontides tectonic belt of northern Turkey comprise a transgressive sedimentary sequence known as ‘Palaeozoic of İstanbul.’ In a few areas, the basement of the Palaeozoic sequence is exposed, the largest part of which is the Bolu Massif, which is located in the middle of the west Pontides. The lowermost unit of the Palaeozoic of İstanbul in the Bolu area is the Işığandere Formation, which is made up of fluvial red conglomerates and sandstones of Lower Ordovician age. Three different units are exposed unconformably beneath these continental clastics, forming the Bolu Massif. From the structural base to the top, these are as follows: (1) a high-grade metamorphic unit, known as the Sünnice Group); (2) granitoid intrusions, known as the Bolu Granitoid Complex; and (3) a greenschist meta-volcanic sequence (the Çaşurtepe Formation).

The Sünnice Group is the lowest, structurally speaking. It is a southwest–northeast-trending belt of migmatitic basement, consisting of amphibolites and paragneisses cut by small (< 10 m) metagranitic intrusions. The Sünnice Group is tectonically overlain by the Bolu Granitoid Complex and the Çaşurtepe Formation along the Karadere Fault. In the study area the Bolu Granitoid Complex is represented by two distinct, north-northeast–south-southwest-trending intrusions, the Tüllükiriş and Kapikaya plutons. The granitoids are mainly tonalitic and granodioritic in composition, cut by lam-prophyre and aplite dykes and intruded into the Çaşurtepe Formation. The Çaşurtepe Formation is composed mainly of andesitic and minor rhyolitic lavas, along with a meta-ignimbrite sequence.

The lavas have geochemical characteristics indicative of eruption in a subduction-related tectonic setting. The geochemistry of the intrusions also suggests emplacement in an arc-type setting. Initial Nd isotope data for the Çaşurtepe Formation indicate derivation from a depleted mantle source, whereas those for the granitoids are consistent with greater degrees of crustal contamination.

The Palaeozoic Uralian orogen formed by accretion of island arcs and microcontinents along the eastern margin of the East European platform. In the middle Urals, a promontory of the East European platform, the Ufaley Complex experienced eclogite facies conditions followed by an amphibolite facies overprint. The Verkniy Ufaley intrusion crosscuts the amphibolite facies foliation in the East Ufaley Complex and thus postdates the two metamorphic events. A concordant U–Pb age of 316±1 Ma obtained on magmatic titanite dates the intrusion of the pluton and provides a minimum age for subduction and subsequent amphibolite facies metamorphism of the East European continental margin. Zircon yields discordant age data that reflect the involvement of Proterozoic crustal sources.