The Spitsbergen archipelago is situated in the north-westernmost part of the Barents Shelf. The structural position of the archipelago and the variety of its geological complexes make this region very important for understanding the tectonic history of the Atlantic sector of the Arctic.

A flora found in a clay lens in the Corton Beds at Lowestoft indicates a late- or full-glacial type of environment during an interval in the deposition of the Corton Beds. The interval may be related to drainage changes associated with the retreat of the North Sea Drift ice and advance of the Lowestoft Till ice.

Based on the distribution of several stratigraphically important species three distinct larger foraminiferal zones are recognized in the Middle-Upper Eocene succession of Garo Hills, Assam, India. A comparison of these zones with larger foraminiferal assemblages from other Middle-Upper Eocene successions in the Indian region is attempted and observations are made on the demarcation of the Middle and Upper Eocene boundary and the classification of the Upper Eocene succession in this region.

Echinocyamus woodi Currie from the Miocene of Kenya is reexamined and considered to be conspecific with Fibulina gracilis Tornquist and Fibularia voeltzkowi Tornquist. This echinoid is a fibularid, not a laganid.

Some thin basaltic intrusive sheets in south-eastern Iceland consist in cross-section of a porphyritic central zone sharply bounded by non-porphyritic margins. Within the porphyritic zone phenocrysts of plagioclase, augite and olivine are arranged in two main layers, an upper layer containing mostly plagioclase phenocrysts, and a lower layer containing concentrations of augite and olivine phenocrysts. The phenocrysts are considered to have been gravitationally sorted during the passage through the sheets of a highly fluid and strongly flowing porphyritic basalt magma.

Examples of semi-horizontal mineral layering in adamellites from the Galway Granite Batholith of Co. Galway, Eire, are described and illustrated. The layering results from variation in the amounts of the constituent minerals in successive horizons of the granite. It is suggested that the layering originated by settling of the early crystallizing minerals during quiescent periods in the emplacement of the granite, and that it may have been much more extensively developed than it is at present. Volatile constituents are thought to have reduced the viscosity of the magma periodically.

Intrusion of an adamellite with K-feldspar megacrysts into metadolerite wall-rock has produced a hybrid rock with K-feldspar porphyroblasts and quartz “ocelli” rimmed by hornblende. This indicates a high-level development of the feldspar and suggests that mafic contamination is an important factor in the genesis of the xenolith-rich porphyritic adamellite.

The properties of bottomset deposits found in the lee of ripples and dunes formed in water depend on: (i) the diffusion and settling of grains driven over the crest of the sand body and (ii) the redistribution of grains over the bed due to the expenditure of fluid power in the recirculating eddy to the lee of the body. Experiment shows that the rate of grain settling in the lee of a sand body falls off hyperbolically downstream. The bottomset deposits of ripples and dunes also attenuate in thickness downstream, but reach a zero thickness commonly at 4–5 ripple- or dune-heights downstream from the crests. Bottomsets may consist partly or wholly of settled grains, but can also be formed when no sediment settles in the lee of a sand body.

Banded pumice from a late-Tertiary ignimbrite in northern Chile is descrived and its origin considered. Other phenomena within the ignimbrite, including a variation in mineralogy between the upper and lower units of the flow, are described.